Swimming to the Macula
As is evident from his intensely personal theater and film work, Spalding Gray always laid himself bare to his audiences. But it’s unlikely you’ll ever get more up close and personal than with the following footage of the man’s eye surgery. The procedure was necessary to cure his “macula pucker,” which would become the instigating topic of the monologue that Steven Soderbergh’s film Gray’s Anatomy comprises. Perhaps it doesn’t need to be said that these vivid images of an eyeball being stitched up are not for the squeamish; rather, we’ll note for those not inclined to look away that there are ten more minutes of the surgery included with the release.