Illness, virus and foreignness. AIDS and Its Metaphors and all that.
-
-
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
similarly the germs Europe brought to America don't seem to figure as prominently as the guns and the steel
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Maybe shame is a factor? My mom (78yo~her mom was 2yo in 18) told me family lore of whole families starving to death bc no one would come near quarantined homes.
-
my grandfather was orphaned by it and my family talked about it, and I feel like I'm from another planet with the way I've been aware of how bad this can be
- Show replies
New conversation -
-
-
You're both wrong (surprise!), for example the Spanish flu is obviously all over "The Waste Land," it's just that you didn't notice
-
Thank you, Graham.
- Show replies
New conversation -
-
-
With respect I don't think this is true at all outside the 1918 flu, which may be an exception. Plague was a huge theme in classical Greek & Latin literature, in the Decameron, in early Italian novels. In Thucydides, plague is what reveals the weakness of Athenian individualism
-
Possibly plague is harder to talk about when we are a) less reliant on religion to give it meaning and b) obsessed w/ the idea you can live any life you want w/ the right plan. Plague acts as Fate in ancient lit. We don't believe in Fate, nor its insurmountable unpredictability.
- Show replies
New conversation -
-
-
A wonderful book.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Is there any literature on the political and social consequences of losing a very large proportion of a society's elderly so rapidly? Feel like there must be some consequences to losing so many of the only people who have living memories of the world's greatest mistakes.
-
Spanish flu also killed a lot of young though!
- Show replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.