112 RüdigerKunow
identity script through which the "imperial constitution of colonial
masculinity" (Mrinalini Sinha qtd. in W. Anderson 132) in the
Philippineswastobeachieved.However,asAmericancolonialofficers
were quick to find out, the "splendid virile energy," invoked by U.S.
Secretary of War Elihu Root (W. Anderson 52), almost immediately
came under siege in the local disease ecology characterized by
infectious diseases such as cholera or the plague, both of which
Americansdulycontractedinlargenumbers.
In addition, there was also a whole new, distinctively white-male
American syndrome to be dealt with, a disease that was soon to be
identifiedas"Philippinitis"(W.Anderson131-55).Theterm designated
a form of tropical neurasthenia which affected especially high-ranking
military officials and administrators who in their reports and letters
home frequently complained about what we might today call "colonial
burn-out." Lt. Colonel Fielding H. Garrison, for example, after three
yearsinthePhilippines,hasthistosay:"Ihavelivedfromdaytodayin
this environment in a state of lowered vitality, like the man in Edgar
Poe's poem who felt his life ebbing and oozing away as he poured out
sandontheseashore"(qtd.in W.Anderson136).Onecanreadthisand
many similar such accounts as medicalized travelogues of male self-
pity,but,perhapsmoreimportantly,wecantraceherethecrucialroleof
thehealthymalebodyfortheprojectofAmericanempire.Tosafeguard
thefunctioningofthisbody,Americans,liketheBritishinSimla,builta
whole set of facilities^67 which offered sports and other recreational
opportunities and where medical treatment was also available. At these
trulyheterotopicallocations,whereAmericanswereamongthemselves,
andinasuitableenvironment,colonialofficialsgotthechancetofeel,if
for a time only, as if they had returned to the U.S. All this, however,
couldnotallaydeep-seatedanxietiesaboutthepresentandfutureroleof
the white male American "out there" in the far-away corners of the
fashion his own place and status (cf. esp. the chapter "Passionate Manhood,"
222-46).
(^67) A related argument has been offered by Bill Albertini with regard to media
representations: "Outbreak narratives contrast images of supposedly self-
containedanduncontaminatedspaces,suchastheidyllictownofCedarCreekin
the movieOutbreak,to spaces imagined as thoroughly contaminated by illness,
suchasthesamefilm'suseofsub-Saharanjungles"(Albertini461).