it, with all tl AIDS, officers ha hesitancv This new virus replicates an older one, gaining vigor by metamorphosis: the symbolism of “ The Dynasty Kiss” becomes an inverted form of the medieval “ Kiss of the Leper.” Saint Julien presses his mouth to the purulent mouth of the leper he has saved from the storm, ferried across the river and lovingly placed in his bed, in an attempt to warm him. The leper is suddenly transformed into the pristine image of Christ, and Julien undergoes apotheosis on the spot. “The roof flew off the cabin, the firmament spread out before them, and Julien rose toward blue space, face The ancient dance of sacrifice and expulsion prepares itse lf in a climate swarming with communications interference, viral noise in which the Word and the Image foster in the Shopper— and in William E Buckley and many others who consider themselves far superior to the masses—an age-old compulsion toward ritual violence. new face with Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who carried him into heaven.” While there is a certain amount of mythological “ truth” in the Christian injunction to submit to the leper’s k is s - humility, self-abasement and self-sacrifice viewed positively, in imitation of Christ—the Enquirer’s viral image of Rock kissing Linda is diabolical—a lie within a lie within a lie. Thus, the dark “magical thinking” triggered in the popular mind might be called one of the “ decay particles” given off by dead or dying religions. In our day, Rock Hudson is in danger of becoming the object of a negative cult that would hold him responsible as the “ author of the plague,” just as Rabelais reported in the sixteenth century that some lower-class preachers taught that St. Sebastian could not only cure, but cause diseases. Fueled by irrational fears of “ the plague,” a certain sector of the population-shou ld we call them shoppers?— prepares itself for what Rene Girard on " cord MDS P»«W ' S' kid « i n found '0 < D a v ' d W o' l ' r S rpresa * o i a ’ The <e ussue considered o O A t ^ f o ^ support a / AIDS Times p o n „ e y o f 2308 ^ u s e he Public deba te r3 1 h a ^ b ^ e ^ r io u s a ^ S U r e closin 0 0 r t y - ^ o ^ - D s a n t ib o d ^1 resu l t s : fO r ^ ^ e VW V I V * “The Louse is a Man for the Wolf” hilosophers of language from Heidegger to Derrida have demonstrated that the entities brought together by Logos are opposites, and that Logos cannot combine them without violence. Burroughs calls Logos the “ space virus from Venus,” the body politic’s control habit far older than heroin. For Burroughs, sexual possession, opium derivatives and the Word are all viruses that play to the weakest cells and “THE JUNK MERCHANT DOES NOT SELL HIS PRODUCT TO THE CONSUMER, HE SELLS THE CONSUMER TO HIS PRODUCT. HE DOES NOT IMPROVE AND SIMPLIFY HIS MERCHANDISE. HE DEGRADES AND SIMPLIFIES HIS CLIENT.” calls, in Violence and the Sacred, “ the hysterical trance and crazy mixture of differences that immediately precedes the collective expulsion.” The Soviets are said to have spread AIDS as a secret weapon, irresponsible politicians demand quarantine, William E Buckley seriously proposes forced tattooing for carriers of the HTLV-3 virus, while a Los Angeles Times poll reveals that 42 percent of adults polled would support a law closing gay bars. And the AIDS-2 virus is still spreading—as virulent as any virus. tissues, the ones in a state of “ total need—total sickness—total possession. . . . The junk merchant does not sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to his product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise. He degrades and simplifies his client.” Social policy regarding AIDS must be led by medical science. The HTLV-3 virus must be isolated from the AIDS-2 virus in order that victims of AIDS not be dehumanized and further victimized by the collectivity. We are the virus; this is the realization that the supermarket press, gossip and irresponsible political leaders would b lock, cloud, make fuzzy or incomprehensible. As the HTLV-3 virus begins to make inroads into the heterosexual population and scapegoating begins in earnest, let us brace ourselves and prepare a counterattack. A plague begs for solution, not blame; science, not sacrifice. “The parasitic relation is intersubjective,” writes Serres. “ It is the atomic form of our relations. Let us try to face it head-on, like death, like the sun. We are all attacked together.” For the fly is not thinking too well at the moment. A human being is buzzing at its ear. Writer James Winchell lives in Seattle. His story in the last issue of CSQ was “Notes Toward Understand ing the Death of Yoshiyuki Takada.” Warantine tsav «_ Clinton St. Quarterly 23
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