*Illness as Metaphor* (1978) is an essay by Susan Sontag in which she attempts to demystify cancer by exposing the myths and metaphors surrounding the disease. The work focuses not on physical pain per se, but on the use of illness as a figure of speech. Sontag argues that cancer is neither a curse nor a punishment; it is simply a disease (one that can potentially be cured). A decade later, with the outbreak of a new, stigmatized disease rife with mystification and punitive metaphors, a sequel appeared—*AIDS and Its Metaphors* (1989)—extending the scope of her inquiry to the AIDS pandemic. This volume presents both works, in which Sontag demonstrates that "illness is not a metaphor, and that the most truthful way of regarding illness—and the healthiest way of being ill—is one most purified of, most resistant to, metaphoric thinking."