We are Elena and Alex, nicknamed as Elettrona and Gifter, two friends who met online in 2019.
Our passion for reading and writing led us toward an ambitious goal: creating fantasy stories aimed at fighting HIV stigma, inspired by our daily experiences and entertainment contents we both enjoy.
Elettrona, blind since birth and HIV-negative, was formerly partnered to an HIV-positive man. Gifter, on the other hand, is sighted, lives with the virus, and his husband is HIV-negative.
The Positive (Poz) World
While in most situations “positive” means good and “negative” is bad, when concerning health a positive result is generally a very bad news.
Literature and cinema have already explored worlds where the “ordinary” human is an exception among creatures with unusual traits or powers. Gulliver’s Travels and The Country of the Blind were our starting points for creating The Positive World.
In this upside-down reality, the so-called “normality” is testing positive for HIV, while HIV-negative people live marginalized, forced to hide their status to avoid social death.
Our tone is satirical and aims to dismantle stigma piece by piece. What happens when you are treated as the “different” one?
If you feel offended because a fictional character calls you an “electron” or a “dead battery,” imagine how someone living with HIV in real life feels when labeled “plague-spreader”, “dirty”, “infected”, or “toxic”.
The “healthy vs. ill” empathy cliché is no longer effective enough because it has become the usual narrative built on guilt and tears.
Too many books, movies, and TV shows have addressed HIV in a superficial or stereotypical way. We chose to draw inspiration from our beloved characters, exploring fan fiction model as our reference.
Let’s give up with stereotypes: people who do not experience stigma firsthand, tend to empathize with the vulnerable characters in traditional narratives simply because the author or screenwriter wants them to. We, instead, try to remark how fragile social privileges are. The king does not know he is naked—and satire is meant to strip him bare.