At 07:31 PM 4/17/98 -0500, Rob Maclean wrote:
>the thing we are forgetting is that Foucault had no idea he was infecting
>people (if he indeed was, which we have no real way of knowing). in the
>early 80s, the nature of AIDS was not common knowledge like it is now.
>Foucault believed that the idea of a "gay cancer" was just too
>(politically) perfect to be true, and truly (to my knowledge) did not
>believe that he had such a disease or that he could endanger people's
>lives through his sexual activity. the mantra of the danger of
> unprotected sex does not apply to 1982-4 the way it does now ...
>
>see Herve Guibert's *A l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauve la vie.* (a "fictional"
>account, of course, but one that provides insight).
Thanks for the informative response. I will attempt to find
the book you recommend. However, I think the genealogy of
AIDS begins a little earlier than you indicated. See the web site:
http://www.library.ucsf.edu/sc/ahp/chron1982.html
The term AIDS was coined by the CDC in December
1982 and they announced that they suspected that
the contagion was probably caused by exposure to
blood and blood products. In Jan 1983 the first calls
to close San Francisco bathhouses to limit the
disease were made. May 1983 was the first AIDS
awareness week. And by June 1983 the San Francisco
bathhouse controversy was in full bloom and AIDS
panic had swept the nation.
Dave
"A people without a history is like the wind over
buffalo grass." - Sioux proverb
>the thing we are forgetting is that Foucault had no idea he was infecting
>people (if he indeed was, which we have no real way of knowing). in the
>early 80s, the nature of AIDS was not common knowledge like it is now.
>Foucault believed that the idea of a "gay cancer" was just too
>(politically) perfect to be true, and truly (to my knowledge) did not
>believe that he had such a disease or that he could endanger people's
>lives through his sexual activity. the mantra of the danger of
> unprotected sex does not apply to 1982-4 the way it does now ...
>
>see Herve Guibert's *A l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauve la vie.* (a "fictional"
>account, of course, but one that provides insight).
Thanks for the informative response. I will attempt to find
the book you recommend. However, I think the genealogy of
AIDS begins a little earlier than you indicated. See the web site:
http://www.library.ucsf.edu/sc/ahp/chron1982.html
The term AIDS was coined by the CDC in December
1982 and they announced that they suspected that
the contagion was probably caused by exposure to
blood and blood products. In Jan 1983 the first calls
to close San Francisco bathhouses to limit the
disease were made. May 1983 was the first AIDS
awareness week. And by June 1983 the San Francisco
bathhouse controversy was in full bloom and AIDS
panic had swept the nation.
Dave
"A people without a history is like the wind over
buffalo grass." - Sioux proverb