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"The Epidemic" by Johathan Engel.

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idgiehkt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-02-07 01:00 AM
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"The Epidemic" by Johathan Engel.
http://www.amazon.com/Epidemic-Global-History-AIDS/dp/0061144886/sr=8-3/qid=1167716525/ref=pd_bbs_3/102-1549913-7294556?ie=UTF8&s=books

I'm reading this right now, it came out in September, it purports to be "A Global History of the AIDS Epidemic". (So far there is nothing 'global' about his retelling, maybe I haven't read far enough.) Anyone else reading it? I have to say, I really don't care for it. There seems to be conservative bias creeping into the narrative here and there. It's not blatant, but it is there. He at one point refers to some of the sex acts performed by gay men in the baths as 'bizarre', or 'increasingly bizarre' (I don't have the book in front of me). He talks about how makers of condom brochures referred to genitalia and sex acts in the crudest slang terms, as if they were produced that way across the board. That may have happened, but all the intructional brochures I saw during that time used clinical terms. He says that the U.S. Army was the only organization that inmplemented a plan that successfully stopped the spread of AIDS within it's ranks. To that last assertion, WTF? I read it and re-read it and it doesn't square at all with what I know about my friends that have been members of the armed forces. He doesn't back that up with statistical data.

Anyway, it seems as though this book is a re-telling of "And the Band Played On"; it would probably be considered centrist but I would defintely say it has a slyly conservative bent to it. Has anyone else read it? Any thoughts/opinions/feedback?
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unsavedtrash Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-02-07 01:37 AM
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1. I haven't read it yet but you have piqued my interest.
I'm heading to the library tomorrow to check it out.
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xchrom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-02-07 06:30 AM
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2. lol -- i love people who refer to ''bizarre sex acts''.
but i wouldn't want to go to bed with them.

they're always the freakiest when the lights go out.
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idgiehkt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-02-07 02:49 PM
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3. lol
isn't that the truth...

I just don't like that kind of editorialization, plus there is nothing new under the sun, and this guy writes like guys in San Fran in the 80's invented all these new ways to have sex....excuse me, but :rofl:
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