TheMaterialismofBiologicalEncounters 133
aretheleadingcausesofdeathintheU.S.today,infectiousdiseasesand
more particularly the craze about MRSA (Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus) or this or that version of a superbug are getting
the lion's share of attention whenever media cover matters medical
(McKenna xii; Morris, Illness and Culture231; Tomes, "Epidemic
Entertainments" 630). And finally, the culturalization of (mass) disease
has given rise to a new narrative genre: nonfiction science writing (of
which we will see examples later on) whose agenda is nicely captured
by Susan Buck-Morss's term "anxieties of affluence" (25). This genre
can claim a great outreach into the general public but unfortunately has
prettymuchremainedundertheradarofculturalcritique.
DiseaseImaginariesandNarrativeForm
In these pages, it has been repeatedly argued that the processes
underlying infectious diseases do not devolve easily into the realm of
humanunderstanding.Atthesametime,thesediseasesregularlyunleash
epidemics of communication. These, too, must be counted among the
effects of which Althusser speaks when he sketches his concept of a
materialism of the encounter. In point of fact, the stories told about an
epidemicdiseaseare,nexttothehumanlosses,eventhemostimportant
effectssuchadiseasecanhave.
Contrary to what one might intuitively expect, casting disease
experience into cultural formats is not a daunting task after all. As the
historicalrecordshows,suchanexperiencenotonlyneedstobetoldbut
canin fact be told, can be cast into more than one of a panoply of
culturally variable formats. More particularly, narrative and mass
disease even go together very well; the "narrative impulse" (Jameson,
Antinomies8, 15) in human beings seems to have found congenial
subject matter there. Moreover, as the triumphs of "disease sell" in the
media listed above may already have informed us, narratives of mass
diseases cannot only be instructive but also highly entertaining—
providedoneisnotamongitsvictims.^87
(^87) It should not be overlooked that the Mallon case as it circulated in the public
domain interacted with already existing media products: "The new forms of
epidemicentertainmentthatemergedinthelate1800sreflectedtheconvergence