VirusHead

I was looking at my dissertation today, wondering if I can yet make a readable book out of it. Now that I’ve got a little distance from what was an agonizing process (at least until the last bit, when I actually started enjoying it), it seems better than I thought at the time. Today I’m posting a very select few of the quotations I used as a kind of shorthand that helps me remember the train of thought that’s at the back of a novel I’m writing. Between mommy-brain and constant distractions, it might be helpful to keep this here – as a touchstone of sorts.

My general theory since 1971 has been that the word is literally a virus, and that it has not been recognised as such because it has achieved a state of relatively stable symbiosis with its human host; that is to say, the word virus (the Other Half) has established itself so firmly as an accepted part of the human organism that it can now sneer at gangster viruses like smallpox and turn them in to the Pasteur Institute.
- William Burroughs

This Snow Crash thing–is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?”
Juanita shrugs. “What’s the difference?
- Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

How does Gemüt, the mind, speak, how does the heart speak, how does the voice of the blood speak in the time of AIDS? Does the virus expose this voice to a cacophony, a cacophony that does not even form a negative unity within which it still resonates? How is such exposure possible? Can the voice of the blood recognize itself in the cacophony caused by the virus?
– Alexander Garcia Duttman

About all, we need to resist, at all costs, the luxury of listening to the thousands of language tapes playing in our heads, laden with prior discourse, that tell us with compelling certainty and dizzying contradiction what AIDS really means.
– Paula Treichler

Discourse, alas, is the only defense with which we can counteract discourse, and there is no available discourse on AIDS that is not itself diseased.
– Lee Edelman

If Amanda had cancer or a brain tumor, they’d be bringing her casseroles and cakes.
– Alice Hoffman

Sh*t, do you realize that only about a tenth of infected Americans can get these new drugs? It kind of makes you wonder about the other thirty million people on this planet with HIV. I mean, how many people in Africa or Asia do you think are able to get any of these cocktails?
- R.D. Zimmerman, Hostage

The brain works like a collection of viruses, the Consensus said one hundred and fifty years later, when viruses were difficult to avoid.
- Geoff Ryman, The Child Garden

For each illness that doctors cure with medicine, they provoke ten in healthy people by inoculating them with the virus that is a thousand times more powerful than any microbe: the idea that one is ill.
- Marcel Proust

The life of the flesh is in the blood.
– Leviticus 17:11

But you must strictly refrain from eating the blood, because the blood is the life; you must not eat the life with the flesh.
– Deuteronomy 12:23

Drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, shed for many for the forgiveness of sins.
– Matthew 26:28-29

Think on the nature of this great invisible thing which animates each one of us, and every blood drinker who has ever walked. We are as receptors for the energy of this being; as radios are receptors for the invisible waves that bring sound. Our bodies are no more than shells for this energy.
- Anne Rice, Queen of the Damned

It is along the frontier of blood – on the red line between pure and impure – that the inexhaustible drama between the sacred and the profane is played out: between the history of the divine, and the history of the human element that would struggle free of the human.
- Piero Camporesi

Medicine is magical and magical is art
The Boy in the Bubble
And the baby with the baboon heart
. . .
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don’t cry baby don’t cry
Don’t cry
- Paul Simon, The Boy in the Bubble, 1986

Some quizzes from OKCupid

What Kind of Psychic Are You? Test

Shaman
You scored 5 Empath, 5 Channeler, 1 Medium, and 10 Shaman!
You are a SHAMAN

As you are vividly aware of nature and the spirit in animals, plants, and trees, your style of psychism is shamanistic. You derive a highly tuned sense of danger from your instinctive link with wild animals; this is a great asset–your intuition literally saves lives. You can sense impending danger in all situations, whether it’s on the sidewalk, in traffic situations, or in the workplace. You may also have natural healing ability–an innate sense of what will harm or help someone who is ill.

Which Vampire Clan Test

Ravnos
43% P, 56% W, 38% H, 53% G
Play a Ravnos.. Trust me.. Illusion and deceit, your trickery is more than just sleight of hand, your illusions are as real as your enemies are willing to believe. You can speak to the animals, and take one hell of a beating, but your true trump card will usually be your ability to make people (and vampires) see, hear, feel, etc. whatever you want. This power is the most costly of powers, but it never fails, no roll of dice needed.. You must, however, when creating your character, choose a vice, be it theft, murder, white lies, or a taboo fetish, your character can’t resist the urge to engage in some immoral activity as often as possible. Better be careful, even fellow Ravnos might get annoyed with your habits after long. In the end, though, all Ravnos share some common goals, spreading east of their ancient homeland in India as they did to the west, releasing the energy that powers their illusions into the environment (powerful enemies seem to hold a lot of that sweet stuff), and bridging the generation gap between young Ravnos and the elders with a better understanding of each other… Before something messy happens..

“Exactly how nuts are you? test

Peanut
Congratulations! You scored 51%!
You’re so normal, I’m tempted to ask you: Please explain to me what normal is? I mean, since you are, you ought to have some understanding of it! Anyway, peanuts are good nuts. Especially when they are made into peanut sauce.. And you do do things that are nuts.. once or twice a year.

What Coding Language Are You Test

PHP
You scored 57 Problem Solving, 59 Common Sense, and 63 Creativity!
Although generally used for pretty specific functions, PHP pretty much does it all. It has to employ front-end interfaces but relies heavily on back-end structure, so both problem solving and creativity is important. And because PHP is predominantly used for dynamic web-based content, a little common sense and “knowing your audience” is pretty important.

The Death Quiz

According to our research, you’ll be dead by

February 2045 at age 81
Probable cause: cancer

AVERAGE FEMALE LIFE SPAN: 77.1 years
As you can plainly see, you have more health & vitality than the average woman.

WHY YOU DIE?
56% cancer
24% ulcers/bowel toughness
13% loneliness
5% drowning of the lungs
2% wounds

You have 14177.8 days left on this earth.
You’ve already lived 52% of your life.

What Type of Human Are You? Test

Goody Two Shoes
You scored 73% Do Gooder, 72% Drive, and 96% Intellect!
Aw, don’t be hurt by that. You’re a good person…very nice and helpful to others, always lending a hand. Always, always offering to lend a hand, even perhaps when it’s not called for. Oh, and is that your raised hand in the air again? Why not let someone else answer next time? But seriously, there should probably be more people like you in the world. Super-smart, driven, and warm-hearted. There would be many less problems in the world if there were more like you, and you should be proud of that. Just don’t forget a little ‘me’ time now and then, you deserve it.

How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 50% on Do Gooder
You scored higher than 67% on Drive
You scored higher than 95% on Intellect

Mythological God Test

Amun
Indeed, you are 79% erudite, 83% sensual, 50% martial, and 54% saturnine.
Amun was a mysterious God indeed. His very name basically means “what is hidden”, “what is not seen”, “what cannot be seen”, and though even his form was said to be “unknown”, he was depicted as a man with the head of a uraeus (cobra), or a man seated on a throne and holding in one hand the sceptre, and in the other the ankh.

All secrets aside, what we do know is that Amun was the Egyptian King of the Gods, not unlike his counterparts Zeus (Greek mythology) and Odin (Norse mythology). With his ruling might over the Gods, Amun soon became associated with the Pharaohs.

Being responsible for the creation of the world, it is not surprising that he was also the God of fertility, reproduction, and sexual power, and thus also the God of agriculture. With the combined powers of regeneration and royalty, Amun became linked to the sun and the great God Ra, becoming known as Amun-Ra, which pretty much consolidated his status as Supreme God.

In spite of Amun’s political ascension, he also enjoyed popularity among the common people of Egypt, who came to call him the vizier of the poor, the protector of the weak, and an upholder of justice.

How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 45% on erudite
You scored higher than 37% on sensual
You scored higher than 50% on martial
You scored higher than 45% on saturnine