Okay. Say you ask a small child to draw you a house, and they come up with something like this:
ALT
For the purposes of this analogy the child is shit at colouring in, because I only wanted to give the general idea.
So, we can all agree that the child who draws a house probably isn’t trying to communicate anything in particular other than “look at this cool house I drew”, right?
Cool.
So… Why is it seemingly in the middle of nowhere, when most children live in houses with neighbours?
Why is the main body a square and the roof a solid triangle when that doesn’t look like any house that has ever been built anywhere?
Why does it have a wood-burning stove with smoke actively coming out of the chimney, even though the sun indicates warm weather?
Why is the sun smiling? Why is it yellow?
Answer: because the child has seen picture books, and films, and the drawings of other children, and has on some level absorbed that this is what a house is meant to look like.
Face to face, the child almost certainly wouldn’t know where to begin communicating “yellow is a colour culturally associated with happiness and warmth, and two dots accompanied by a curved line symbolically represent a smiling human face, so I have combined these attributes with the sun to convey that it is a very warm and pleasant day”.
Or “historically most houses in my country used fire for heat and cooking, and even though this is no longer the case for the majority of households, most media portrayals of houses are inspired by other, older, media portrayals and therefore include the chimney. I have chosen to follow this trend.”
Or even, “I have poor motor control because of my age, and large, 2 dimensional shapes are easier to draw than anything involving detail and perspective”.
Yet this is all information that you can pick up from detailed study of the house drawing.
Ultimately, it’s not about what the writer intended. That’s what the whole death of the author thing means.
If you think of literature like as a conversation, then think of all the analysis stuff that your English teacher keeps trying to get you to look at as like body language. It’s the stuff that the other person doesn’t even necessarily mean to communicate, but that can tell you a hell of a lot about what they mean.
Also, a poem written by a poet who got high is still a poem written by a poet.
People love to say dismissive bullshit like, “oh, that’s just the drugs talking” but actually, drugs can’t fucking talk! It is always the human being doing the talking regardless of how intoxicated they are. The drugs are not creating the poetry. The poet’s mind is creating the poetry. A person doesn’t stop being a person just because they took something.
And the answer is that it rabies OCD is a form of contamination OCD. And rabies is probably one of the most scary, most well known contaminates out there. And actual education about rabies is notoriously poor, so you hear a whole lot of fear mongering and very little actual facts. So here are the facts:
1. Rabies is 100% preventable if you get a post exposure vaccine.
2. Post exposure vaccines are not scary. I’m telling you this as someone who is afraid of shots. It is the year of our lord 2025, rabies vaccines are not how they used to be.
3. You cannot get rabies from blood, urine, or feces. You can only get rabies from saliva, ocular fluids, and sexual fluids and it must go into an open wound or something.
4. You cannot get rabies from an animal or human who is not rabid. Even if I got bit by a rabid raccoon and then came to bite you, I would not be able to give you rabies. That isn’t how rabies works, you don’t become rabid the moment you get rabies
6. Rabies can take a while (months) to develop. This scares some people, but really it should let you know that if you actually got bit or scratched, you will be fine. Call the health department or call your local wildlife rehabber. They know what’s what for *your* specific area. They might tell you don’t need a shot, they might say you do.
7. If you aren’t a little kid, you will know if a bat bit you. Yes—you can feel it. It hurts. I’ve watched people get bit by bats. I’ve seen bat bites after the fact. Might you sleep through a bat bite? Yes. But you will know the next morning if you see a bat in your room. If you see a bat? Go to the doctor.
8. Rabies is rare in the US, both in humans and in animals. Don’t touch wildlife, but also don’t be afraid going about your daily business that a rabid raccoon snuck into your bedroom at night and French kissed you.
9. The best way to protect yourself against rabies is to keep a respectful distance from all wildlife and stray animals
Rabies shots are more annoying than anything else. More painful than a hepatitis B or flu shot, less painful than tetanus or covid (unless you have to get the RIG in a sensitive area). And the box is hands down the funniest part of the experience bc it looks like a product designed to give you SUPER RABIES
Without the RABIES IMMUNE GLOBULIN label on this, I would assume this is a product in fact designed to give you more rabies, not protect you from getting rabies.
I feel like it really adds something to know that this coffee shop was right next to the state capitol building. There is a non-zero chance one of these lattes ended up in the senate chamber.
ALT
amhrancas 