The M.D.

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The M.D.: A Horror Story (1991) is Thomas M. Disch's second Supernatural Minnesota novel. Sharing some of its setting and time period with The Businessman—but with different background details, and more speculative elements in a near-future part of the story—it describes the rise and fall of Billy Michaels, a medical doctor with dangerous magic powers over health and disease.

Major characters

• Billy Michaels, later Dr. William Michaels.
• Henry Michaels, his father.
• Sondra Winckelmeyer, his mother, now married to Ben Winckelmeyer.
• Madge Michaels, Henry's wife.
• Mrs. Obstschmecker, Madge's mother.
• Ned Hill, Madge's son from her first marriage.
• Lance Hill, Ned's father.
• Judith Winckelmeyer, Sondra's stepdaughter.
• Mercury, aka Santa Claus, a god.

Epigram

The cited New York Times article is somewhat ironic in the context of The M.D., since it emphasizes the role of severe early trauma in molding a homicidal child. Billy Michaels may be what the article describes as a "nonempathic murderer," one of those without "the psychological ability to put themselves in the place of another," but he grew up with no unusual traumas and his profile is almost exactly the opposite of people in that category who are said to have "a history of assaultive behavior, severe reading problems and inability to cope with stress."

Chapter 1

Sister Mary Symphorosa

Named after a 2nd century martyr. Disch wrote in "My Life as a Child" that this abusive character and her crusade against Santa Claus were based on a nun who taught him in kindergarten at St. Paul's Convent School in Fairmont, Minnesota, where there was also a Sister Fidelis.

When meat isn't properly preserved

This passage foreshadows two important events later in the book, one involving contaminated meat, the other about an effective way to preserve corpses.

Chapter 2

Mrs. Obstschmecker

Her last name in German means "fruit-taster." Of the real-life inspiration for this character, Disch wrote that "Grandma Disch was resurrected to play the role of Grandma Obstschmecker," and called her "a crippled, mean-spirited, small-minded German Catholic." However, whereas his own grandmother punished one of her daughters for marrying a divorced man by never speaking to her again, Mrs. O. is somewhat more forgiving (or at least less assertive) and expresses her disapproval of Madge's marriage only passive-aggressively.

the entire length of Calumet

The same fictional street where Joy-Ann Anker lives in The Businessman. All of the other place names in the book are also fictional, or at least belong to other cities rather than Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Chapter 3

when they got Dutch Elm disease

See The Businessman.

Billy could only see things this other way

One of two hints (the other being in chapter 6) that Billy has either an innate psychic gift or a neurological disease even before he makes his deal with Mercury.

Chapter 5

Father Windakiewiczowa

See The Businessman.

Chapter 7

impeaching the president

Books One and Two take place in 1973-1974, when Billy is 6 and 7. Billy turns 13 in Book Three, placing the middle section of the novel in 1981 like The Businessman.

Billy Graham was on the news

Graham, as the first evangelical minister to develop a mass following on television, is an obvious forerunner to the digital-age Brother Orson later in the novel.

Chapter 8

horror movie called The Exorcist

The Exorcist was released on December 26, 1973, just a day before this scene.

and so his caduceus is now a symbol of the science of medicine

Although a common belief, this is not quite right: the traditional medical symbol is the somewhat similar rod of Asclepius, which has only one snake and no wings; the caduceus as a symbol of medicine developed in the 20th century, by mistake. It's unclear whether Disch himself confused the two, or meant this as another example of Mercury's untrustworthy nature, since in chapter 10 Mercury mentions two contradictory stories about the caduceus.

his real father ... sold the Junior Universe of Knowledge Encyclopedia

Disch's father was a door-to-door salesman dealing in, among other things, the Britannica Junior.

if the bad witch was making people sick, the good witch could make them better

An ironic statement considering how Billy's magic will work: the good and bad witch are the same person, and can never undo a curse once it's been made.

Chapter 9

the king of Bowling Pin Kingdom

As a kindergartener, the young Disch liked to play with "two sets of bowling pins (children and grown-ups) in enactments of my own fairy tales." In the same essay, he mentions having been able as a child to "cross my eyes, stare up at the ceiling, and watch self-projected home movies in wide-screen color" much as Billy does.

the Hanging Gardens of Wyomia

Could be just a child's wordplay on Wyoming, or a reference to the sprinter Wyomia Tyus who would have been in the news in 1973.

Chapter 12

Power is never free. It must be paid for

Mercury is clearly implying that he is bestowing this power on Billy, which is probably the impression most readers come away with. But—given the earlier hints that Billy was already special in some way, and the careful wording of Mercury's promise in chapter 10 that he would tell Billy how to use the caduceus—another possible interpretation is that Billy always had the ability to use it, and only lacked knowledge of the rules. If that's the case, he's just been tricked into signing his soul away for basically nothing.

Further reading

• University of Minnesota Press page for their edition
• Matthew Davis's page for the book - lists all the known editions and translations
• Review and discussion by Ron Hogan on tor.com