The person I chose for this archival paper is Jonathan Larson.  I was first introduced to this composer in my FIQWIS class when reviewing the musical Rent. While we were discussing Rent, I was hooked. The musical Rent, by J. Larson, interested me the most it was inspired by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Rent is not just about artists living in New York but about love and loss, sickness and hope, and what it means to hang through struggles. I had to stop and think about how people really deal with things like disease, poverty, and not just in the theoretical sense. 

After thinking about Larson, I keep going back to him because his story is similar to my studies. I am a biology major, and this encourages me to learn what diseases are and how they operate, and their effects on people. But with Larson, it goes beyond that. He sees in his own way what disease does to the lives of individuals and how it affects their lives and friendships, and what they think of it as a society. This is what Rent is about, it deals with the total fear stigma, and the kindness, not to say charity, that is shown to individuals by others in the neighborhood when the undergrounds begin to fall apart. 

Rent is also related to what I study in my sociology class. The sociology of health, health in the community, the community, and the class of individuals in it, social class, etc. These are things that we have started to discuss in detail. In Rent, you see these characters fighting against the dreadful disease of poverty, trying to cope with the health problem, and being put into a position, not of choice, but of dislocation, when it occurs. These were the threads that Larson wove into his work of art. He tries to show that disease is not only a chemical or medical phenomenon but that it has to do with individual lives and the systems surrounding them. It is educational, if you will, to see how biology and sociology come together, even in a musical. 

What makes it even more interesting is the personal history of Larson. He spent years working at Rent while attending to his various other duties, his various occupations, and was rejected time after time for his work. The fact that he died just before the first performance of the show is, of course, a tragic one. He never had the opportunity of realizing how well his work went over and how well it has been received later, and no doubt is bound to be, but the idea of Rent remains alive, and of course, the recognized values of the work of Larson are perfectly evident at present, as well as being inspirational to us all to a great extent, telling us, however, to watch those eternal verities that are crying and coming to us as one of the values of this particular work.  

Jonathan Larson connects to my interests in science and society through storytelling. He took the struggle of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and turned Rent into a story about love and resilience. Learning about him and his creative process has helped me realize that art doesn’t just reflect the world; it can inspire people to care more about one another.