Talk:Koolaids: The Art of War

Class: I got the page started by adding a brief sentence about the book. As you can see, even the short sentence I typed was flagged for not giving any citation (I could use Alameddine's website as a valid source for this sentence in particular). Jordan-you can delete what I wrote, I just wanted to have something down to get it started.

Cultural and Political References in Koolaids

HIV/AIDS in Koolaids

One of the major cultural references in the novel Koolaids is the disease HIV/AIDS. Almost every character in the story is related to the disease in some way. Alameddine’s characters constantly refer to HIV/AIDS related terms and the disease itself throughout the novel. Sometimes it is slight and other times it is quite obvious. The characters seem to have a non-chalant way of approaching the disease. At times it even seems like they do not care to inform the reader of the terms they use.

The first reference to HIV/AIDS is a “KS lesion” which is found on page 8. A “KS legion” is a Kaposi’s Sarcosi lesion, which form on various places of a person in a later stage of HIV/AIDS. The lesions are most visible and recognizable on skin, and therefore give away the HIV/AIDS status of the person who has them. Those who read the book and have no former experience with HIV/AIDS may not understand the terms. In this way of writing, Alammedine has a select audience that he writes to. Other HIV/AIDS vocabulary used throughout the novel are CMV retinitis (Cytomegalovirus retinitis), in which the infected person loses his or her eyesight. One of the narrators refers to this condition when talking of his friend who was an artist who stopped painting due to CMV retinitis. In this reference he sort of describes the condition by saying that his friend, “couldn’t see worth shit due to CMV retinitis” (10). One of the most impactful references to HIV/AIDS in the novel is short, nine sentences long. It says:

“So Billy Shakespeare was queer. Ronnie was the greatest president in history, right up there on Mount Rushmore. AIDS is mankind’s greatest plague. Israel only kills terrorists. American never bombed Lebanon. Jesus was straight. Judas and he were just friends. Roseanne’s parents molested her as an infant. Menachem Begin and Yasser Arafat deserved their Nobles. And Gaetan Dugas stated the AIDS epidemic”(12).

This short paragraph gives a good take on the controversies of society’s view of history, especially of HIV/AIDS . The lines are meant to encourage the reader to challenge these assumptions or accept them. For example, Shakespeare’s sexuality is a debate that has been raging for years. Ronnie is Ronald Reagan and the statement of him being the best president is very contentious. In Koolaids, Reagan is regularly referenced, and not in a positive light. The Gaetan Dugas sentence reflects on how many people and some falsely still think that Dugas started the entire epidemic. With these obviously inflammatory remarks, Alameddine grabs the reader’s attention and starts the novel off with an interesting section, which sets the mood for much of the book.

HIV/AIDS seems to just pop up throughout the novel and its notation is just as sporadic as other subjects in Koolaids. Treatments and symptoms are mentioned without serious thought and have a dark tone. The narrators talk about HIV/AIDS as if it is this modern day Apocalypse, that everyone will soon have. When oxygen saturation is referenced the narrator says, “Ox sat. I bet you don’t know what ox sat is. Oxygen saturation” (47). Yet, again it is mentioned in a way that excludes some readers. Perhaps the narrators do not want to include the readers, and all of the terms are meant for us to not even look up, but just accept. One of the narrators makes his position to another character, and possibly to the reader, very clearly, “Neither Christopher, nor I are here to be your HIV or AIDS education service” (109). Maybe this is Alameddine’s approach as well, to intrigue readers to learn more about HIV/AIDS and not explain everything to them.

Another concept about HIV/AIDS throughout the novel is the ignorance of HIV/AIDS by American society. When the epidemic started out as GRID in the late 70s, early 80s, the disease only infected homosexual men. As we read further into the book, criticisms and notes on HIV/AIDS in popular culture become more prevalent. There is a certain section of the book, almost right in the middle where there is a mock Walton scene. At first the narrator says “I love you to all” of these characters, who presumably already died. Then he goes on to talk about a movie called Longtime Companion, that he believes was a joke, and “could have been called The Waltons Do AIDS” (114). The movie is said to have been unrealistic and it appears that all the characters sort of died off one by one. Another movie referenced in this montage is Philadelphia, which has a bad reception as well. At the end of this scene the narrator says, “Ask the reader. They have an objective view of this whole thing. Okay. Hey you! Hey you! Do you think this is enough?” (114). Perhaps it is to ask the reader if the pop culture reaction to HIV/AIDS has been significant, or if it has been ignored. Due to the constant cultural references in the book when HIV/AIDS is presented it appears as if HIV/AIDS was and has been ignored by the “majority” for a while.

This concept is visited again and the message is more obvious when the narrator states, “When did the last AIDS story make a newspaper’s front page? My friends die. They keep dying, but people forget. Life goes on” (152). The statement most likely is a reflection of the portrayal of the disease. It is often ignored in the media and because of this ignorance, more people believe lies about HIV/AIDS and are not familiar with any terms or medication that those with HIV/AIDS use.

Alameddine appears to have written Koolaids as a reference for readers to learn more about many taboo topics, especially HIV/AIDS. This novel is a good resource for a unique perspective on HIV/AIDS, and also creates intrigue for the reader to learn more about the topics in the novel.--Thehaunt (talk) 15:05, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

"The Haunt": Could you delete your post from the talk page and insert it into the wiki entry.

Also: In terms of writing style, I think that whoever posted on the theme of "death" you might want to try to make it sound more "objective"...I'm thinking of your saying Alameddine talks about death in interesting ways"...that kind of adjective--interesting--might not be what you are looking for.

Another also: You might think about breaking up that text a little bit more. It is one giant block right now. Good start though! Keep up the good work. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Whatalark (talk • contribs) 00:30, 28 April 2009 (UTC) --Whatalark (talk) 00:53, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Maybe we can change the title of the the "AIDS AND WAR" section to "Epidemic and War" or "Disease and War" so that it doesn't have the same title as the section on AIDS in the novel? Also: Once everyone has posted their writing feel free to start a.) inserting references b.) inserting hyperlinks c.) correcting style/grammar d.) Making notes on the talk page. I notice some repetition we might want to correct. Great job so far everyone! --209.6.23.101 (talk) 13:04, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Has anyone figured out how to do the fact box yet? I still haven't figured out how to do that. Jklaxx24 (talk) 22:28, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

I think that you just need to go to another book's entry, go to the edit page, and copy and paste the template. try that out and see if it works!--66.31.22.81 (talk) 23:27, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

So I'm working on the references section and other than aids/war and the lebanese civil war....what really important people/things do you think should definitely be mentioned? Thanks! Kitty234kat (talk) 01:35, 29 April 2009 (UTC)kitty234kat

Also, I added a link to our page on the Gaeton Dugas page. Do you think I should just put a link on every page that we have a cultural reference to since pages for those already exist? --Kitty234kat (talk) 04:49, 30 April 2009 (UTC)kitty234kat

For the TITLE section, if you want to note the only other place that Alameddine refers to Kool-adi, it's on page 191 when they are talking about the pen-pals. Rachachou (talk) 19:29, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Added the fact box successfully. thanks for the help everyone. also added a picture. let me know if you guys approve. Jklaxx24 (talk) 20:07, 30 April 2009 (UTC) The picture is good...especially since I have no idea what else you would use. Also, who can explain how to add a picture since for my section there are a lot of pictures already on wikipedia. Also, this book was published on my 8th birthday =D Kitty234kat (talk) 04:06, 1 May 2009 (UTC)kitty234kat

I'm trying to get the references section to look like other pages. And so we can do the cool in-line citation thing that links you to the references. anyone know how to do this? Jonathanfu (talk) 21:27, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

Hey, so I just added in the hyperlinks for different stuff in my section, but I had forgotten to log in while I was doing it...so don't delete it, ok? -Andy I also just added a photo of James Joyce next to my section, I'm not entirely sure if the copyright info clears though cuz the image just showed up automatically when I typed his name followed by .jpg -Andy —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hackinosa (talk • contribs) 07:30, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

--==Welcome to Wikipedia== Hello, folks, and welcome to Wikipedia. I'm an editor here, just as you folks are. Please click on the link below to learn how to edit articles here neatly and constructively.

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Thanks for your time, and again, welcome! You can sign any talk page post by adding four tildes at the end. --StaniStani  00:27, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Hey...I'm doing the characters and I remember in class we said that the celebrity dialogues etc would be added under another section. Do we still want to do that? Do you think those should be under the references as well? Rachachou (talk) 17:56, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Hey guys i was looking for any suggestions about my sections which were death and aids in war and was thinking that maybe we could each pick a section to read and make some suggestions on. Let me know. Willxoxo (talk) 02:03, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

I think thats a good idea. So that we make sure everyone has someone checking their section. Also, can someone please tell me if they think I have enough references...I know aisha and i need to finish up the ones on there...but any other really important ones? Kitty234kat (talk) 02:10, 2 May 2009 (UTC)kitty234kat

hey guys, so I am going to change some things on my section right now but I wanted to know if you think I used too many quotes? Also, I am really not good at the technial stuff if someone would help me with the links. I know it's probably so easy so I'm sorry to ask that. Also, I really like Will's idea. Maybe we could switch with people not in our section? Rsumme01 (talk) 15:07, 2 May 2009 (UTC) rsumme01 11:06, 2 May 2009

I like Will's idea too. How should we go about picking/assigning who gets to edit what section etc?..Also, I was wondering if you guys think that I should add more information on each of the main narrators. I didn't know what would be too much and what wouldn't. I'm going to add the characters that were in the dialogues and mention some celebrities that were in the book but I don't think I'll go into too much detail. Rachachou (talk) 15:24, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

I think you should maybe add a little to the main charcters, like Mohammad, but like you said don't go into too much detail on the celebrities, like maybe title it "various celebrities" and list them, then a sentence on why they were included, i.e. what they have in common, or their relation to themes. I wouldn't emphasize them too much though seeing as they're really not very significant. Rsumme01 (talk) 15:48, 2 May 2009 (UTC)rsumme01 11:48, 2 May 2009

Ya...I think I'll do that. I just added the celbrity dialogue part and I'll just give a little info on who each person is, like the gods and stuff. (Don't worry I won't leave it as a list like that). You're right, I think that what I have under my main narrators is a little short. I'll add to that. Also, Ruth, which section are you doing? I'll check to see if you have to many quotes...I don't know how to do the links either I was hoping that someone could help me with those too. Rachachou ([[User talk:Rachachou|talk]]) 16:00, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Thank you! I'm doing art and sex under themes. Do you know how to make "Art News" Italics? if you do, anyone, could you help me, slash change it? Also, can someone just let me know if I got the narrators correct for my passages? I think they're correct but I'm not sure. Rsumme01 (talk) 16:37, 2 May 2009 (UTC)rsumme01 12:37, 2 May 2009

Are we going to link all our sources to the references section at the bottom of the page? Oh, and I got sick of having to type in the entire title so I got wikipedia to let us just type in "koolaids" Jonathanfu (talk) 16:41, 2 May 2009 (UTC) I have a picture on my desktop to upload...how do I put it in the article? Its from a wikipedia page.. thanks!--Kitty234kat (talk) 17:06, 2 May 2009 (UTC)kitty234kat Nevermind, I figured it out. So, please, anyone think there needs to be anything else under references? Also, aisha, which do you want to do..?! Kitty234kat (talk) 17:13, 2 May 2009 (UTC)kitty234kat

Guys, do any of you or all of you want to just get together for a half hour tuesday afternoon or wednesday at all and just look through our final together? also, I'm still struggling with the links. Rsumme01 (talk) 17:25, 2 May 2009 (UTC)rsumme01 1:25, 2 May 2009 Thats fine with me. I can't get a link to work to an article about Reagan. Kitty234kat (talk) 17:36, 2 May 2009 (UTC)kitty234kat

Ruth- I read through your part and I think that you put a lot of quotes in it too. Also, I'm not too sure if it's a good idea to use swears although they are seen throughout the book because it is pretty graphic...but that's up to you. I found a few typos here and there but I wasn't sure if I should fix them or not. I checked your narrators/characters and they are right too. Also, I think it's a really good idea to get together as a class one more time to talk about this for some time. I can do any day but Monday...Rachachou (talk) 19:07, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

I forgot to say that if you want to put things in italics, you put two apostrophes instead of three which is for bold)Rachachou (talk) 19:10, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

is the article about reagan a wikipedia article? or one from an outside source? Jonathanfu (talk) 21:50, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Hey does anyone know if i should reference the quotes i used from the book and if so how?74.94.150.202 (talk) 23:28, 2 May 2009 (UTC) The post above was me also any suggestions on hyperlinks for my section--74.94.150.202 (talk) 23:30, 2 May 2009 (UTC)