James LandaleVerified account

I get where this comes from but walking freely around your own house, however small or crowded it is, able to open windows, to shout or scream if you feel like it, to order food in from shops, stream Netflix and joke on social media is *not* what Anne Frank went through.

we are just having a chat about culture, you don’t have to take it literally

For myself, I think comparing ourselves to political prisoners is not (at all) helpful. I feel this more in a spirit of solidarity and camaraderie, that we’re all trying to get through this together. This is Italians singing from balconies, not prisoners being tortured.

Lames Jandale

Forgive me, I am sorry, this was clumsy. I was of course not comparing coronavirus to the Holocaust, or self-isolation to fleeing the Nazis. I was merely noting how much of the book is about the pressure of domestic confinement and not just the fear of discovery & so on.

If it is any consolation, I didn't interpret your tweet referencing the Diary of Ann Frank as analogous to the holocaust and/or fleeing Nazi persecution!! After rereading it a couple of times, I still cannot understand how such a connection can be drawn.

I was thinking about this last night, but realised that a lot about what she writes about so compellingly is the awfulness of being cooped up with family & other people. It doesn’t have quite the same empathetic resonance for those of us who are facing the prospect of loneliness.

My sympathies. As someone who lives alone, works from home and is well used to my own company, the prospect of this dragging on for months - without being able to travel, go to pubs etc - is still unnerving.