Vampires and Vaccinations

Eula Biss's On Immunity is an interesting book, and one not easily categorized.

Part medical journalism, part cultural theory, part literary criticism, part memoir, it reflects on the historical, socio-economic, and moral forces that shape the conversation around vaccination and public health.

Though the author is clearly and straightforwardly pro-vaccination (and pro-required-vaccinations), she does not caricature or castigate those with whom she disagrees.  She tries to explain, if not entirely without critique then at least without rancor, what sense anti-vaccination movements might be trying to make.

She accounts for fears that are more subtle (and less easy to disprove) than the fear of autism (which is the only anti-vax fear that gets much play time in public discourse).  Most of these fears seem more morally pernicious than the autism-fear.  While the autism-fear springs from a garden variety distrust of government, energized by an apparently spurious "scientific" finding, these more subtle fears seem to spring from some combination of racial, gender, socioeconomic, and xenophobic impulses.

They're fears that find interestingly medical expression in, for example, Bram Stoker's Dracula.  (I'm sure there are other sci-fi and literary works that might also be worthwhile comparisons, but Dracula nicely captures the spirit of the moment.  Vampire stories are so trendy, even when they're over a hundred years old.)

Her interweaving of different discourses (cultural theory, literary criticism, moral philosophy, etc.) is relatively skillful, but I felt at times as if she were dabbling in all of them and allowing none of them sufficient time to say something truly powerful.

I was intrigued by most of the different threads she was trying to weave together, though.  I'm not sure I felt terribly enlightened about vaccinations or about society in general, but I was left really, really wanting to read Dracula.

What I'm watching.

I was looking for a video clip that would help my students understand the concept of the social construction of identity, and I chanced across this Colbert Report clip featuring Toni Morrison.


What a beautiful and gentle conversation.

I love how he is so awed by her presence that he can't even slip into his brash persona until about halfway through.

I love how gently she offers insights that could have been shouted accusingly--she invites us into a better world rather than castigating us for not being there already.

I love how her soft, lyrical, powerful voice calls forth an answering delicacy in his.