"Angels in America"...Plot Hole?

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 1:15am

Ok, I've been wracking my brain for a good hour about this...and if it's been asked before, meh.

How does Louis not have HIV or AIDS, and how did Prior get HIV in the first place?

Consider the facts:
He and Prior have been together since the start of the AIDS crisis (give or take a month or two). The play begins in October of 1985 and he has just been diagnosed, and by the end of December it is *really* taking it's toll.

So, the assumption becomes that either a) Prior got it before he started seeing Louis; b) he got it from drug use or some other means; or c) he cheated on Louis.

Seeing as the virus takes hold of him very firmly, I feel safe in ruling out that he got it before he and Louis became a couple, and they've lived together between 4 and 5 years, and have more than likely been together longer than that. Which means had he gotten it before they got together that would have been, at the very least 1980, if not before, when the virus wasn't that common, or that widespread.

There is absolutely no reference to Prior taking/using/abusing drugs, or him receiving a blood transfusion. Without that convention set up, that makes it rather difficult for me to believe that Prior got it that way.

So, we are left with option C. Now, here's the problem I have with that. Why would Prior have cheated on Louis? Sure Louis is obnoxious, but it is far to clear that he loves Louis. On top of this, Prior is built up to be the stable one, Louis the more emotional. Louis I could easily see cheat on Prior, but not the other way around. And, had he cheated, he would have no right to be upset when Louis bails on him (but that's another kettle of fish entirely)

So that's the "How did Prior get HIV?" question.

Next:
Why doesn't Louis have it?

Assuming they used protection, I could write that off. But after a 4+ year relationship, and knowing what I do about condom use (and what I can assume was true even then), they probably didn't. I also base this on Louis' behavior in the park, although that could be written off as remorse.

Clearly he can't be afraid that he has it, because he doesn't tell Joe (who would freak).

Anyone else? Thoughts? Answers? Am I reading too much into this?

[insertclevernamehere]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 1:22am

I don't have the script handy, unfortunatley, but I think both Louis and Prior slept around. During the scene where Louis and Joe are at the beach (where Joe tries to take off his "skin" to show his commitment to Louis) I think Louis says that he was surprised that Prior contracted AIDS because it was Louis who screwed around more. And if they were not exclusive, then they would have been insane not to use a condom.

[Mandi Moo]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 1:26am

I remeber Joe being hestitant to sleep with Louis at first because he knew that Prior had AIDS and that he could possibly have it, and Louis told him that they'd wrap everything that leaked in latex

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 1:32am

We don't know that Louis doesn't have it. And knowing Kushner's writing, chances are that's not a plot hole, it's a completely deliberate ambiguity.

And also, before ruling out that Prior contracted HIV before the start of his relationship with Louis, you need to remember that the period between the contraction of HIV and the onset of full-blown AIDS can be rather long -- but it obviously varies.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 1:36am

LuvtheEmcee-
Re: Kuishner
That's what I was thinking, there has to be a reason.

And I know you can have HIV for 8 years or so without it fully developing, but from what I can tell, that seems to have been more of a late-1980s development brought around by AZT, versus there in the beginning...however I am *no* expert.

[B3TA07]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 1:38am

You still exist?

[BroadwayChica]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 1:43am

It is very strongly implied in the text that they had an open relationship of sorts. As insert said, Louis makes a comment about how he screwed around a lot more than Prior ever did. It is not now, nor was it then, uncommon for gay men to have open relationships. That in no way devalues the love these two characters had for one another. You can't place the same standards of monogamy and fidelity to all relationships, whether gay or straight. It varies from person to person.

Regardless, that's hardly a plot hole. It's just something not explicitly specified, because the how and when of Prior's contracting the disease is irrelevant.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 2:09am

Fair enough.

Hey, at least it's not another Spring Awakening, Tonys, Wicked, or Legally Blonde thread, right?

[Brick]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 2:44am

All comments above are quite correct: the ambiguity is acknowledged by Kushner, when Louis acknowledges it.

And to be a bit crass, perhaps Louis was primarily the top. (Though I would imagine Louis bottoms in his relationship with Joe.) End of crassness now.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 4:57am

I was gonna say I was pretty sure one of them mentions at one point that their relationship is very loose in terms of exclusivity. So yeah, Prior and Louis screwed around on each other.

[WonderBoy]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 10:38am

Having just finished playing Louis maybe I can help shed some light.

Yes, in the beach scene with Joe he says, "And many have perished along the trail. I ****ed around a lot more than he did. No justice." They were together for four and a half years and had an open relationship however, in my interpretation of Louis I found this to be his decision not necessarily Priors. It is obvious that Prior is a lot more into Louis than Lou is into Prior then again, my interpretation of Lou was pretty different than the norm. Also, at the end of the long monologue scene with Belize in Part One, Lou says that he doesn't know if he is sick too (in a plea for sympathy and manipulation before Belize squashes it with "Your not dying. You just wish you were.")

As far as sexual positioning, I think Louis is a top which is one of the significant things about the scene in Part One with Prior as The Man In The Park... "I want you to **** me. Hurt me. Make me bleed." Which plays so beautifully with the opposing scene onstage with Joe and Roy. He also says to Joe in Part Two, "How many times has the latex sheathed****that I put in my mouth previously been in the mouth..." so, there really is no clear textual guide as to their relationship. Our interpretation was that Lou definitely bottomed for Joe. Lou allowed him inside of him in all aspects which lead to the intense feelings he had for Joe. In my interpretation, Joe was the love of his life.

It certainly isn't a plot hole just part of Kushner's brilliant writing that leaves so much to the director and actors interpretation of his work.

[Jane2]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 11:14am

I had two close friends who were together for 15 years. One of them contacted AIDS and died early in the 80's. His boyfriend, thank goodness never became infected.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 1:11pm

The play is subtitled "A Gay Fantasia". Plot holes don't need to be explained.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 1:24pm

But, as Jane said, it's entirely possible for this to have happened. It certainly depends on a bunch of factors. And I can't tell you how many times I have heard of someone who wasn't very sexually active getting HIV while "sluttier" friends remained negative--and the guilt that comes from that juxtaposition. It depends on the factors involved and/or dumb luck.

But what I greatly appreciate from this discussion and the OP is that as a director or actor, you may need to fill in the things not clearly explained in a script with this kind of thinking--connecting the dots. That's very smart.

Too many people jump to a conclusion that a script has a flaw instead of thinking outside the box.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 4:41pm

While working in a clinic for Aids patients and later working for a private practice that specialized in Aids cases during the 80s and early 90s, I saw that all of these scenarios are plausible, and many more.

Couples, gay and straight, have different definitions of what straying from the marital bed includes...and some individuals have their own rules in their head that allow varying behaviors.

There are no holes here...oh, wait...

[Mealz1042]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 4:46pm

tasteless, doodle, tasteless

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 5/19/08 at 4:55pm

Funny, I just finished working on a production of AIA and this question never even occurred to me. We on the production staff never really questioned anything that "wasn't said." We attributed it to the deliberate nature of the play.