There was an article I read recently that talked about the "end" of the 1918 pandemic and yes, what it described was that people just got tired of dealing with it and if fell out of the public view.
There is astoundingly little information out there. Kind of scary from a public health policy point of view - but I suspect that we are reaching a similar stage of capitulation.
On BD H52, W50 T27, M26 S21, D23 BD-9-Mar-16 D-15-Jan-18 Final-19-Apr-18 I am a storyteller. The story may do you no good. But a story is never for the listener. It is always for the one who tells
I’ve often wondered why the Spanish Flu pandemic wasn’t better represented in the arts. I mean, there are almost no books or movies about it. It’s barely taught in school. For such a major event, it always seemed forgotten. Now I know why. People today are SO anxious to jump the gun and declare this pandemic over before it is. No way are they going to want to watch a movie or read a book about it in the next twenty years. They just want it to be in the rear view mirror. We will probably see the roaring twenties all over again.
Interesting take. We talk for months about tragic events like 9/11 or Columbine, but then our interest and the news cycle move on to the next thing. In films about long-term disasters, people become more aware and adept over time. Filmmakers didn't anticipate that so many would become fatigued of the precautions and decide whatever happens, happens.
Books on contagions like Ebloa or Hanta or the Black Plague do note that the most effective diseases (in terms of duplication and spreading) are the less lethal ones. COVID is in an interesting spot --less than 10% fatal, but killing more than car crashes.
What I fear most is Ebola evolving to have a longer incubation period or to be slightly less deadly. The only thing that saves us from Ebola at the moment is that almost everyone who gets it gets sick, and pretty quickly. That’s what makes outbreaks able to be contained if we jump on it.
I knew as soon as reports came from China that half the cases of Covid were mild or asymptomatic that it would spread despite their heroic efforts.
Influenza is still the infectious disease most feared for a pandemic, but if not for modern medicine and vaccines, this Covid pandemic would be as bad as the Spanish flu.
Btw the only well known novel about the Spanish flu is a short novel by Katherine Anne Porter called Pale Horse, Pale Rider. It’s the story of a young woman who gets the Spanish Flu. She becomes delirious, then revover
Well, there is at least one movie about the Covid pandemic already! Stop and Go, a comedy on Hulu , is about two goofy sisters making a cross country road trip early in the pandemic to rescue their grandmother from a nursing home that has had a big Covid outbreak. I just watched it. Some funny bits.
Finally saw a lovely movie called The Only Living Boy In New York. On Prime, I had seen it show up before but was turned off by the subject material (trigger warning - there’s an affair involved but it’s not as simple or as bad as you think.)
Great cast and beautiful writing, very poetic. I quite liked it.
Just took a carload of electronic waste to the recycling center/hazardous waste dump. Slowly but surely clearing out the excess from my home. After lunch I’m sorting through two more boxes of books I found on my garage shelf. If I forgot they were there, I probably don’t need all of them, eh?
Took a car load to the Goodwill this afternoon . Every load that leaves the house makes me feel freer.
Most of it was my stuff but I went through a couple of boxes CMM had in the garage, too. This stuff came from his storage unit a couple years ago and has just been sitting in the garage. I had told him, before he died, that if he sent me a message from the other side, no creepy flickering lights and stuff. I told him to send me butterflies.
In one of his boxes, was a small vintage glass tray, like maybe something you would serve olives or nuts in. And it’s embossed with butterflies on all four sides.
Maybe you subconsciously knew that CMM subconsciously liked butterflies? He would've held onto that tray for a reason and maybe it was that it had butterflies on it. I think empathetic people like yourself take note of lots of little things about the people around them without even realising.
Nope - never heard him say a thing about butterflies, although on one of our trips we happened upon a butterfly exhibit. I think the reason he had the tray (actually a small serving dish, like you might put olives or nuts or sauces in) was that it was probably his mom’s. It looks to be maybe 1920’s - 1940’s pressed glass, he also has her full set of crystal.
But butterflies were not an interest of his, in fact he was phobic about bugs in general. He liked snakes though! He had nature books on snakes and on tigers. But never ever talked about butterflies. In fact I forgot about us going in that butterfly exhibit until just now.
