Susanna Clarke on Illness, Language, and the Power of Narrative

In a personal essay originally commissioned for the Charleston festival, novelist Susanna Clarke reflects on her 11-year battle with chronic fatigue syndrome and the limitations of language in describing illness. Drawing on Virginia Woolf's 1926 essay 'On Being Ill', Clarke recounts a 2016 hospitalization where she struggled to articulate her symptoms to a doctor. She explores how narrative can provide a sense of control for those with chronic conditions like fibromyalgia, long Covid, and chronic pain, where medical treatments often fall short. Clarke discusses her novel 'Piranesi' as a response to Woolf's view of an indifferent universe, instead portraying a world of 'immeasurable beauty' and 'infinite kindness'. She also touches on the intellectual freedom illness can bring, citing Kathy Acker's nocturnal writing process, and examines various narratives she could construct about her own illness—from revenge to fairytale. Ultimately, Clarke embraces a new narrative based on therapies like pain reprocessing and somatic tracking, suggesting that the brain's perception of danger can be countered by a story of safety.