"From AIDS and Its Metaphors" / 510

AIDS. What does the word mean to you? If it means something other than "Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndome," a medical condition, which is technically not even an illness, then you're thinking about some of its metaphors. There's connotation and denotation. AIDS denotates a medical condition that is serious because illnesses, which are usually squashed by the immune system, can become life threatening. But AIDS connotates quite a bit more.

In fact, Susan Sontag points out that AIDS "has a dual metaphoric genealogy" (517). It is described as an invading cancer as well as a social pollution. She wrote AIDS and Its Metaphors after looking at the idea of illness as a societal metaphor. See the summary at http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webdescrips/sontag783-des-.html. And like she does in other works, Sontag reinforces the notion of writing and acting as storytelling or a positive "misrepresentation" of reality (http://www.mostlyfiction.com/west/sontag.htm).

Sontag has written on such diverse subjects as pornographic literature, fascist aesthetics, photography, revolution, and AIDS. There are many biographical websites about Susan Sontag and her work. See http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/sontag.htm and http://bedfordbooks.com/litlinks/critical/sontag.htm and the critical readings.