If you are like me during this time of pandemic isolation you have been turning to storytelling to make your way through. I have as of late been turning more and more towards storytelling that tells of other pandemics and other forced confinement or solitary self going , imaginary or otherwise. I think this stems from a place of trying to understand and see my own experience in other people’s stories. So I am compiling a list, this will be on-going, of the stories that I have enjoyed the most.
1. The Leftovers: is a TV show which is currently available to stream on Crave in Canada. This show ran from 2014-2017 and in my humble opinion is one of the best TV shows ever. I am talking writing, acting, music, and just over all storytelling. It gives you enough to keep the mystery alive without ever leaving mysteries unsolved, which is something I hate. It ran three seasons and was written to be told in three seasons, which is just awesome. The story follows a town and their towns folk after the day of the departures, where 2% of the worlds population just vanished in one moment. It starts three years after that day and man oh man, its exciting. I was wholly engrossed. Kinda embarrassing how fast it took me to zoom through this series. Will for be watching again.
"In a global cataclysm, "The Sudden Departure," 140 million people disappeared without a trace. Three years later, residents of Mapleton, N.Y., try to maintain equilibrium when the notion of "normal" no longer applies. Intense grief has divided families and turned faith to cynicism, paranoia and madness, leading some of the traumatized to join the Guilty Remnant, a cultlike group. Kevin Garvey, a beleaguered police chief, must keep peace between townspeople and the cult, a task made tougher with concern about his kids. His daughter alternates between apathy and rebellion, and his wayward son befriends a charismatic prophet. "The Leftovers" is based on the best-seller by Tom Perrotta, who is one of the series' executive producers." (Rotten Tomatoes)
2. The Last Town on Earth: Novel by Thomas Mullen: This book was very atmospheric and I really enjoyed my jaunt into the darkness where people have to make choices which define who they are.
"Deep in the mist-shrouded forests of the Pacific Northwest is a small mill town called Commonwealth, conceived as a haven for workers weary of exploitation. For Philip Worthy, the adopted son of the town’s founder, it is a haven in another sense—as the first place in his life he’s had a loving family to call his own. And yet, the ideals that define this outpost are being threatened from all sides. A world war is raging, and with the fear of spies rampant, the loyalty of all Americans is coming under scrutiny. Meanwhile, another shadow has fallen across the region in the form of a deadly virus striking down vast swaths of surrounding communities."
3. The Mosquito: A human history of our deadliest predator by Timothy C. Winegard: A book which challenged me to think microscopic, to look at the small to see the big. Whenever I read books of history from these different than taught to us in school lens it makes me see everything different. And I like that. Give this book a read to see your world differently.
"The mosquito has determined the fates of empires and nations, razed and crippled economies, and decided the outcome of pivotal wars, killing nearly half of humanity along the way. She (only females bite) has dispatched an estimated 52 billion people from a total of 108 billion throughout our relatively brief existence."
4. Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Coronaviruses and Beyond by Sonia Shah: The first time I read this it really made me realize how much innovation and how much the movement of our economies have shifted and grown based on disease. Highly recommend.
"Over the past fifty years, more than three hundred infectious diseases have either emerged or reemerged, appearing in places where they''ve never before been seen. Years before the sudden arrival of COVID-19, ninety percent of epidemiologists predicted that one of them would cause a deadly pandemic sometime in the next two generations. It might be Ebola, avian flu, a drug-resistant superbug, or something completely new, like the novel virus the world is confronting today. While it was impossible to predict the emergence of SARS-CoV-2-and it remains impossible to predict which pathogen will cause the next global outbreak-by unraveling the stories of pandemics past we can begin to better understand our own future, and to prepare for what it holds in store."
I love this book! And the mini series, both of them, although I favour the old one more since it's the one that introduced me to the world of The Stand. I watched this mini series way too young and had nightmares for years of the devil's glowing eyes and the corn, the endless corm with the scurring rats, and the voice of the devil...still gets me when I rewatch. This story was also my first intro to end of the world on screen that really hit me. I was raised in the church so I had been raised in the fear of the end of days but in the church it always seemed more abstract and like we the follwers would eb safe and fine and living our best lives but in this story it was not that.
"When a man escapes from a biological testing facility, he sets in motion a deadly domino effect, spreading a mutated strain of the flu that will wipe out 99 percent of humanity within a few weeks. The survivors who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge--Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious "Dark Man," who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them--and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity."
Okay, I know that's a short list but hey, I get distracted really easily these days. Anyways, drop a line with your pandemic favs.
Hiding inside,
FRan