Book Review: Journals of the Plague Years by Norman Spinrad

Journals of the Plague Years by Norman Spinrad

Paperback, 164 pages

Published August 1st 1995 by Spectra (first published 1990)

As a long time fan of Spinrad this book has been on my list for years. As a high concept dystopia written during the height of the AIDS crisis this novel is an important touchstone of how the genre dealt with AIDS. Did anyone else even touch this issue? Who would have the courage? I suspect if PKD had lived longer we might have gotten an AIDS allegory from him. None the less without ever using the A-word Spinrad delivers a truly underrated masterpiece of totally bonkers political speculative fiction.

It is important for those who were not alive at the time to understand what the atmosphere was like in the AIDS crisis. It was a scary time the disease killed so many in the early years it was a death sentence, compared to today when we have famous people like Magic Johnson who have lived with the disease for twenty years. AIDS fiction from the era like the film Philadelphia starring Tom Hanks or the mini-series "When we Rise" paint a picture but it is really interesting to see how Spinrad explores the issue.

Presented with a fictional introduction dated as from 2143 in a place called Luna City. I think the implication Spinrad was going for that these journal entries were compiled far in the future. The fictional introduction was written as if it was history is a tactic NS has used before most notably in his classic The Iron Dream. In the afterword, Spinrad explained that this book is actually what he considered originally as an outline for a novel. Spinrad's publisher told him it was an amazing outline but didn't think he could sell it as a stand-alone novel but offered to publish it in a collection.

It is written as a series of journals entries by four witnesses close to the events during the last years of the Plague in question. It might seem crazy in hindsight but Spinrad jumps off from that scary time to imagine a future where the idea of sex itself is so scary that very few "share meat" as it is disgustingly named in the book. Most have sex with machines until they become infected and then it is free love. San Francisco is one large Quarantine zone and orgy while the streets of the rest of America are patrolled by Sex Police.

I mean the back cover description almost under-states the weird nature of this book:

"The Plague's origins were mysterious, but its consequences were all too obvious: quarantined cities, safe-sex machines, Sex Police, the outlawing of old-fashioned love. Four people hold the fate of humanity in their hands... A sexual mercenary condemned to death as a foot soldier in the Army of the Living Dead; a scientist who's devoted his whole life to destroying the virus and now discovers he has only ten weeks to succeed; a God-fearing fundamentalist on his way to the presidency before he accepts a higher calling; and a young infected coed from Berkeley on a bizarre crusade to save the world with a new religion of carnal abandon. Each will discover that the only thing more dangerous than the Plague is the cure."

I can see why many publishers were afraid to touch this. The conclusions and ideas contained in this novel are by their nature confrontational and at times scary and gross. It is in the tradition of political science fiction like the Handmaid's Tale that takes extreme paths of speculation to make a point. It is a pessimistic novel that also sees the drug companies suppressing a cure, and a congressman with a plan to nuke the free-love Bay area.

Spinrad had a novel with a sex-fueled FTL drive and here magic sex performed by a woman know as Our Lady of Love is spreading the cure by sleeping with those dying from the plague. I am aware that has a weird male wish fulfillment to it, but I got over that. For the most part this is just a strange bizarro political sci-fi novel that deserves more attention then it has gotten. The number of hot-takes and crazy ideas per page are off the charts. This is one of the most gonzo sci-fi novels I have read in some time but it is also tragically thoughtful. I am way into.

Stay tuned for a bonus episode of Dickheads about this novel featuring Longtime activist and journalist Mark Conlon... recording soon not sure when it will drop.