Beemouse Laboratories

I just finished reading “The Painted Veil” by W. Somerset Maugham, which was written in 1925. I saw the movie recently, and I loved it, probably because it’s hard not to love Naomi Watts when she’s being so cute and frail and sorrowful. She plays Kitty, a woman whose husband takes her to a remote village in China where there’s been a bad cholera outbreak; her husband is a bacteriologist who’s going there to try to help, and he brings Kitty along because she cheated on him and he’s pissed at her and wants her to catch cholera and die.

The second half of the movie diverges significantly from the book, but I liked the movie better. Maybe I couldn’t get over the author’s racist physical descriptions of Chinese children; maybe it seemed too preachy about the wonders of bravery and virtue. I don’t know. There were other annoying things.

I did find the following excerpt worth going back to, and even though it’s cheesy, I think it holds a nice sentiment, namely that there’s nothing wrong with being ugly, and even if you are, you can still obtain pleasure by looking at beautiful things, without comparing yourself to them. As someone who’s always struggled with self-image, this is a comforting thought.

“Que vous êtes belle, ma chère enfant,” said the Mother Superior. “It does the heart good to look at you. No wonder these children adore you.”

Kitty blushed deeply and, she knew not why, tears suddenly filled her eyes. She covered her face with her hands.

“Oh, Mother, you make me ashamed.”

“Come, do not be silly. Beauty is also a gift of God, one of the most rare and precious, and we should be thankful if we are happy enough to possess it and thankful, if we are not, that others possess it for our pleasure.”

She smiled again and as though Kitty were a child too gently patted her soft cheek.