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A review by patroclusbro
Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between by Joseph Osmundson
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
People who want to learn more about virology, queer history and cultural studies - buckle up, this one is for you!
Without doubt, Osmundson's undertaking to connect virological basics, an insight on the history and present of HIV/AIDS, the developments of the COVID-19 pandemic and his personal experience with each other, is an ambitious one.
Judging an essay collection is always difficult. From the eleven essays, two of which are co-authored, there were some that I found to be very precise and impactful and some I didn't like a lot.
I think that Osmundson's writing is strongest when he uses his expertise as a virologist to create big-hearted metaphors for how human bodies live with viruses. Where he builds upon the ideas of other thinkers (like José Esteban Muñoz, Audre Lorde, Susan Sontag, Alexander Chee, Joan Didion and more) the width of his approach becomes obvious. Where he formulates his own cultural and sociological ideas, I feel he dips too much into a humanistic type of pathos (which is, admittedly, not far-fetched considering the very US-american focus and nature of the book).
I must say that I was disappointed though that a book published in 2022 barely manages to speak about the realities of a presumed "post-covid" - both in regard of living with post/long covid or the tilt that for some people this pandemic is very much over, but for others, it is very much not. The essay "On Endings - Do Plages Ever End?" touched upon this a tiny bit. Drawing some real conclusions from the narrative of the "end of AIDS" would have been possible and needed to make it an impactful chapter. Instead, Osmundson focuses on remembrance of early COVID-19 experience only. There is no mention of the easily to be expected, continued exlusion of chronically ill, sick, immunocomprimised people in spaces that pretend that COVID-19 is no danger any more.
Nevertheless, overall, this is a very readable, very nerdy, very caring book! I learned a lot. It certainly deserves to be nominated for the LGBTQ+ Nonfiction Lambda Literary Award 2023.
Without doubt, Osmundson's undertaking to connect virological basics, an insight on the history and present of HIV/AIDS, the developments of the COVID-19 pandemic and his personal experience with each other, is an ambitious one.
Judging an essay collection is always difficult. From the eleven essays, two of which are co-authored, there were some that I found to be very precise and impactful and some I didn't like a lot.
I think that Osmundson's writing is strongest when he uses his expertise as a virologist to create big-hearted metaphors for how human bodies live with viruses. Where he builds upon the ideas of other thinkers (like José Esteban Muñoz, Audre Lorde, Susan Sontag, Alexander Chee, Joan Didion and more) the width of his approach becomes obvious. Where he formulates his own cultural and sociological ideas, I feel he dips too much into a humanistic type of pathos (which is, admittedly, not far-fetched considering the very US-american focus and nature of the book).
I must say that I was disappointed though that a book published in 2022 barely manages to speak about the realities of a presumed "post-covid" - both in regard of living with post/long covid or the tilt that for some people this pandemic is very much over, but for others, it is very much not. The essay "On Endings - Do Plages Ever End?" touched upon this a tiny bit. Drawing some real conclusions from the narrative of the "end of AIDS" would have been possible and needed to make it an impactful chapter. Instead, Osmundson focuses on remembrance of early COVID-19 experience only. There is no mention of the easily to be expected, continued exlusion of chronically ill, sick, immunocomprimised people in spaces that pretend that COVID-19 is no danger any more.
Nevertheless, overall, this is a very readable, very nerdy, very caring book! I learned a lot. It certainly deserves to be nominated for the LGBTQ+ Nonfiction Lambda Literary Award 2023.