Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 11:55:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: Drew Bittner <drewbitt at yahoo.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Time Traveling Docs - any short stories come to  mind?
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Hmm... syphillis has had an effect on our society, but
I think there could be traction in a
Black-Death-replaced-by-AIDS tale. Sex itself could be
an act of courage (or social defiance).
The effects of the Black Death on our society were
profound but so much a part of our culture that we
don't even see them-- the image of Death as the Grim
Reaper is only one of them.
Again, hmm.
Drew

--- "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com> wrote:
> At 09:17 AM 4/12/05 -0700, Drew Bittner wrote:
> >It's probably a pretty commonplace medical theme in
> >sf.
> >But how would the Middle Ages cope with AIDS? How
> >would that distort our society (as the Black Death
>
> This isn't really a theoretical question.  Just
> check actual history, but
> concentrate on Syphilis rather than AIDS.  A disease
> you get from sex that
> drives you slowly mad and then kills you?  Sounds
> close enough.
>
> What was the response?  Strong taboos against
> pre-marital sex and
> infidelity?  Stoning people for adultery?  Strong
> marriage customs?
> Religion becomes the enforcer and maintainer of
> these customs and therefore
> grows in power?  Casual sex seen as "deviant" and
> "decadent", despite the
> biology of the species being in favor of it?  Social
> tension results from
> this conflict of desire and fear with all sorts of
> unhealthy outcomes?
>
> Yes, there are some other biological reasons for the
> restrictions on sexual
> activity too (mostly being certain whose kids were
> whose and that mates
> would stick around to raise them), but a threat of
> death by disease is a
> good stimulus to actually abide by and insist on
> keeping the taboos.  If
> you ask me, the "free love" of the 60s was as much a
> result of penicillin
> as it was The Pill.
>
> -- Mike B.
> --
> We're lost, but we're making good time.
>

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