Are you getting sick from reading?

A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. What if a virus wasn't just some medical term that meant, "you're sick and there really isn't anything to do about it but wait it out." What if a virus was more then that, what if it was something that affected us daily and we didn't even know it. Burroughs thought so and so do I. What he said makes sense. He basically said that the written word is a virus, because it infects you maybe in a good way maybe in a bad way. Some viruses are good, but you never hear about them because people don't really care when they are healthy. What gets the most attention, the books that are stereotypical or the books that make a statement? Usually the books that are stereotypical simply because they are easier, but if you look in the New York Times, that book that tries to make a statement is being criticized and talked about. In both books there is a virus. The virus plants and idea in your head subconsciously and you think about it whether you like it or not. Writing is a form of a virus, yes it is human made, but still a virus. Why not only because it plants an idea in your head, but it spreads. You talk to friends, family, enemies about the things you read and see and that there describes a virus. That small thought can create a change in society, maybe not always but sometimes it can. Just like a virus. A virus can be small and go unnoticed, but when more and more people get it, it can mutate and change and do more harm then good. It can make an entire population die...A written work can do the same thing, maybe not kill an entire population, but it can sure change how a population thinks. Changing how a population views things can do more then just kill a group of people. Change makes a society different, it can transform it for better or worst. Writing and speech making have been the make or breaks in our society. Think back at the great thinkers, Aristotle made a point even up to his death that changed how people think even today, Hitler stood for his beliefs and conquered how much before his end, and Gandhi had his time of peace before he left us. We talk about all three of these men so you can't disagree that a word or written message can't change a society and how it believes in dreams or goals or freedoms. Good or bad, a virus can latch on to you and make some kind of difference.