Saturday, August 28, 2010
Bugchasing
While reading The Coldest Girl in Coldtown I kept getting this feeling that I'd read something like it before. As it turned out, I had, but it wasn't fiction. Lydia's character reminded me of a phenomenon called "bugchasing", where people seek to become infected with the HIV virus. Some of the terminology used in bugchasing even arises in the story; the Eternal ball shares some qualities with "Bug parties"(gatherings of chasers and carriers) and vampirism, which is regarded as a gift in a lot of vampire mythology, is similar to the term "gift givers", the term used to describe HIV+ people. It isn't a perfect comparison, but I thought it was interesting how closely science fiction could approach the real world.
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4 comments:
Dude...I can understand how people in the story wanted to become vampires with benefits of eternal life and an endless party, but wanting HIV? Who wantes HIV?
Fascinating. Caleb has a point. Why would anyone want certain death as opposed to eternal life? Then again...how many vampires do you think are probably infected with HIV with all the blood they drink? It's a funny thought :)
Wow, I've never heard of that. That's ridiculous that anyone would want to become infected with HIV. But it is very reminiscent of the story in a twisted way. Very interesting catch.
This story reminded me of something as well but I can't quite put my finger on it... But wanting HIV? That is crazy! That's just pain and suffering with no benefits I can see. Did any of your information about this bugchasing thing include reasons why people want to be infected by HIV?
And, that almost makes me wonder if the author had heard about that and wrote the story with the intention to compare it to bugchasing. Or maybe that's just pure coincidence.
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