(This is the first chapter but if you want to start at the beginning of the book please go to • The Plague by Albert C... where you'll find the prologue.)
A strange threat emerges and is met, at first with disbelief.
For many years my daughter and I have lived on opposite shores of the North Sea. One of the ways we stayed in touch when she was younger was that I read books to her by making recordings which I put on CDs and sent over. Technology has moved on a little since then.
I’ve been meaning to revive this practice with some of the books that mean the most to me. I don’t know when I’ll next see her so now seems like a good time.
At the top my list is The Plague by Albert Camus. It has seemed to me for some time that Camus’ warning about the ever present danger of arbitrary malevolence has been growing in relevance.
The “plague” in his book is a representation of the Nazi horror that over-ran Europe in the last century but it goes much further than that. Camus’ Plague is a symbol for closed minds.
In recent times, Nationalism, xenophobia and tribalism have been in the ascendant.
Now in addition to this political pestilence we face a new and terrible biological threat.
Perhaps, in light of the Covid-19 threat, this is the worst of all times to be re reading this work. It isn’t a cheerful book nor is it really a story of hope. Rather it is a call to revolt. To struggle against the forces that divide us, separate us and imprison us. These forces are among us. Will the Corona Virus strengthen them or will it strengthen our resolve to struggle for something better?
Steve Jones April 2020
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