Writer Dodie Bellamy reads from her semi-autobiographical book of stories and essays When the Sick Rule the World.

This reading was originally part of an online version of Made in L.A. artist and Semiotext(e) coeditor Hedi El Kholti's series of programs From A to Z, held at the Mandrake Bar in Los Angeles from 2006 to 2009. The series is based on Gilles Deleuze From A to Z, journalist Claire Parnet’s intimate documentary interview of the terminally ill philosopher (and Parnet’s lover) Gilles Deleuze. In the film, they discuss philosophical concepts evoked by letters of the alphabet; El Kholti’s series paired each letter’s segment with a selection of films.

In this program, M as in Maladie, El Kholti encourages a meditation on illness, alienation, fragility, and death, leading us to question the qualities that humanize—and dehumanize—individuals when confronted with their own mortality.

The original program included screenings that have been removed from the recording:
Excerpt from Gilles Deleuze From A to Z, “M as in Maladie” (video, 1988, 29 mins)
Iranian filmmaker Forough Farrokhzad’s documentary The House Is Black (35mm, 1963, 22 mins)
Jean-Daniel Pollet’s L’Ordre (35mm, 1973, 44 mins)

In conjunction with the exhibition Made in L.A. 2020: a version.