The Red-Nosed Man Discourseth!

Why the Red-Nosed Man?

For many years I’ve tried to hide the fact that I have a very red nose. It wasn’t always like this but in March 2006 I was diagnosed with Rosacea, a somewhat harmless cosmetic condition which, among other things, gradually results in a red lobulated nose. Mistakenly attributed to alcoholism by mainstream society (I think Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers popularised this view along with the help of famous actor-drunks like W.C. Fields), it can have a strong psychological impact on one’s appearance because the nose is, well, such an obvious thing. What’s more, people notice and often feel the need to make it known: from concerned inquiries like “What’s wrong with your face?” to (ahem) compliments at book launches like “Wow, your nose is not so red today”. (When you read in a novel that a character’s smile didn’t reach their eyes, you have an idea of my usual response in those situations: a polite WTF.) 

So, naturally, I have tried various treatments which have ranged from antibiotics to scrubs, and from dermatological creams to green paint-like ointments. The latter kind do a good job colour-matching (and therefore toning down) the redness which is usually very effective in normalising my face – but, if you have any dry skin, then it looks like you’ve sneezed on yourself or didn’t clean up an especially extravagant nose pick. Thus, sometimes these treatments work, other times they don’t – often because I might be having a extra-special peak period of redness. It can be a shot in the dark as to when you might have a clear face. Indeed, the experience of rosacea can often be cyclical due to the many triggers that set off what I call a “rosacea blowout” (or an attack of lumpy redness). These triggers include: sex, coffee, alcohol, heated food, heated drinks, spicy food, hot water, sun exposure, summer, stress, exercise, humidity, sickness, wind (as in weather), citrus fruits, and bread. So if I eat like a rabbit, live in a cave and abstain from sex then I should be fine. Yay me.

Hence, it’s time to own the redness. And so what was once called my “Digital Culture” blog has now become the blog of the “Red-Nosed Man Discourseth”. Admittedly, judging by Charles Dickens’ derisive reference in Pickwick Papers to a pastor with a red nose as an outward sign of hypocrisy, I’m certainly not the first to be ruddy during a rhetorical flight nor will I be the first to have their views dismissed, whether by reasons of appearance, ignorant notions of what causes a red-nose or (more likely) because my views are just plain rubbish. Whatever the case, I plan to be a bit more nuanced and self-reflective than Dickens’ fictional character Stiggens!

Image Credit: Hablot Knight Browne, ‘The red-nosed man discourseth’, Illustration (lithograph) from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, 1837.