Ground Zero (book)

Last updated

Ground Zero (1988) is a book of essays by Andrew Holleran. [1] The title refers to a catastrophic disaster in Lower Manhattan, namely the havoc wrought by AIDS in the 1980s among gay men. Holleran's essays are by turns thoughtful, reflective, angry, frustrated, and mournful in the extreme. Particularly notable are the twin essays "Notes on Promiscuity" and "Notes on Celibacy," each of which is a collection of provocative aphorisms.

In 2008, the book was reissued, with ten additional essays and a new introduction, under the title Chronicle of a Plague, Revisited: AIDS and Its Aftermath. [2] [3] [4]

Notes

  1. Lucy Bregman (2010). Religion, Death, and Dying. ABC-CLIO. p. 92. ISBN   978-0-313-35180-8.
  2. Lemon, B. (1988-11-21). "Holleran: Ground Zero. Gray-Haired Youth". Nation. 247 (15): 538–540.
  3. Sheppard, R.z. (1988-07-18). "Journals of the Plague Years Three books reveal the risks and rewards of writing about AIDS". TIME Magazine. 132 (3): 68.
  4. Wolfe, Kathi (2008-06-27). "'Ground Zero,' 20 Years Later". New York Blade. 12 (26): 18–25.

Related Research Articles

Allan David Bloom was an American philosopher, classicist, and academician. He studied under David Grene, Leo Strauss, Richard McKeon, and Alexandre Kojève. He subsequently taught at Cornell University, the University of Toronto, Tel Aviv University, Yale University, the École normale supérieure, and the University of Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Ludlam</span> American actor, director, and playwright (1943 – 1987)

Charles Braun Ludlam was an American actor, director, and playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaëtan Dugas</span> Canadian flight attendant, long misidentified as the index case of the North American AIDS Crisis

Gaëtan Dugas was a Québécois Canadian flight attendant whose role in the early years of the AIDS epidemic attracted considerable attention. Initially identified as a central figure labeled "Patient Zero", Dugas faced allegations of being a primary source of HIV transmission to the United States. This narrative, popularized notably by Randy Shilts' 1987 book And the Band Played On, has been refuted through subsequent scientific scrutiny and historical re-evaluation. Dugas' story highlights the perils of misinformation and the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS in the 1980s. Despite facing criticism in popular discourse, subsequent studies have provided a more nuanced understanding of Dugas' impact on the epidemic, emphasizing the importance of accuracy and empathy in public health narratives.

<i>Cities of the Red Night</i> 1981 novel by William S. Burroughs

Cities of the Red Night is a 1981 novel by American author William S. Burroughs. His first full-length novel since The Wild Boys (1971), it is part of his final trilogy of novels, known as The Red Night Trilogy, followed by The Place of Dead Roads (1983) and The Western Lands (1987). The plot involves a group of radical pirates who seek the freedom to live under the articles set out by Captain James Misson. In near present day, a parallel story follows a detective searching for a lost boy, abducted for use in a sexual ritual. The cities of the title mimic and parody real places, and Burroughs makes references to the United States, Mexico, and Morocco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randy Shilts</span> American journalist and writer (1951–1994)

Randy Shilts was an American journalist and author. After studying journalism at the University of Oregon, Shilts began working as a reporter for both The Advocate and the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as for San Francisco Bay Area television stations. In the 1980s, he was noted for being the first openly gay reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle.

This is a timeline of HIV/AIDS, including but not limited to cases before 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Holleran</span> American novelist, essayist, and short story writer

Andrew Holleran is the pseudonym of Eric Garber, an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer, born on the island of Aruba. Most of his adult life has been spent in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a small town in Florida. He was a member of The Violet Quill with Christopher Cox, a gay writer's group that met in 1980 and 1981 and also included Robert Ferro, Edmund White and Felice Picano. Following the critical and financial success of his first novel Dancer from the Dance in 1978, he became a prominent author of post-Stonewall gay literature. Historically protective of his privacy, the author continues to use the pseudonym Andrew Holleran as a writer and public speaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Doty</span> American poet and memoirist (born 1953)

Mark Doty is an American poet and memoirist best known for his work My Alexandria. He was the winner of the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008.

Ground zero describes the point on the Earth's surface closest to a nuclear detonation. In the case of an explosion above the ground, ground zero refers to the point on the ground directly below the nuclear detonation.

The index case or patient zero is the first documented patient in a disease epidemic within a population, or the first documented patient included in an epidemiological study. It can also refer to the first case of a condition or syndrome to be described in the medical literature, whether or not the patient is thought to be the first person affected. An index case can achieve the status of a "classic" case study in the literature, as did Phineas Gage, the first known person to exhibit a definitive personality change as a result of a brain injury.

<i>Christopher Street</i> (magazine) Gay-oriented magazine published in New York City

Christopher Street was an American gay-oriented magazine published in New York City, New York, by Charles Ortleb. It was founded in 1976 by Ortleb and Michael Denneny, an openly gay editor in book publishing. Two years later, the magazine had a circulation of 20,000 and annual revenues of $250,000. Known both for its serious discussion of issues within the gay community and its satire of anti-gay criticism, it was one of the two most widely read gay-issues publications in the United States. Christopher Street covered politics and culture and its aim was to become a gay equivalent of The New Yorker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Ferro</span> American writer

Robert Ferro was an American novelist whose semi-autobiographical fiction explored the uneasy integration of homosexuality and traditional American upper middle class values.

The Violet Quill was a group of seven gay male writers that met in 1980 and 1981 in New York City to read from their writings to each other and to critique them. This group and the writers epitomize the years between the Stonewall Riots and the beginning of the AIDS pandemic.

John Douglas Crimp was an American art historian, critic, curator, and AIDS activist. He was known for his scholarly contributions to the fields of postmodern theories and art, institutional critique, dance, film, queer theory, and feminist theory. His writings are marked by a conviction to merge the often disjunctive worlds of politics, art, and academia. From 1977 to 1990, he was the managing editor of the journal October. Before his death, Crimp was Fanny Knapp Allen Professor of Art History and professor of Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester.

<i>And the Band Played On</i> 1987 book by Randy Shilts

And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic is a 1987 book by San Francisco Chronicle journalist Randy Shilts. The book chronicles the discovery and spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) with a special emphasis on government indifference and political infighting—specifically in the United States—to what was then perceived as a specifically gay disease. Shilts's premise is that AIDS was allowed to happen: while the disease is caused by a biological agent, incompetence and apathy toward those initially affected allowed its spread to become much worse.

The Beauty of Men is a 1996 novel by Andrew Holleran, about Lark, a 47-year-old single gay man, who has moved to Florida to help care for his mother, who became paralyzed after a fall.

<i>One Hundred Years of Homosexuality</i> 1990 book by David M. Halperin

One Hundred Years of Homosexuality: and other essays on Greek love is a 1990 book about homosexuality in ancient Greece by the classicist David M. Halperin, in which the author supports the social constructionist school of thought associated with the French philosopher Michel Foucault. The work has been praised by several scholars, but criticized by others, some of whom have attributed to Halperin the view that the coining of the word "homosexuality" in the nineteenth century brought homosexuality into existence. The book was often reviewed alongside John J. Winkler's The Constraints of Desire (1990).

<i>How to Survive a Plague</i> 2012 American documentary film by David France

How to Survive a Plague is a 2012 American documentary film about the early years of the AIDS epidemic, and the efforts of activist groups ACT UP and TAG. It was directed by David France, a journalist who covered AIDS from its beginnings. France's first film, it was dedicated to his partner Doug Gould who died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1992.

Michael John Estok (1939–1989) was a Canadian poet. He was best known for his posthumous collection A Plague Year Journal, considered one of the crucial works of HIV/AIDS literature in Canada.

<i>Nebraska</i> (novel) 1987 novel

Nebraska is a 1987 gay novel by American author George Whitmore. It is a coming of age story about Craig McMullen, a boy in Nebraska who lost his leg in a car accident, and the development of his sexual identity. It received positive reviews in the gay press for its discomforting plot, and he died two years after it was written.