Guinea Worm

The guinea worm is used in "It's Catching" as a symbol of the inability of a human being to control one's own body from invading parasites. In a literal sense, it represents David's, and everyone else's, complete vulnerability to a horrific organism that preys upon its host. This is bad enough from anyone's point of view. But for a gay man in who grows up in the era of AIDS' first introduction into the public consciousness such as David's background, the guinea worm is also a figurative symbol of the fear of such communicable diseases and parasites, and how one can never predict whether or not one will become the next victim of such an organism.

David's Street View from His Parisian Apartment

David's window view of the Parisian street corner below his apartment is symbolic of the pressures couples face when they travel abroad...