In Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage (1935 edition), Emily Post recommends the use of a PPC card as a way to ease the process of leave-taking. A PPC card is simply a personal greeting card with the letters PPC written in the corner. PPC stands for the French phrase pour prendre conge–to take leave.
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“We don’t ever want to speak for someone who has the disease,” Hayford says. “I think the media has been irresponsible in speaking for those with AIDS and not letting them speak for themselves. The raw material behind this piece is our personal responses to the presence of the disease and also what we see going on in the political system, the social system, the media . . . it’s the moments from the epidemic that arrest us.”
In choosing images to reflect their own personal reactions to the AIDS crisis, Hayford and Heller hope to stimulate equally personal responses in their audiences. The Bride Who Is a Stranger (the title comes from an Emily Post chapter heading) eschews literal dramatic encounters–such as those in plays and movies like The Normal Heart and An Early Frost–in favor of metaphorical stage imagery.
“Anybody who’s cognizant of AIDS is in a sense married to the disease,” Heller says. “It’s part of our love life, our conjugal life, our religious life, our educational system, the way we talk about and present all sorts of issues. It’s something we’re inextricably bonded to.”
