Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"In this extraordinary work of personal and social exploration, David Caron devises a new literary form that enables him to touch the reader with his HIV-positivity as well as a new ethics that explains why that touch is both necessary and desirable. Learned, witty, provocative, moving, edifying, and brilliantly written in a simple, conversational style, The
Nearness of Others demonstrates the intellectual advantages of being HIV-positive, which emerges from these pages less as a medical condition than as an epistemic one, a position from which it is possible to know the world and to make us see it differently. This is no longer cultural analysis of HIV, but cultural analysis by HIV. A significant breakthrough." —David Halperin, author of
How to Be Gay"Caron’s powerful and painful reflection on being HIV-positive in a postepidemic era is wrapped within layers of philosophical discourse, political reflections on Muslims becoming the social pariahs that people with AIDS once were, academic analysis of pertinent films and literature, and nostalgia for more permissive, more connected moments in gay culture." —
Library Journal "Accessible, sophisticated, and convincing... The Nearness of Others is the most important work ever written in this post-epidemic era because it is primarily a book of hope." —Times Literary Supplement
"By invoking Barbara Stanwyck, Nazi Germany and our sense of tactfulness, Caron shows us new ways to think about life with HIV." —POZ
Table of ContentsContents
DiagnosisI Got SlimFootnotesRB on TBAll AIDS, All the Time!It Is Tempting to ForgetNights You Can’t SleepDepression Is CrazyDepression and LifeDepression and MetaphorPassingDepression and IncongruityDepressed ThinkingMaking SensePolitical DiscomfortThinking of BleedingKids Say the Darndest ThingsNegative Logic and a Positive Point of View“How Can Plain Curiosity Be Unkind?”Towel Stories (I)Diabetes? Cholesterol? Something Else?The AIDS Crisis Is Not OverSpeaking of HIVOld Friends, New FriendsFamous Last WordsTough as Nail PolishNo TherapyUnspoken KnowledgeFrom Hervé Guibert’s Hospital Diary (I)Hospital VisitsFrom Hervé Guibert’s Hospital Diary (II)Star EntranceStar ExitThe Dream SequenceI Died a Thousand Deaths (All of Them Gorgeous)
OthersThe New WorldThree Thousand Deaths in One DayWaitingNearness and NeighborlinessBeckoning and AppealingIncomplete StrangersGround Zero“I’m Going to Die, Aren’t I?”Happy Hour at the CoxNaked Arab BodiesS-21Shaming the TorturersThe Modernity of TortureThe E.R. EpisodeTruth and TortureDining with French PeopleEncountering the StrangeTimes Square LostIn the City and OutFrom Public Schools to Public PoolsParticular BodiesThe Falling ManTowel Stories (II)One Drop of Blood
DisclosureShame and ExperienceThe Doorstep of ShameForget Your HealthDisclosures and SurfacesObama’s Disclosures, Forever DeferredChat (I)Chat (II)Adventures in Online CruisingOn the Question of Barebacking, Very BrieflyCoda to the Story of K***TouchinessReason to ExcludeThe Stories of AIDSAcademic TalkA Brief History of HIV/AIDS DisclosureFounding MothersLook Back in Anger (When AIDS Was All the Rage)Uttering AIDSWhere’s the Police When You Need ’Em?What I Said and How I Said ItThe Purloined LetterSo Am ISmall TalkI Know, It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll, But . . .Compatible DiscordanceThe Battlefield of the BodyDysclosureTowel Stories (III)
TasteIntimacy in PublicAccounting for TasteReembodiment and DiscomfortReentering the Movie TheaterMoving in Queer CirclesSpaces, People, and Actions (I)The Return of Tosca (Entr’acte)Spaces, People, and Actions (II)Again, Where’s the Police?
TactMy Contact in the UndergroundHostile Bodies (and the People Who Love Them)Sharing: From Disclosure to TactTact and Delicacy (I)TactlessnessTactful EncountersTact and Delicacy (II)The Shower SceneTact and Delicacy (III)Tact, Power, and the Police (I)Tact, Power, and the Police (II)Tact and ContaminationTact and SilenceTact and FailureTact and UnreasonThe Kindness of StrangersSunday in the Park with . . . ?The Yellow StarTact as Social MusicmakingA Fart Joke from ProustTouch and Other SensesImmodestyReentering the Movie Theater’s RestroomTact and IntimationFound Objects (I): Tact and Bearing Witness as Forms of BricolageTactfulness to the DeadFound Objects (II): Some Beauty
ContactLeaving the Door OpenThe Unexpected Coda: May 24, 2011
AcknowledgmentsNotesBibli
