Disease permeates itself through all walks of life. No one is unaffected by disease and the destruction it brings. Families destroyed, communities torn apart, and societies in despair. AIDS has taken its toll on the present society, and everyone is affected. Much of the literature written on AIDS has tried to capture the disease and give it some form of meaning. Where it comes from, how one contracts it, and the lifestyle of an AIDS victim many times is addressed in various novels and books.
Many of the authors that write on AIDS write with homosexual themes. Homosexuality is prevalent in many books about AIDS and the question is why? According to Les Wright many books with gay characters are written to counteract many of the assumptions made about AIDS and homosexuality. The gay community is under attack, being invaded by both HIV virus and by the pathognomic counter-contagion of the social diseases of prejudice and hatred. In many narratives gay men respond with fantasies of military counter attack. The historically disempowered, polluted homosexual turns the tables, identifying mainstream heterosexuals as pathognomically polluted and declaring them evil. The Homosexuals claims victim status by virtue of the fascism of heterosexual society and casts his moral battle in political terms. The outsider becomes hero; disease is rendered seemingly value-neutral. Fire is fought with fire, and paranoia is attacked with paranoia (Wright, 55-57).
In one particular play that deals with the issue of AIDS and homosexuality, the writer shows characters that are different in background but very similar in nature. The play, Angels in America, A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, written by Tony Kushner, is a tale about gay men dealing with societal values. In dealing with these values they also encounter the issue of AIDS and how it impacts their lives and impacts the lives of the people around them. There is a problem with character associating AIDS and its possible connection with homosexuality. With the main characters, Roy Cohn, Joe Pitt, Louis Ironson, Prior Walter, and Harper Pitt, the reader visits the lives of these characters and learns how each person is affected by homosexuality and AIDS.
In the novel The Plague, by Albert Camus, the main character Dr. Rieux is talking to a colleague about the plague. "Naturally, he said to Rieux, you know what it is... I saw some cases in Paris twenty years ago.
“The Terrifying Normalcy of AIDS” is an essay written by Stephen Jay Gould, in which he talks about a dangerous disease that is spreading and becoming an issue to mankind, and that it is more of a mechanism than an irregular occurrence which I agree with. Stephen Jay Gould also shares his thoughts on our capabilities with the utilization of technology are boundless; especially when it comes to these types of ailments that threaten our kind, which is something I do not side with. Also, Stephen Jay Gould goes on to say that most people are misinformed about the disease and do not fully understand it.
When people come across the term “elevator”, people of modernity will believe that it is an important invention in the development of society. They believe elevator is an essential technology in their daily life. However, Lila Mae thinks elevator isn’t just an essential technology. She believes the elevator is the core of her career, the core of the city and what brings the city moving forward. Lila Mae is also an intuitionist which she believes “Intuitionism is about communicating with the elevator on a nonmaterial basis” (Whitehead 62). Therefore, it is possible to assume that the elevator in The Intuitionist is not just a machine, it is also alive. Whitehead has bought the elevator to life through two major ways: Lila Mae’s interpretation with its narration and metaphysical description.
One important scene in the film ‘The Age of Aids’ is “Port Au Prince, Haiti”. In this scene it outlines the conditions in Haiti, which were very poor and it turn left the city defenseless against the new disease. In 70’s and 80’s the disease began to be seen by doctors and priests who were being sought after to cure a unseen disease which left the people with the “look of death, [making them] so skinny you could see their bones”. The scene then goes on to take a look at one of the first HIV clinics in Port Au Prince, which was opened in the roughest parts of town. One of the surprising things that this clinic found when they were looking at the patients coming in was that the mean they were analyzing had more contact with women then they had with men. This was extremely interesting because this was completely different from what the pattern of the disease had been in the US. The doctors believed this was because homosexual males had been coming into Haiti as tourists and where having sex with locals, who in comparison didn’t call themselves homosexuals because even though they had been having sex with men, the number of women they were having sex with greatly outnumbered the men. This was extremely important because it allowed people to open their eyes, and realize that this was not a homosexual disease, that anyone could get the disease. And that’s exactly what happened within the Haitian community. Within three years the disease had spread across the entire island effects all aspects of society. This scene was effective because it is able to change a viewer with little knowledge of the disease to understand how doctors were able to come to the conclusion that the disease was not in fact a homosexual ...
Soto earned an English degree at California State University at Fresno in 1974. He continued his education to earn a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of California at Irvine. While working on his graduate work, Soto married Carolyn Oda, the daughter of Japanese-American farmers.
Since Plagues and Peoples covers several subjects of knowledge, he helps the reader understand key concepts by fully explaining parasitism and its dependence on humans and animals. People in the field of history, which make up a majority of this books audience, would need more insight into epidemiology to grasp its key concepts. It would not be likely for a historian to be knowledgeable in a branch of medical science that deals with the incidence, distribution, and control of disease in populations.
The Middle East has since time immemorial been on the global scope because of its explosive disposition. The Arab Israeli conflict has not been an exception as it has stood out to be one of the major endless conflicts not only in the region but also in the world. Its impact continues to be felt all over the world while a satisfying solution still remains intangible. A lot has also been said and written on the conflict, both factual and fallacious with some allegations being obviously evocative. All these allegations offer an array of disparate views on the conflict. This essay presents an overview of some of the major literature on the controversial conflict by offering precise and clear insights into the cause, nature, evolution and future of the Israel Arab conflict.
Works Cited Camus, Albert. A. The Plague. Trans. Stuart Gilbert.
[...] I wanted to see if I could write a plot, and a detective story has a lot of real backbone to work with. I thought it would be a parody of a detective novel, having an escalator inspector solve a crime. I'd seen a bit on TV about escalator inspectors and thought, what a weird job. Being in New York, I turned it into elevators instead. (Weich)
In a letter from an Italian lawyer, Gabriele de’ Mussi, he speaks about the plague, saying, “thus almost everyone who had been in the East…fell victim [to the plague] …the Chinese, Indians, Persians…,” he then continues to name thirteen other groups of people that succumbed to the plague. Later in his letter, Mussi speaks about the results of the plague when it hit Western Europe, stating, “it was found that more than 70 percent of the people had died…The rest of Italy, Sicily, and Apulia and the neighboring regions…have been virtually emptied of inhabitants.” In another account, an unnamed resident of Britain summed up the plague by stating that, “…the plague killed indiscriminately, striking at rich and poor alike.” Countless numbers of firsthand accounts show that an “epidemic disease,” such as The Black Death, “were experienced indiscriminately by all social
The Israeli-Palestine conflict is an event that has been well documented throughout the course of Middle-Eastern history. The conflict dates back as far as the nineteenth century where Palestine and Zionist, will later be known as Israel, are two communities each with different ideologies had the same overwhelming desire to acquire land. However, what makes this clash what it is, is the fact that both of these up and coming communities are after the same piece of land. The lengths that both sides went to in order obtain they believed was theirs has shaped the current relationship between the two nations today.
“And the Band Played On” was an HBO movie that illustrated the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and early 1990s. The movie touched on subjects concerning the reaction of the gay community, the heterosexual community, and the medical community. It showed not only the research in AIDS, but also the way that the US government dealt with it. The movie expressed the consequences the gay community suffered, the plight of the medical community in researching the disease, and the issue of government response to it.
...ar. "Hiv/Aids Managing A Pandemic." Americas 61.2 (2009): 20-27. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
"Demanding that life near AIDS is an inextricably other reality denies our ability to recreate a sustaining culture and social structures, even as we are daily required to devote such time to the details of the AIDS crisis." -Cindy Patton
“Palestinians do not control their own fate but instead live under the power of other states” (82, Yambert). The one state that directly controls the fate of Palestinians in the occupied territories is Israel and for the Palestinians who do not reside in Israel, other governments control them. The history of Palestine and how Israel came into existence is essential to understand in order to break down the present day conflict. The most dominant and important player in the Palestinian – Israeli conflict has been the United States of America, which has completely shaped the predicament in order to fulfill its interests. Before delving into the role of the United States, it is essential to go back in time and familiarize with the history of Palestine and Israel.
In many societies people living with HIV and AIDS are often seen as shameful. In some societies the infection is associated with minority groups or behaviours, for example, homosexuality, In some cases HIV/AIDS may be linked to 'perversion' and those infected will be punished. Also, in some societies HIV/AIDS is seen as the result of personal irresponsibility. Sometimes, HIV and AIDS are believed to bring shame upon the family or community. And whilst negative responses to HIV/AIDS unfortunately widely exist, they often feed upon and reinforce dominant ideas of good and bad with respect to sex and illness, and proper and improper behaviours.