52 RüdigerKunow
Althusser's insistence on the aleatory and contingent character of
such encounters while insisting also on their material effects is a good
way of describing the peculiar dynamics at work also in moments of
biological encounter. Here, the unanticipated and at the same time
transformative nature of such encounters challenges the ability of
individualsandcommunitiestointegratethemintoavailablearchivesof
interpretation. Biological encounters are lived, oftentimes lived (and
suffered)through,buttheyareneversimply"there"asanobjectthatcan
be seen, smelled, or touched, and most importantly, fully understood in
all its aspects. With regard to the most emphatic examplesof biological
encounters, epidemic diseases,^7 these are often experienced as coming
"from nowhere," like a bolt out of the blue, and even epidemiologists
havetroublesometimestoestablishcausativechains.^8
Overagainsttheusualconstructionofcausesandcontinuitiesinsuch
moments, Althusser suggests all that can usefully be said at such
moments is "[w]hat happens is that 'there are encounters'" (Althusser,
Philosophy191), aleatory and contingent, not only in terms of their
origin but also in their effects which remain for the most part
unpredictable.Accordingly,asAlthusserputsit, "the materialismofthe
encounter is the materialism, not of the subject (be it God or the
proletariat) but of a process, a process that itself has no subject, yet
imposes itself on subjects (individual or others).. ." (Althusser,
Philosophy190).^9 Suchanunderstandingofencounter,broadlysketched
(^7) I am applying the term broadly here, in keeping with the usage in the medical
domainwhere"epidemics"aredefinedas"[s]udden[o]utbreaksofa[d]iseasein
acountryorregionnotpreviouslyrecognizedinthatarea,orarapidincreasein
the number of new cases of a previous existing [e]ndemic [d]isease. Epidemics
can also refer to [o]utbreaks of [d]isease in [a]nimal or [p]lant [p]opulations"
("Epidemic"n.pag.).
(^8) The French writer and dramatist Artaud has repeatedly dwelt on the cultural
impactofinfectiousdiseases.Henotes:"Ifonewishedtoanalyzecloselyallthe
factsofplaguecontagionthathistoryorevenmemoirsprovideuswith,itwould
be difficult to isolate one actually verified instance of contagion by contact"
(18).
(^9) Althusser's point, taken on another occasion, about a "process without telos or
subject" (qtd. in Jameson,Political Unconscious29) is similarly useful here