This Would Be A Love Story --McCrimmon Award Winner-- (Brett Smith)
I know I’m going to sound pretentious for saying this. I’m telling you in advance that I’m aware of this, meaning that sounding pretentious is something I always try to avoid, but this time I really can’t avoid it, because this is what I honestly believe:
The story I am about to tell is probably the most important story ever told. And yes, I felt pretentious saying that.
I don’t know the setting of the story, but it might be Africa. Also, I don’t know the main character of the story, but it might be a monkey. Any monkey really. Let’s say a chimpanzee. Okay, I don’t know the time period the story takes place in either, but let’s say it’s the 1940’s, just for fun. If you’re thinking right now that this story sounds incomplete or half-baked, you’re probably right. I guess right now the story isn’t really all that great. Here’s where it starts to pick up: somewhere around that time, somewhere in that general area, and maybe with a monkey that might’ve been a chimpanzee, a few microscopic particles (which sort of are, but sort of aren’t alive) entered the bloodstream of a random human—I don’t know how, though. The human might’ve been named Carl. Or Paul. But definitely not Clifford. Maybe. Truth is, all of this is just sort of speculation right now, sorry. I’m not much of a storyteller. Skip ahead to the 1960’s and the story starts to become more complete: some scientists name the particle HIV, and HIV begins to evolve into something scientists name AIDS, which is, very secretly, being passed from human to human. No one knows how it got there in the first place, but no one really seems to care. But around this time, the scientists begin realizing that the people they diagnosed with HIV and AIDS are all dying, rather rapidly (Frequently Asked Questions Regarding AIDS).
Skip ahead to the year 2000: there are over 750,000 documented cases of AIDS in the United States alone (Frequently Asked Questions Regarding AIDS).
Skip ahead to today: Out of those 750,000 documented cases, nearly 450,000 of them have since died. Worldwide, it is estimated that at least 40 million people have AIDS (Frequently Asked Questions Regarding AIDS).
And if AIDS was the main character of this story, then this would be a love story.
And I am aware that I should never begin a sentence with the word “and.”
Note: The writer of this paper, this paper which is only just barely a research paper, has little or no intention of obeying any sort of criteria typical of what this assignments requests, and, worse, he thinks he has reasons for doing so. And yes, that makes the writer of this paper an asshole/idiot.
So there’s this man and his name is Joshua, and no he isn’t a fictionalized version of myself. But I will say this: it does really offend me when everyone assumes that Joshua is homosexual. Unfortunately, many people do think Joshua is homosexual, because many people still think that only homosexual people contract AIDS. It is my opinion that these ignorant masses represent the reason AIDS is allowed to spread.
So I’ll clear this up: Joshua is a heterosexual male who contracts AIDS. It should be obvious how he gets AIDS, but—no, wait—apparently it isn’t as obvious as it should be. Joshua contracts AIDS by having unprotected sex with a woman who had AIDS. Did that seem too obvious to point out? Yes? That’s because it was.
Oh, but Joshua won’t even know he has AIDS for eight years, which isn’t to say that he isn’t still afflicted and capable of spreading the disease, which he definitely is (Treatment for HIV and AIDS). During these eight years of blissful ignorance, small virus particles of the HIV virus he contracted will swarm through his bloodstream and attach to immune cells, namely macrophages and CD4 T-cells. The virus particles will attach to these cells and insert their DNA into the nucleus, usurping control of the cell, and destroying the DNA of the host cell in the process. And if you’re thinking this sounds like what other viruses do, you’re right—but right around now things begin to diverge. The virus particles of HIV do things differently than other viruses—they actually fuse with the host cell’s nucleus while binding to its cellular membrane, and in the process of transcribing its viral DNA into the host cell, much of the viral DNA becomes mutated (What is HIV Antiretroviral Treatment?).
Remember this part of the story, the part where the viral DNA mutates, because this will be important later into the story. Trust me.
And now that all of Joshua’s immune cells have viral DNA in them, the infected cells begin manufacturing more virus particles. And these possessed cells which were once free are so determined to make more viruses that they, quite unintentionally and unavoidably, overwork themselves in the process, literally exploding as soon as the new viruses are born. They sacrifice themselves for the sake of HIV (What is HIV Antiretroviral Treatment?). This is but one element of the love story: sacrifice.
Okay, so by now eight years have passed, and Joshua begins to notice that he’s becoming very, very sick. Sicker than he’s ever been in a long time, he thinks. He goes to the doctor, the doctor runs a few blood tests, and the doctor will probably notice how Joshua’s T-cell count is low. Alarmingly low. So, so low (HIV Medication Basics). It will take the doctor five minutes to determine that Joshua has AIDS, but he will sit in his office for ten more minutes while wondering how to present his patient with this finding. He will sit. He will think.
And when HIV evolves into AIDS, people no longer have to worry about the virus in their body twisting and proliferating—they have to worry about the hundreds of diseases and illnesses they are now exposed to, and helpless to defend against (Frequently Asked Questions Regarding AIDS). Joshua, like most people in his situation, will contract many of these diseases, some of them simultaneously with others. This is rising action happening now—these are all obstacles that the protagonist must conquer.
Joshua will contract pneumonia, caused by a buildup of bacterium in his respiratory system. When he coughs, he will notice a combination of blood and pus in his saliva (What is HIV Antiretroviral Treatment?).
Joshua will contract candidiasis, the throat and eye kind. He will get white sores in his throat and lose partial vision in his left eye, although this could also be a result of the cytomegalovirus Joshua will also contract. The doctors can’t be sure (What is HIV Antiretroviral Treatment?).
Joshua will contract cryptococcosis, which will mature into meningitis. Joshua will almost die from this, but he will be treated just in time to survive (What is HIV Antiretroviral Treatment?). The medication he will purchase in order to survive will cost a little over twenty thousand dollars (FDA Approved Drugs).
Joshua will contract histoplasmosis, and will have a fever of one hundred and five degrees for a period of two weeks, during which time he will lose about forty pounds. He will never regain this weight (What is HIV Antiretroviral Treatment?).
Joshua will contract pneumocystis pneumonia at least three times. He will experience chafing of the anus and throat resulting from fits of vomiting and diarrhea, which will often occur simultaneously. On occasions like these, Joshua will be faced with the difficult choice of determining which bodily fluid will make it into the toilet: his feces, or his vomit (What is HIV Antiretroviral Treatment?).
On his thirty-eighth birthday, Joshua’s friends will take him out to dinner. Joshua will contract toxoplasmosis from the medium-well steak he will eat that night, which will cause his brain to slowly deteriorate until the day he dies. If Joshua had lived to be forty-seven, he would’ve developed Alzheimer’s (What is HIV Antiretroviral Treatment?).
Joshua will appear to have mycobacterium avium complex, but he will actually have tuberculosis. This will go untreated for several months, during which time the disease will work its way from Joshua’s lungs to Joshua’s spinal cord, neck, and joints. Every one of Joshua’s movements will be more painful than the last (What is HIV Antiretroviral Treatment?).
Joshua contracts all these diseases, and several more. And if it weren’t for a steady stream of medication, Joshua would most surely be dead by now. But even though he is thankful to be alive, it is around this time that Joshua begins to wonder: Am I only alive now so that I may continue to suffer? Because as wonderful and miraculous as this medication is that’s keeping Joshua alive, they are having no effect on the virus in his body. They are having no effect on his AIDS. Nothing will. Pill after pill, treatment after treatment, AIDS overcomes all of them.
Climax.
The only thing more distressing than the fact that AIDS currently has no cure, is the fact that AIDS will never have a cure. This isn’t a statement of pessimism or nihilism, even though I am known to make such statements—this is a sad and horrifying statement of fact. Do you remember what I told you to remember? Do you remember the part of the story where the viral DNA mutated due to the cellular fusion between the virus particle and the cell membrane, like I told you to? Because this is why AIDS has no cure: the rapid and constant mutation of HIV’s DNA creates so many different strains of the same virus due to millions of mutations that no vaccine or medication could possibly be created that could anticipate all the forms the virus might take. Never. Is this realization beginning to strike you? Are you beginning to become concerned? Within a single person there exists several thousand variations of HIV, all of which are unique to that one person. HIV is expanding and evolving faster than human technology could ever hope to, and the reason is simple genetic variability, the same kind that makes every human unique (Frequently Asked Questions Regarding AIDS).
And because AIDS has no cure, because there can never even be a hope of a cure, Joshua dies, as do all people with AIDS. And yes, what literally kills him is his shattered immune system, the virus ravaging his blood and body, and the dozens of diseases he contracted. But what truly finishes him off, what finally beats his body and soul into that final submission is this sense of hopelessness he feels, this knowledge of defeat he has felt since the day he learned he had AIDS. Because with no hope of living, what is there to live for? Joshua dies, leaving millions more like him, and millions more who will contract the disease within the next year.
And if we look at Joshua’s story and determine Joshua to be the main character, we see a rather disturbing story arc, because every time something good is supposed to happen to Joshua something bad happens instead. Joshua’s story is a tragedy. But if we make the main character of this story AIDS, we notice the converse effect: AIDS’ story arc is the opposite of Joshua’s, always going up. And so it is this writer’s opinion that in the story where AIDS overcomes obstacles in the form of human medical technology, in the story where body cells sacrifice themselves for their viral children, where AIDS conquers both the human body and the human soul, a love story is being told.
And even though Joshua is fictitious, his story is one that has been told millions of times. And yet, despite the timelessness of this story and its inevitability, people continue to act as if they know nothing about it. It is in this heartbreaking fact that AIDS’ lover is revealed, for if AIDS’ story is a love story, then it follows that AIDS must have someone to love. It is the people who act without knowing, or worse, without caring—who hear of AIDS and the devastation it causes, of the pain and the sorrow—and force themselves to forget, to forget, to forget…to forget what they’ve heard, and continue with their lives as if nothing has changed…nothing is wrong…and nothing could ever decay. These are the people with whom AIDS is in love, from whom AIDS gains its strength and determination to overcome obstacle after obstacle, to grow and mutate and evolve into something so strong that no force could stop it, save the force of collected realization.
And the only thing I fear worse than these pathetic words of mine being forgotten or ignored is the possibility that I have actually said something new, something unheard of and thus foreign—something that has not been thought of before. Because if that is the case, then we are all—very much—doomed. This is the resolution.
Works Cited
“FDA Approved Drugs.” AIDSinfo. 1 Feb. 2007. US Department of Health and Human
Services. 18 Feb. 2007 .
“Frequently Asked Questions Regarding AIDS.” AIDS.ORG. 2007. Community of Partners. 18
Feb. 2007 .
Goldman, Bonnie. “HIV Medication Basics.” The Body: The Complete AIDS/HIV Resource. 18
Feb. 2007. Body Health Resources Corporation. 18 Feb. 2007 .
Grossman, Dr. Howard. “Treatment for HIV and AIDS.” AIDSMeds.com. 24 Aug. 2005. 18
Feb. 2007 .
“What is HIV Antiretroviral Treatment?” AVERT: Averting HIV and AIDS. 22 Jan. 2007. 18
Feb. 2007 .
Draft 1
I know I’m going to sound pretentious for saying this. I’m telling you in advance that I’m aware of this, meaning that sounding pretentious is something I always try to avoid, but this time I really can’t avoid it, because this is what I honestly believe:
The story I am about to tell is most likely the most important story ever told. And yes, I felt pretentious saying that.
I don’t know the setting of the story, but it might be Africa. Also, I don’t know the main character of the story, but it might be a monkey. Any monkey really. Let’s say a chimpanzee. Okay, I don’t know the time period the story takes place in, either, but let’s say it’s the 1940’s, just for fun. If you’re thinking right now that this story sounds incomplete or half-baked, you’re probably right. I guess right now the story isn’t really all that great. Here’s where it starts to pick up: somewhere around that time, somewhere in that general area, and maybe with a monkey that might’ve been a chimpanzee, a few microscopic particles (which sort of are, but sort of aren’t alive) entered the bloodstream of a random human. The human might’ve been named Carl. Or Paul. But definitely not Clifford. Maybe. Truth is, all of this is just sort of speculation right now, sorry. I’m not much of a storyteller. Skip ahead to the 1960’s and the story starts to become more complete: some scientists name the particle HIV, and HIV begins to evolve into something scientists name AIDS, which is, very secretly, being passed from human to human. No one knows how it got there in the first place, but no one really seems to care. But around this time, the scientists begin realizing that the people they diagnosed with HIV and AIDS are all dying, rather rapidly.
Skip ahead to the year 2000: there are over 750,000 documented cases of AIDS in the United States alone.
Skip ahead to today: Out of those 750,000 documented cases, nearly 450,000 of them have since died. Worldwide, it is estimated that at least 40 million people have AIDS.
If AIDS was the main character of this story, then this would be a love story.
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is the evolved form of the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus, better known as HIV. HIV is spread through fluid exchanges (sexual intercourse, blood transfusions, sharing needles, etc.), and once it enters the body, it has an eight to eleven year incubation period during which none of the symptoms of affliction are visible, yet the host is still able to spread the disease. During this period, the virus absorbs into the bloodstream where it attaches to cells of the body’s immune system (primarily macrophages and CD4 T-cells). HIV works similarly as other viruses do: a virus particle attaches to the surface of a body cell and injects its own DNA into the nucleus of the cell, destroying that of the host cell, although in some cases the virus simply mutates the host’s DNA through a complex process of RNA transcription and protein exchange. However, unlike other virus strains, the DNA that HIV injects into host cells is done so through a form of cellular fusion. This, in turn, causes the genetic variability of the viral DNA to dramatically increase. In fact, HIV’s alarmingly large genetic variability is what makes the virus incurable; most viruses can be cured using vaccines (composed of dead virus particles) which attack the virus in the body based on the limited genetic variability of the virus itself. With HIV, however, no vaccine can be produced which would anticipate the enormous genetic variability of the disease, especially since the viral strain is constantly expanding, becoming even more varied with every infection.
As the virus incubates within the body, it also forces cells to manufacture more viruses by overriding the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi complexes of the host cell. As soon as a host cell births a new virus (which is expelled from the host cell, free to infect another cell), the host cell essentially implodes on itself. Over the course of the incubation period, HIV destroys more and more of the body’s immune system by systematically destroying CD4 T-cells and producing more virus particles. After a time, the body’s immune system is so fractured that even the smallest ailment, such as the common cold, completely overwhelms the body’s immune system. At this point, the HIV is considered to have evolved into AIDS. AIDS, unlike HIV, is considered to be a syndrome rather than a virus, meaning that AIDS is characterized by opportunistic infection and disease rather than just the proliferation of virus particles within the body. In short, what people with AIDS worry about isn’t the expanding virus within their body, but rather the any number of diseases they are now completely exposed to, and helpless to fight off. People don’t die of AIDS, per se, so much as they die from sicknesses they were unable to fight off because their immune systems were completely destroyed by AIDS.
Works Cited
“FDA Approved Drugs.” AIDSinfo. 1 Feb. 2007. US Department of Health and Human
Services. 18 Feb. 2007 .
“Frequently Asked Questions Regarding AIDS.” AIDS.ORG. 2007. Community of Partners. 18
Feb. 2007 .
Goldman, Bonnie. “HIV Medication Basics.” The Body: The Complete AIDS/HIV Resource. 18
Feb. 2007. Body Health Resources Corporation. 18 Feb. 2007 .
Grossman, Dr. Howard. “Treatment for HIV and AIDS.” AIDSMeds.com. 24 Aug. 2005. 18
Feb. 2007 .
“What is HIV Antiretroviral Treatment?” AVERT: Averting HIV and AIDS. 22 Jan. 2007. 18
Process Memo
We were asked to write a research paper on the topic of our choosing. Topics chosen in my class ranged from the amusing (an analysis of Tupac’s alleged “death”) to the esoteric (the growth patterns of certain breeds of peyote cacti in the Southwest region). One kid did his paper on why he felt his roommate Paul “totally sucked.” The topic I selected, however, was probably the most exhaustedly studied topic I could’ve chosen. Having said that, the more I researched AIDS, and the more I began to construct my paper, the more detached I felt from AIDS.
This means that even though I understood the nature of the disease, it’s symptoms, it’s treatments, it’s statistics, I didn’t know the first thing about having AIDS, or having to pay for treatments, or being a statistic. As far as I’ve known, I’ve never even met anyone who had AIDS! When I re-read the awful first draft of my research paper I was appalled with how disturbingly removed from my subject I was. Yes, the worst epidemic the world has ever known, and I was stupid enough to feel like I had nothing to do with it.
So what I attempted to do with my research paper on one of the tritest, most overdone topics imaginable was to humanize AIDS. By framing the information about AIDS in a loose dramatic structure I felt I was doing something that newspapers and medical journals had long neglected to do—I felt I was making AIDS relatable. For actual good examples of this refer to Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia or Tony Kushner’s Angels In America.
Q: So, does that make my paper dreadfully preachy? A: Good God yes!
So how can I justify this? Because it’s something I feel strongly about. And when I feel strongly about something, the words seem to flow much, much easier than before. And when it comes to writing, that’s the main thing anyways.