Blogging The Plague

Albert Camus’ masterpiece The Plague experienced a resurgence of interest in the wake of the current pandemic, and for obvious reasons. The three-quarters of a century old fictional tale of a town on the Algerian coast locked down by an animal-to-human transmitted disease that decimates the population suddenly had a ripped from the headlines feel. Sales of the book soared. Writing in the New York Times, philosopher Alain de Botton commented, “Camus speaks to our times.” But what exactly does he have to say? Captivated by de Botton’s essay and wishing to answer that question in more detail than a single editorial permitted, another philosopher, Peter Vernezze (Don’t Worry, Be Stoic: Ancient Wisdom for Troubled Times), set out to reread Camus’ classic and apply it to events in real time. The result, Blogging The Plague: Camus, Covid-19, and the Current Chaos chronicles a crucial four-month stretch when the pandemic transformed from smoldering fire to full-blown inferno, inflicting death and suffering on a scale not seen in America for more than a century while simultaneously devastating the economy and upending most of life as we know it. Vernezze uses his reading of The Plague as a jumping off point for Camus-inspired observations on everything from One World at Home to Black Lives Matter, from Neflix’s Pandemic to the conspiracy film Plandemic, from the Coronavirus task force briefings to the Michigan state capitol protests. What emerges is a Camus who not only anticipated the psychology of a pandemic and contemplated its ethical dilemmas, but a Camus who can provide soul-sustaining insight absent from the current landscape. This book will change the way you look at the pandemic, at Camus, and at yourself.