Human behaviors in many segments of society during the Covid-19 pandemic could have been predicted based on literary texts from the past and right up to the moment the pandemic began. In this episode, we compare excerpts from selected literary texts imagining or depicting human reactions to plagues ranging from as far back as 700 years to just one month after the pandemic began with statements made or actions taken during the pandemic. The similarities are uncanny. Russell is inclined to think this means we’re doomed; Dan is not so inclined.

Links:
Links to Russell Teagarden’s blog pieces in According to the Arts on the sources discussed in episode:
— The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio, New York, Penguin Classics, 1972 (written in 1351-1353) 
— The Pandemic’s Impact on NYC Migration Patterns, New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer, Bureau of Budget, November 2021.
— Arrowsmith, Sinclair Lewis, In: Sinclair Lewis: Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, Dodsworth, Library Classics of the United States, New York, 2002 (first published in 1925)
— The Betrothed, Alessandro Manzoni, Penguin Books, New York, 1972 (first published in 1827)
—The End of October, Lawrence Wright, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2020

Links to sound clips:
Contagion (2011) – Steven Soderbergh, director; Scot Z. Burns, writer

The Clinic & The Person is a podcast developed by our editor Russell Teagarden to summon or quicken the attention of health care professionals, their educators, researchers and others to the interests and plights of people with specific health problems aided through knowledge and perspectives the humanities provide.

Feature image by CDC