How It All Goes Down
The Oracular Vulva
- Cal's parents want a second opinion on her genitals, so they take her to the doctor who screwed things up in the first place: Dr. Philbosian.
- He refers the Stephanides family to a doctor who refers them to another doctor in New York, so off they go to the big apple.
- It turns out that Dr. Luce is the head of the Sexual Disorders and Gender Identity Clinic at New York Hospital.
- His waiting room looks like an erotic museum exhibit. Even the paperweight is a penis.
- Cal tells us that "Peter Luce was considered the world's leading authority on human hermaphrodism" (4.1.69) and the rest of the chapter is a combination of hermaphroditic history and Calliope's psychological evaluation.
- All you need to know about Calliope's psych eval can be summed up like this: She lies a lot to make herself seem normal… whatever normal is. Oh, and she and Dr. Luce watch porn together. You know, like you do with your doctor.
- Back in the hotel room, Calliope has a crisis of faith when Milton says she can come home "Soon as [she's] better" (4.1.195). She wonders what he means by better.