The bubonic plague back?

I hate to spoil it for you, but unfortunately the title of my post says it all. There's been suspected cases of Black Death both in Mongolia and Colorado. A squirrel tested positive in the US and in Mongolia a boy died of the plague after eating a... groundhog. A stupide groundhog. As if we didn't have enough of COVID-19, we might also end up having the freaking bubonic plague if we are not careful enough. Which is far deadlier and far more contagious than the current disease we are facing. Just what we needed.

Citons Camus

"Quand une guerre éclate, les gens disent: Ca ne durera pas, c'est trop bête. Et sans doute une guerre est certainement trop bête, mais cela ne l'empêche pas de durer."

 Une citation bien entendu tirée de La Peste d'Albert Camus. J'en cherchais une qui résumerait bien ma façon de penser en ce moment. J'espère que "ça" ne durera pas trop (vous savez à quoi je fais allusion), mais je suis pessimiste de nature.

Italy during the Plague

I am a tad melodramatic, but judging by the news, this must be how it feels like in Italy while the coronavirus is running wild, or so it seems. I asked my friend, who lives in the lovely city of Bergamo how she was and I learned that while she and her family was OK, the city itself had been like under siege, as cases of infections was high. So she is working from home with two young boys (one a few months older than Wolfie, the other two years younger). I am glad they are OK in any case, but I am worried about them. It struck me that my life as an expat, while giving me friends from all over the world, also made me far more touched by such catastrophe. Saying that this is a small world may be a cliché, it is nevertheless true. I have been wanting to revisit Italy one day, but this is always something for the future. I was thinking of seeing my friends and have her sons and Wolfie meet and maybe become friends, in spite of the language barrier. It seems as things are going, it will not be any time soon.

Les Animaux malades de la peste

"Un mal qui répand la terreur,
Mal que le Ciel en sa fureur
Inventa pour punir les crimes de la terre
La Peste (puisqu’il faut l’appeler par son nom)
Capable d’enrichir en un jour l’Achéron,
           Faisait aux animaux la guerre.
Ils ne mouraient pas tous, mais tous étaient frappés:"

Je cite bien entendu le début des Animaux malades de la peste de La Fontaine. Je sais que ce n'est pas du tout la même chose, mais à voir l'état de panique et d'hystérie qui s'empare de bien du monde ici, on dirait bien que c'est de la peste que l'on parle et qu'on se comporte comme dans la fable...

An new (but old) Danse Macabre

Tonight for my countdown to Halloween post, I am uploading again, as this is a seasonal tradition on this blog, the Danse Macabre. This time, it is a short, silent movie adaptation of the symphonic poem, dating back from 1922. This movie is more an allegory than a scary story, but it has many creepy, even tragic, moments. I enjoyed it a lot and I hope you do too.

Fighting the darkness

I said yesterday that I wouldn't blog about it because I found it depressing, but I think I will anyway. Take it as a necessary catharsis. I have been reading the news about what happened in Norway. The Norwegian gunman (I will not dignify him by calling him by his name) had links with UK extremist groups, which is very depressing, especially since I am an immigrant here (albeit one that cannot be accused of Islamist sympathies). I don't believe in a plot and the evidence so far has been leading to the contrary, but I cannot help fearing contagion. John Kennedy, his brother Bob, Martin Luther King, they all died around the same time, in the same period, killed by fanatics with similar ideas, but whatever the conspirationists think the killers were not link together. They simply had the same disease. This is what I fear most: some dark, inner fire that will take over evil minds. I have been reading The Plague by Albert Camus. The evil in that story is a disease that is blind and relentless, killing without motives or anger, but the fear and suffering that it creates is the same.

I cannot stop being surprised at how similar fanatics are, whatever the labels they take. The gunman feared the Islamisation of Europe, yet he despised the same things as Islamists: democracy, freedom of consciousness, I would also say love. Love for fellow human beings, for compatriots at least, a love that was very concrete and not channelled into an abstraction (a God that has everything of Big Brother, a nation that is devoid of freedom). He killed the same people an Islamist terrorist would have chosen as targets. It is nearly as laughable as it is sickening.

I heard on the news that Norwegians were fighting the darkness these days. I thought that expression was fitting. This is what must be done. Show grief for the ones who died, admiration and commiseration for the people of Norway and trying to overcome our own darkness, not to fall into bitterness or despair. Which means, in my case, trying to blog on a lighter topic.

Et maintenant La Peste

Je vais bientôt terminer la lecture du roman policier. Comme il m'arrive parfois de vouloir lire un peu plus sérieux que ce que je lis d'habitude, j'ai décidé de me plonger dans la lecture de La Peste d'Albert Camus. Ce roman ou L'Étranger est le livre obligé de littérature française que l'on met sous les yeux du cégépien québécois, ce qui marque souvent le début de sa conversion vers l'athéisme. Pour moi, ça a été L'Étranger, en première année de cégep. Pour d'autres, comme Patrick Lagacé le raconte dans une chronique récente, ça a été La Peste. J'ai enseigné la littérature existentialiste française dans une autre vie, mais ô honte, je n'ai pas encore lu La Peste. Je compte corriger ce déplorable état de chose.