64 RüdigerKunow
appropriate counter-measures simply because such measures come late,
ifnotaltogethertoolate.
The unique combination in biological encounters ofinvisibilityand
delayedimpactis part of the temporality of infectious diseases—and
alsothebasisfortheiroftenimmensesocialandculturalresonances,the
imaginative surplus of which I have been speaking. The often frantic
and collective production of interpretive expedients, even stopgaps,
reflects a further challenge, this time a methodological one for cultural
critique, namely that of finding ways to theorize the mutual
determinations of material, i.e., biological processes and cultural forms,
including their possible modification. At this point, a curious affinity
may suggest itself to some, between the temporality of biological
encounters and that of deconstruction: both work by series of deferral,
by the ever-anew postponement, the term of choice is "deferral," of
stablemeaning.Whilesuchareadingmaycapturesomeofthetemporal
urgencies of people's search for explanations in moments of medical
crisis, it does not address a problem that is in my view more
fundamental,theproblemofrepresentation.
As could be seen above, biological encounters remain mostly
invisible without sophisticated technical apparatuses. The agents
involved in such encounters are microscopically small, the moments of
actual contact brief and too small to notice while the effects manifest
themselves only after a lapse of time. For all these reasons, such
encounterscanfindrepresentationonlybyproxy, represented,asitwere,
by representing something else. Most, if not all knowledge of these
encountersintheculturalarchivesisthereforemetaphorical,ifnoteven
catachrestic,astheproverbialtropeofthe"Trojanhorse."Thewordswe
use to describe processes of biological encounters insist on but nearly
always miss the subcutaneous realities they seek to bring to the broad
daylightofsharedexperienceandconventionalmodesofexpression.
What is more, given the high stakes involved in most biological
encounters, these experiences (have) enter(ed) the public domain in
termsladenwithaffect.Theexamplesmostreadilycomingtomindhere
are probably those discursive formations which organize themselves
aroundnotionsof"purityanddanger."AsMaryDouglasinherbookby
that title has shown, the concern with purity is central for all kinds of
socialandculturalformations,andpurityisoftenassociatedwithhealth.
Forthisreason,sheargues,the