Mr. Countryman: Letter from an Epidemic

(from Noni)

During the past few weeks we have been studying AIDS as virus, the effects this disease has had on society, and more specifically the people who have contracted it. This week we were given the opportunity to examine a collection of letters written by Peter Countryman, the father of Ms. Countryman, who in 1988 tested positive for AIDS, and battled the disease for four years.

Until this point, many of the texts we have read on AIDS have been focused mainly around homosexuality and unsafe sex, while ignoring other ways that AIDS can be spread. However, we learned that Mr. Countryman tested positive for HIV while battling drug addiction and sharing infected needles. Just like how there are associations made around those who have gotten AIDS from unsafe sex, are there associations made around those who have tested positive due to drug abuse and the sharing of needles? If so, what are these associations?, and do you believe that society views one way of contracting this disease worse than the other?   

Throughout his life, Mr. Countryman was described as a fighter. A fighter for civil rights, a fighter for the protection of migrant workers, and a fighter against violence towards women. He was seen as a “warrior secretly filled with sweetness”pg.1  who protected those who were not given a voice to stand up for themselves. How did these associations surrounding Mr. Countryman affect how he saw himself before and after being infected with this disease?

I am interested in spending more time on specific questions like why do are race and economic standing play a huge role in treating disease? For example, in many instances we noticed that the US does not pay attention to life threatening diseases until they reach us, however during this time, AIDS was a disease in the US which still did not receive the amount of attention in should have. What are some of the major contrasts within the letters? Can aspects of this text be related to any other texts we have read over the course? Also, what was Mr. Countryman's inner vs outer struggle and how did his disease play a role? How can we change society to move away from the idea that asking for help or depending on others is seen as weak? What do you appreciate most about these letters and why? Lastly, how has this text transform your view of AIDS and drug addiction?

Stigma in the AIDS Epidemic

This week, we read Susan Sontag’s “AIDS and Its Metaphors.” Similar to “Illness as Metaphor,” Sontag criticizes the way we talk and think about AIDS and how we picture the disease to be worse than it really is. The metaphorical discussion of AIDS increases the patients’ suffering and creates unnecessary concern among the larger society. Like the discussion of the metaphorical uses of tuberculosis in the 19^th century and cancer in the 20^th from “Illness as Metaphor,” Sontag reveals how language distorts the reality of AIDS and keeps patients from seeking the most beneficial course of treatment.

A strong association people have made with AIDS is homosexuality. During the onset of AIDS in the United States, it most severely affected homosexual men. Sontag claims that because society at the time believed the sexual practice among homosexuals was willful and unnatural, those who contracted AIDS were more deserving of it. She states, “An infectious disease whose principal means of transmission is sexual necessarily puts at greater risk those who are sexually more active – and is easy to view as a punishment for that activity” (Sontag 26). Why was society at the time so quick to point out the flaws of the homosexual community and its practices because of AIDS when they weren't even how the disease originated? Do we still refer to AIDS as a disease of promiscuity today after all the knowledge and scientific advancements that have been made since Sontag’s time period?

Another metaphor Sontag discusses is the thought of AIDS as a plague as opposed to an epidemic. She believes that the plague association represents AIDS as a punishment, similar to how people viewed the Black Death as God’s punishment. The punishment of AIDS is for moral indulgence – a perspective stemming from the disease’s association with homosexual practices, despite the absence of this connection with the disease in Africa where AIDS originated. Sontag adds that the plague image also is detrimental to society because it contributes to a sense of inevitability: “The plague metaphor is an essential vehicle of the most pessimistic reading of the epidemiological prospects. From classic fiction to the latest journalism, the standard plague story is of inexorability, inescapability” (Sontag 141). What is it about the apparent finality of AIDS that makes the disease so intimidating? Sontag admits, “one cannot think without metaphors” (Sontag 93), so regarding the way we think about AIDS, are its metaphors ill or well chosen? Is the disease itself, not the way we talk about it, the true source of fear?

Malaria and the Mosquito

We have learned through Susan Sontag's book, Illness as a Metaphor, how many diseases take on a meaning that suppresses its illness that it inflicts. We have seen through numerous texts how representations and association of devices are internalized in society and the people inflicted. Through our TB, cancer, and plague readings, we have seen how the desire is internalized in society and how it affects other people, however, Conaway brings the interesting perspective of the mosquito through the poem "Silence, Anopheles". In that poem, we see how the mosquito is simply surviving like every other animal and is unaware of the desire it carries inside.  How do our own association of Malaria and the mosquito affect how our society views mosquito ridden places and tropical areas? Are the representations of Malaria only placed on the parasite itself, or is the mosquito closely tied in with the associations given to Malaria? Why or why not? How do the representations of Malaria and the Mosquito affect how researchers and health care professionals approach prevention, treatment, and ultimately trying to find a cure of Malaria? Are there examples in Conaway's' poems that support your answer?

Malaria, Poems as a Whole

This past week, we examined various poems from Cameron Conaway’s Malaria, Poems. In our discussions, we mainly talked about two poems: “Okapi” and “Silence, Anopheles.” What actually struck me most about these poems was how different they were. “Silence, Anopheles” examined the presence and consequences of malaria from the perspective of the disease’s vector, the mosquito. However, “Okapi” never really mentioned malaria at all, depicting instead the silent struggle of a gang-raped teacher amongst a classroom of groaning students drawing okapis. Unlike “Silence, Anopheles,” malaria is mainly seen through the lens of a metaphor (most likely the gang-rape of the teacher) in “Okapi” rather than being referred to directly in its passages. Today, we each had to select a poem to write about in an in-class essay. I chose the poem, “Vaccine” which describes malaria through the perspective a scientist observing the search for a vaccine, providing yet another radically different analysis of the disease. Rather than zeroing in on just one poem, I am interested in considering the entire collection of poems as a whole. What was Conaway trying to convey through utilizing multiple perspectives (the different poems) to assess one subject (malaria)? Is there any significance to the quotes from various magazines, newspapers etc. that Conaway placed in between the poems? How do these quotes contrast or compliment the poetry? Is this poetry collection trying to create or illustrate specific associations and representations of malaria? Or is it trying to dispel or disprove any possible associations and representations? Or even more generally, is this poetry collection even trying to prove anything about malaria’s effects? When reading the poems, I also noticed that at first glance, some poems didn’t seem to mention malaria at all, whereas others implied or mentioned it very clearly (for example, compare “Silence, Anopheles” to “Okapi”) Was Conaway trying to tell us something by “hiding” the presence of malaria in some of his poems? Finally, do the style of language and maybe even the physical orientation of the poems’ lines on the page signify anything about the nature of malaria as well?