Line #14 Literature/AndTheBandPlayedOn


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/and_the_band_played_on.jpg]]
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3	''And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic'' was a chronicle of the early history of the AIDS virus, written in 1987 by gay American journalist and author Randy Shilts. It is better known for the [[Film/AndTheBandPlayedOn 1993 HBO film adaptation]].
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5	!!This book contains examples of:
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7	* AnachronicOrder: The book starts with the death of the actor Rock Hudson, before jumping back to the beginning of the AIDS Crisis 5 years earlier.
8	%% * AnyoneCanDie: Several main characters die in the epidemic.
9	* AMillionIsAStatistic: Shilts tries to avert this, pointing out there are actual people behind the AIDS mortality statistics.
10	* BodyHorror: The hideous sores known as Kaposi's Sarcoma are one of the most visible symptoms of AIDS. It's no coincidence that ''Film/TheFly1986'' came out in this era.
11	* BuryYourGays: Invoked. Shilts mainly focused on the impact of AIDS on the LGBT community (especially those of San Francisco and New York City). He was criticized for his coverage by critics for neglecting to delve into the effect of AIDS on other risk groups who were also heavily impacted (the poor, the hemophiliacs, drug users, Haitians, etc).
12	* DeadpanSnarker: The people with AIDS in San Francisco exchange [[GallowsHumor sick jokes]] at support meetings.
13	%% * {{Doorstopper}}
14	%% * DownerEnding
15	%% * FromBadToWorse: This is pretty much a given, as the disease spreads and the death toll rises.
16	%% * ForegoneConclusion
17	* GayCruising: Cruising is described as a regular part of life for gay and bisexual men in [=1970s=] and the early [=1980s=], especially in bathhouses. Kico, who is Buddhist, is portrayed as something of a sole exception for finding it distasteful.
18	* GoodVictimsBadVictims: The book heavily condemns the mainstream newspapers for failing to cover AIDS until AIDS has spread outside the homosexual community into the wider heterosexual world.
19	* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: In the book (and subsequent film), flight attendant Gaetan Dugas is portrayed as a DepravedHomosexual who deliberately spread HIV around (although the book carefully refrains from accusing him of any malicious intent--mostly painting him as someone who was in a pathological state of denial). In recent years, Shilts's former editor has admitted that he had encouraged Shilts to find a "villain" for the story, and that since Dugas had been erroneously dubbed "Patient Zero" by the CDC in a 1984 study, had been known to be promiscuous even after being diagnosed with HIV, and was already dead when the book was being written, he was seen as the best candidate.
20	%% * IgnoredExpert: Many of them.
21	* ItHasOnlyJustBegun:
22	-->'''Dr. Mervyn Silverman''': I'm afraid we're not in the middle of an epidemic. This is the beginning.
23	%% * LethalDiagnosis: Lots of them.
24	%% * MoralGuardians
25	* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: Everyone acknowledges that Rock Hudson's diagnosis changes everything.
26	%% * ObstructiveBureaucrat
27	* OffTheRecord: Happens once when "a reporter" at the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' (heavily implied to be Shilts himself) hands his editor a study acquired this way from the San Francisco Department of Health. He then "accidentally" drops a feminine pronoun, which leads his editor to deduce (correctly) that the study came from Selma Dritz, who "in news circles, was considered only slightly less credible than God."
28	* OhCrap: Dr. Dale Lawrence calculates that the average incubation period for HIV is 5.5 years, far longer than expected.
29	%% * ThePlague: AIDS
30	%% * ReallyGetsAround: When the CDC began investigating cases of HIV infection, a lot of the infected turned out to be somehow connected to Gaetan Dugas, which resulted in him being mislabeled as "Patient Zero".
31	%% * ReassignedToAntarctica: The final fate of Don Francis.
32	* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: Many claims not to have AIDS even on their deathbed.
33	%% * ThisIsGonnaSuck
34	* TragicAIDSStory: It is literally in the title, and especially well done with the statistics are people view given.
35	* WhamEpisode: When Rock Hudson is diagnosed with AIDS, 5 years into the epidemic.
36	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The sections based on Gaetan Dugas's escapades were exaggerated; as mentioned above, Shilts was encouraged by his editor to play up Dugas's promiscuity.

Context Literature / AndTheBandPlayedOn