Clearly Susan Sontag was a wise woman. Her writings are intelligent, sensitive, thoughtful, reflective and at times revolutionary.
I do not ask you to agree with Sontag but I do ask that you engage with her work.
Task
Read the rest of the extract from AIDS and its Metaphors
There will be lines in there that challenge you. Personally I find some of her writing a complete assault on basic understandings that I thought were accurate; a total challenge to some of my fundamental thinking. This can only be a good thing.
Post some of the lines that you find most interesting.
Write a comment on them. Justify the choice of quotation.
Form and post a theory of knowledge question that relates to the quotation.
Disease is seen as an invasion of alien orgasms, to which the body responds by it's own military operations, such as the mobilizing of immunological "defences", and the medicine is "aggressive"
ReplyDeleteI chose this quote as i found it really interesting to read. The way she describes a disease getting into the body asif its a fantasy story. She describes the disease as an "invastion of aliens" which is very metaphoric.
How far is it true to say that one day every disease will be curable?
to regard cancer as if it were just a disease-a very serious one,but just a disease. Not a curse, not a punishment, not an embarrassement.
ReplyDeletethis book was written in 1988, only 22 years ago, is this the attitude they really had then about cancer or has the author used a bit dramatic laguage to get some sort of reaction?i chose this quote because it really made think about the author's true intentions.
to what extent should we accept the author's words as a true indication of the attitude of her generation rather than her using it to transfer her ideas unto us?
Seun Odukogbe
"Where once the physician who waged bellum contra morbum, the war against disease, now it's the who society."
ReplyDeleteI found that this quote was quite intresting due to the fact that its saying now as a society to survive we need to all deal with diseases not just physicians.
Is it true to say that we as a society should all try to contribute to the war against disease?
"The flies themselves are shown as enemy aircraft dropping bombs of death on an innocent population.The bombs have inscriptions. One says 'Microbi' microbes. Another says 'Germi della tisi' the germs of tuberculosis.Another simply says 'Malattia' illness."
ReplyDeleteI found this quote quite interesting because of the fact that she described the flies to be like bombers but instead of explosions that happen, it's the germs that cause illnesses.
How true is it to say that flies are the only ones that cause air-borne diseases?
"Twelve years ago. when I became a cancer patient, what particularly enaged me-and distracted me from my own terror and dispair at my doctors' gloomy prognosis-was seeing how much the very reputation of this illness added to the suffering of those who have it."
ReplyDeleteI thought this quote epitomises the point of what Susan Sontag is trying to represent in this text; that illnesses are seen as something bad, infectious and disgusting, and added unnecessary suffering to people who had enough to deal with.
"In the decade since I wrote 'Illnes as Metaphor'- and was cured of my own cancer, confounding my doctors' pessimism- attitudes about cancer have envolved. Getting cancer is not quite as much of a stigma, a creator of 'spoiled identity' (to use Erving Goffman's expression). The word cancer is uttered more freely, and people are not often describing anymore in obituaries as dying of a 'very long illness'".
ReplyDeleteI believe that what Susan Sontang is saying is very true. She says that cancer is something that everyone is familiar with and know to a certain extent a little about the disease. Whereas, when she had cancer attitudes towards the disease where different.
To what extent has people's attitudes towards cancer envolved?
''Military Metaphors contribute to the stigmatizing of certain illnesses and, by extension of those who are ill''
ReplyDeleteI think this statement is true because some people don't really get weakened or die because of their ilnness but rather because of the stigmatization attached to it and the way it is regarded in society.For instance in certain 3rd world countries people with HIV/AIDS are seen as walking corpses ,neighbours refuse to talk or even touch them.They are often isolated and even food is passed to them by shoving it under the door of the room,which is morally wrong and horrendous.
Is it fair to say metaphors associated with some illnesses affect the victims more and socially cripples their lives?
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ReplyDelete"And so I wrote my book,wrote it very quickly,spurred by evangelic zeal as well as anxiety about how much time I had left to do any living or writing in"
ReplyDeleteI think this quote brings the whole passage back down to a relate able manner, although we can relate to the whole text as we can all see the message Susan is getting across. I believe this is more reachable to every target audience, everybody knows and may not like to think about the fact that they are going to die, here Susan shares how when she was diagnosed she began to rush her life to try and fit in things that she would of thought she had much time to do prior to being told she didnt have long left.
To what extent is it true to say that if everybody knew when the moment they were going to die they would live their life differently?
the quote i have chosen is "military metaphors contribute to the stigmatizing of certain illnesses and, by extension, of those who are ill.
ReplyDeletei chose this because its strange the way she is blaming a metaphor ( a type of language device ) for causing some illnesses and making others that are already ill more sicker.
to what extent cant we say that metaphors are not the cause what if its the way we say them?
The quote i have chosen is: "Not all organs, you must realize, are equally important nor does health depend on all alike, but there are some"
ReplyDeleteI have chosen this quote because it is trying to say that all organs are not important for your health but i think they are because if they weren't important for your health then we wouldn't have been born with them.
To what extent is it true to say that we as humans could or couldn't live without certain organs in the body?
"Disease is seen as an invasion of alien orgasms, to which the body responds by it's own military operations, such as the mobilizing of immunological "defences", and the medicine is "aggressive"
ReplyDeleteI found that quote was really weird because she's describing a disease asif the body is being attacked by aliens or even the earth like on the film "Independence Day". She describes the "medicine" as being "aggresive" which is saying it is fighting back against the disease and like on the film "Independence Day" the military troops fought back against the aliens.
To what extent will someone one day find a cure to cure all deadly diseases?
This from rachel pickup mr pope, my computer is broke so i'm posting it off jordan's computer
To regard cancer as if it were just a disease-a very serious one,but just a disease.Not a curse,not a punishment,not an embarrassment,and not a death sentence.
ReplyDeletei choose this quote because it trying to say that if u have cancer or any disease,you should not think that it is a curse or a punishment and also that it is not the end of the world.
To what extent can we say that one day the world will be free from all disease.
"Thinking about illness"..."have to suffer more from thinking about his illness than from illness itself..."
ReplyDeleteI choose this quote because I think the person who fell ill of cancer tuned their mindset to think of the consequences of it. The person suffering from cancer would become even more ill just thinking of the chemotherapy and medicines they had to take. Susan Sontag wanted to set a right mindset to the cancer patients so that they would go for treatments other than just giving up on life.
How far true to say that thinking of the disease only will kill you once diagnosed?
"Twelve yaers ago, when I became a cancer patient, what particurlaryly enraged me-and distracted me from my own terror and despair and my doctors' gloomy prognosis-was seeing how much the reputation of this illness added to the suffering of thiose who have it."
ReplyDeleteThis quote reflects the true problem with giving a disease a name; when a disease is labelled, its effect is more intense on the patient. This adds to the emotional trauma that the patient would experinece while adding shame.
To what extent does the name of a disease increase its effect on a patient?
"Not all organs, you must realize, are equally important nor does health depend on all alike, but there are some"
ReplyDeleteThis line stuck out to me, as it has many different meaning behind it, it is suggesting that certain people are not as important as others.
Is everyone equally as important?
Without certain people can certain things cope?