In 80s/90s genre fiction there were a lot of AIDS-analogue epidemic viruses, I picked that up at the time and patted myself on the back for noticing\ufffc, now I’m picking out exactly how they used them, what particular period themes they were invoking
Like, Johnny Mnemonic’s NAS was AIDS \u2013 and neoliberalism, how big social challenges like plague were now processed through corporate forms and imperatives
The X-Men’s Legacy Virus was AIDS as Gay Plague, the thing that shows up to interrupt the minority group’s mainstreaming and introduce tragedy to their lives
This one ‘97 book Sewer Gas & Electric, a bit further afield, there had been a (secretly engineered) virus that killed off black people just as android servants became a thing, so there was no one to complain people wildly preferred them in black, I think a lot of that was invoking how with AIDS for queers and “urban decay” for blacks a lot of the '80s “Reagan Revolution” reaction was just “Aah, those upstarts we were worried about got rekt, huh? Well, that resolves that plotline.”
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