I thought I had a very clever idea when COVID-19 started to show up in the news more and more, but before a confirmed case had reached America — I would write a “Know Your Dystopias” post about pandemic themed novels! Then it quickly came to America, spread all over, and things started shutting down. I considered my blog post and thought, “too soon?”
It depends on the person. Some people feel empowered exploring worst case scenarios. I watched “Contagion” for the first time a couple days before the library had to close. I thought it was a good time to see what that movie had to say. But it also isn’t unusual for me to spend time hunkered down in my bunker while soaking in a bathtub filled with hand sanitizer. In fact, I call that Wednesday. I realize that might be a new practice for some of you (Welcome to the club!).
I am sensitive to how other people are affected by this pandemic, and don’t want to flippantly throw some book recommendations at you about disease outbreaks upending society. Still, speculative fiction is an exercise in imagining what is possible. It can present us with frightening scenarios, but also ways to handle them. Now might be just the time to explore how some writers have imagined what follows after a pandemic has ravaged the world. If you’re up for it, here are some titles that explore some possible outcomes.
“The Last Man” is a first-person story of a man living at the end of a pandemic-ravaged 21st century written by the creator of science fiction, Mary Shelley.
Jack London’s “The Scarlet Plague” takes place in 2073, sixty years after an epidemic called the Red Death depopulates the planet. The narrator, one of the few survivors, tells his grandsons about life before the plague, and the subsequent devastation from the disease.
In Albert Camus’ “The Plague” the townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague. As they are forced into quarantine, some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few resist the terror.
A man suffers from a painful disease while staying in his remote cabin in “Earth Abides.” After he has recovered, he drives home along deserted streets to discover he is one of the few people to survive a catastrophe.
In “The Dog Stars,” after surviving a pandemic disease that has killed everyone he knows, a pilot establishes a shelter in an abandoned airport hangar. Then he hears a random radio transmission that compels him to risk his life to seek out other survivors.
The 2015 One Read selection, “Station Eleven” tells the story of the world 20 years after a deadly flu outbreak, and explores the relationships that sustain us.
In “Severance,”Candace barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York, because of her devotion to routine. But the disease spreads, and she eventually must come to terms with the fact that she can’t live on her own forever.
Wash your hands, don’t touch your face, wear a mask when out in public and try to stay at least 6 feet away from others! We can get through this.
