on "the pain scale"

In reading "The Pain Scale", I was reminded of this scene, which also plays with the subjectivity of pain and various theological ideas.

In “The Pain Scale”, Biss explores many ideas, including religion, it’s purposes, its subjectivity, faith, pain (and the subjectivity of that as well), and things we regard as fact vs. opinion. While, ideally, I’d like to get to the nitty gritty of the purpose of religion and math, and why we acknowledge one to be fact and another mythical, I will only dwell on the matter “explicitly” (kind of) discussed in the essay.

I found the most relevant (to readers with minimal experience with pain, math, religion, etc.) theme to be fear. “The suffering of Hell is terrifying not because of any specific torture, but because it is eternal” (Biss 179). Biss points out that the measuring pain in such a simple way (from one to ten) is impossible without “dimensions” , such as duration. We are familiar with the saying “time flies when you’re having fun”. What if you’re experiencing chronic pain? The already unpleasant sensations that seem longer (than the pleasant ones) are intensified by the duration.

“The Pain Scale” also toys with the idea of pain’s subjectivity (as does the Fight Club scene). Biss even mentions her experience of when the doctors even refer to her pain as though it were a hypothetical problem, “‘we have reason to believe that you are in pain, even if there is no physical evidence of your pain.’ I had not realized that the fact that I believed myself to be in pain was not reason enough.” Throughout “The Pain Scale”, Biss equivocates with how she feels about her pain and how she was taught to feel/how society looks at pain. Eula’s father has told her frequently how her pain isn’t really pain at all, in comparison to something else. This essay explores many “what ifs” of pain, and pain comparisons between persons (literally and figuratively, as described in allusions to Dante’s Inferno).