In this time of general upheaval and the upending of “normal” life I thought I would “entertain” myself by reading a book I have had for quite a while but never read – the aptly entitled “The Plague” by Albert Camus, written in 1947. Many of the observations and much of the storyline is very appropriate for what is happening in these COVID19 times.
The novel reports on the characters reactions to a plague in the Algerian city of Oran (which last had a real plague in the 16th and 17th Centuries with further outbreaks in the 1930s and in 1944). I thought the following passage, towards the end of the book, was quite apt, being applicable to many countries (unfortunately not all).
“Although this sudden decline in the disease was unexpected, the townspeople were in no hurry to celebrate. The preceding months, though they had increased the desire for liberation, had also taught them prudence and accustomed them to count less and less on a rapid end to the epidemic. However, this new development was the subject of every conversation and, in the depths of people’s hearts, there was a great, unadmitted hope. All else was secondary. The new victims of the plague counted for little beside this outstanding fact: the figures were going down. One of the signs that a return to a time of good health was secretly expected (although no one admitted the fact) was that from this moment on people readily spoke, with apparent indifference, about how life would be reorganized after the plague.
Everyone agreed that the amenities of former times would not be restored overnight and that it was easier to destroy than to rebuild.”
Sound familiar?
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