Teacher Tom: The Plague, Human Love, and Our Common Fate

Teacher Tom: The Plague, Human Love, and Our Common Fate

The Plague, Human Love, and Our Common Fate

When I travel, I like to read a book that is set in my destination. For instance, I read Death in Venice while in Venice. One could get more up to date information from tour guides, of course, but there is something about reading fiction about a place, while in a place, that for me lends an atmosphere and insight to the experience of travel that non-fiction simply cannot. Reading about Gustav von Aschenbach commuting by gondola, then going out for a ride in a gondola made me feel like I was part of not only a place but an era in a way that mere visiting could not. Gustav described it as "the most comfortable seat on earth" and, for me, that day, it was. When I wound up in bed for two days with food poisoning, I felt as if I was actually living the experience of dying in Venice. It's less romantic than it sounds, but it's a memory I'll always cherish.

Sadly, we've all had to place our wanderlust on hold for the time being, but when the computer screen grows tedious, fiction never does. So, in the spirit of reading fiction about an experience while having a similar experience, I decided to re-read Albert Camus' novel The Plague. It's been decades since I first read it. My memory was of a heavy handed, somewhat tedious use of plague as a metaphor for existential angst. I recall skimming long sections of the book. I mean, how much is there to say about the plague: it's bad alright, and dull, and frightening, but couldn't the characters do something besides talk and think and live the plague? But reading it from the perspective of now, I found myself clinging to every word, to every nuance of the characters' thoughts and feelings, and identifying with every twist and turn of the endless dialog about their common fate to be quarantined CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: The Plague, Human Love, and Our Common Fate