It Is Too Soon To Read Fiction about the Pandemic?
In the End of Days, Rowan Keller Smith warns us about how immune we once were to thoughts of extinction.
I pulled out last year’s winter jacket only to find a handful of disposable face masks stuffed into my pocket and realized it wasn’t that long ago that the end of days seemed strikingly plausible (it still does but for various other reasons!)
In many ways, we have never “returned to normal” after the pandemic. Lots of workplaces still offer hybrid schedules and that’s a good thing, since many people, accustomed to the quiet of their kitchen table, now find time at the office distracting.
Personally, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to my complacency over germs (I can hear someone coughing half a block away.) Most of all, the anxiety that got ratcheted up during those pandemic years still remains. I wonder if it will ever go away.
So, it surprised me when I read Rowan Keller Smith’s short story, “The End of Days” and it struck a chord. I didn’t think I was ready for a post-pandemic read but Smith, a poet and essayist from Los Angeles, tackles it as if we were approaching a mysterious pandemic for the first time and it had me thinking. What if we had to do it again? What would we do differently? Here’s an excerpt:
The End Days kicked off like any other, with a walk to work. Headphones in, NPR on. The story of a dying toddler, and her mother and her father and her brother. One after another their lungs gave out. A silent prayer for all of them, the thought “God, that’s awful.”
I started my day and the thought of her and her family quickly left my mind as if I had never heard it, to begin with. I made espresso shots and chai lattes for yuppies on their way to work. I shot the shit with my coworker, Chris. We complained about our manager Vanessa, our healthcare plan, the government. We threw around words like bourgeois and contemplated unionizing. I was always in charge of the cafe’s music. I would put on one of my meticulously crafted playlists and bask in the superiority complex it gave me. For some reason, on that specific day, the indie rock felt tired. We put on the radio instead.
We heard about the normal stuff– tension in the Middle East, party divides, and sex scandals. Then, the story of the toddler came on. I said another silent prayer for the girl and her mother and her father and her brother. I once again thought God, that’s awful. And then, just like before, I let it slip from my mind.
(Read the story in full on Esoterica.)
“The End of Days” continues and as you can guess, it gets worse for the protagonist, and the rest of humanity. It was a stark reminder of how naive many of us were and gave me a hint of nostalgia. I wonder if we will ever be that naive again.
Let me know in the comments if you are ready for pandemic-related works of fiction and if you had to go back to Jan 2020, what would you do differently?
I think the pandemic should yield some really interesting literature and I look forward to it. I don't know if I'd do anything different if I could go back, but my biggest pandemic related regret is that, in trying to write my novel while raising children/working, it's taken me 8 years, which means a huge amount of it was written pre-pandemic. I can't decide whether I want to try to work in some changes that Covid has wrought or just say, "Yeah, the setting is 2016."
As a ER nurse I know that the stories will come & that there are millions of them from all vantage points. Writing about our experiences across our cultural spectrum will lead to pain, yet also healing. All those who died & those who live with lingering physical & mental illness.
The moral fatigue the health care members of our society are now feeling impacts us all.
Those of us with years of wisdom & those with a few years into new healthcare careers are done.
I write about the pandemic & what it's done to my 3 little grandsons all under the age of 6 & their parents. My daughter gave birth to our youngest, now 3 yrs old, wearing a mask. My son in law was told that if he left the hospital they would not allow him back in. These are the examples of the damage done to all beings of all ages during this pandemic & the political forces that led to well over a million deaths. The abject lies & hatred injected by a failed president increased the damage to our society thousands fold. Where else to take the fact that none of us are okay, besides to the world of writing, music & art?