Reading Sontag is an experience of extraordinary clarity and lucidity, which are themselves powerful enough that it is easy to imagine that Sontag is declaring an unimpeachable, gospel-like Truth, and not simply a person sharing her opinions as best she can, because she believes they will be helpful. ( )

Le pongo cuatro porque el primer ensayo me parece excelso y el segundo muy desigual. Se nota la distancia en tiempo entre uno y otro, se nota que en el primero Sontag se estaba enfrentando a las metáforas del cáncer, mientras que el segundo viene a raíz de una enfermedad que en ese entonces aún era desconocida y que no es a la que se tienen que enfrentar la autora. Además después de la distancia una vez más en tiempo, las metáforas del primer ensayo siguen siendo cercanas y tristemente vigentes, mientras que la segunda ya está desfasada y rebasada. ( )

Dos ensayos que aún ejercen una gran influencia en la vida de pacientes y cuidadores. El cáncer y el sida son enfermedades todavía consideradas misteriosas. En torno a ellas, los prejuicios, las fobias y los miedos han tejido una red de complicadas metáforas que dificultan su comprensión y, a veces, su cura. Este volumen reúne dos libros imprescindibles para entender las fantasías punitivas creadas alrededor de dos enfermedades características de nuestra época.

“Modern disease metaphors specify an ideal of society’s wellbeing, analogised to physical health, that is frequently anti-political as it is a call for a new political order.”

Illness as Metaphor & AIDS and Its Metaphors is an eloquently incisive dissection of how diseases used as metaphors limit, twist, and bring forth several other meanings that can jeopardise and vaporise their medical definition. This, in turn, can have a strange, harmful effect to people who have these diseases and the people within their “communities.” More than that the usage of metaphors not only in a literary sense but also to the advantage of any political agenda (to alienate/isolate a minority, incite ridiculous fear to the public, et cetera), the romanticisation/stigmatisation of these diseases along their accompanied demise are fascinatingly magnificent additions to their history of metaphors throughout the years.

Sontag, although perhaps a bit repetitive here and there, is seamless: from tuberculosis as a fashion trend, a standard beauty in all its pale and sallow, gaunt glory, cancer as an overused metaphor (ex., as “unqualifiedly and unredeemably wicked”) which mentally affects patients with cancer and its further association to a type of extremism that causes displacement and discrimination (ex. “Islam is spreading like cancer”) to the AIDS epidemic in ‘80s US where it's labelled as the “gay plague” and how this perpetuated, exacerbated the already ingrained hatred and prejudice on top of the government’s intentional inaction. This painfully claimed a lot of lives. Sadly, bigoted beliefs still exist today in those who choose to be ignorant and stupid. And similar to what’s currently happening, there is a pattern of justified discrimination, this time of a racial kind, with the initial identification of COVID19 in Hubei, China. Asians—Chinese and people mistaken as Chinese (because of people’s narrow idea of what Asians look like and the lack of geographical knowledge)—are subjected to verbal abuse even physical violence across the globe. And this doesn’t stop there, people of colour also receive worse, little to no medical attention because of the implicit social hierarchy established particularly in western countries. This slim book does not end here, it inspects countless of metaphors I'm afraid to blabber about.

By the end, Sontag's polemic is unforgettably powerful and strikingly remains frighteningly relevant during this pandemic we are all in. It is despairing that she predicts these metaphors will be obsolete in the future, maybe it's indeed better, but it seems to me they only pile up like clothes in an otherwise already full closet, metaphors we use at our disposal without critically thinking of their lasting impact. ( )

I feel like this book would have been extremely amazing when it was first published, however, I am not sure it has 'aged' that well. It would be amazing to see a follow-up text, especially in relation to the AIDS epidemic today. ( )