Writing
to Not Freak Out: The Role of Literature in the Face of 2020s Pandemic
Pedro Panhoca da Silva
Ph. D. Research
Scholar,
Mackenzie
Presbyterian University (UPM),
São Paulo, Brazil
Abstract: Much
is reported in the media about what the health area has done as prevention and
combating the new coronavirus, but the humanities area sometimes does not have
its importance raised and disseminated as it deserves. This article seeks to
show how the current period of pandemic of the new coronavirus can favor the
emergence of potential new writers who help to meet the demand for a literature
whose fiction addresses COVID -19. Giffoni, Santos, Tavares, Prades and Guérios
Neto were some authors selected to discuss about the relations between
literature and pandemic, and Koch was selected because of his writing
techniques. It´s believed that writing about pandemic in the heat of the moment
can benefit readers and authors, besides register these firsts moments in this
hard time for humanity. In contrary most people believe, readers can look for
texts about pandemic, and to supply this demand new and old writers can fill
this readers´ wish.
Key words:
Writing, Literary anthology, COVID -19, Publication
Introduction:
The
popular saying "prevention is better than cure" can summarise what
the human being has failed to do in the face of the new coronavirus. Treated
from irrelevant illness to supernatural punishment, little was known, yet,
about COVID-19, but what everyone learned is that the pandemic is not something
that was restricted to the Middle Ages and rats.
According
to Raphael Vandystadt – Director of Institutional Relations and Sustainability
at Agência África – if humanity does not take any advantage of the COVID-19
pandemic it will be doomed to experience endless new pandemics (Guérios Neto
and Vandystadt), since, according to writer Luis Giffoni, every human being –
with a full life – can witness a bright comet in the sky, the fall of a
meteorite on Earth and a new pandemic (Santos et al.). It seems that humanity
having witnessed the bubonic plague, malaria, yellow fever, AIDS and many
others at least 3000 years ago (Santos et al.) is still far from being fully
aware.
Because
it is a crisis, at first, linked to public health, it is wrongly thought that
only health professionals have the mission to save humanity from the
pandemonium that the world has become. However, while laboratories test
vaccines, perform experiments to weaken the virus and increase the humanity of
human beings, and care for the sick in hospitals and health clinics, what can
literature do about this?
According
to Luis Giffoni, reading is a matter of public and economic health (Santos et
al.). Since COVID-19 has changed the routine of much of the population, the
creation of new texts aimed at readers who seek fiction or non-fiction about
the new coronavirus is of great relevance at this time. It seems that the
literary taste of some may be directed, in the current context, to the works
produced in the heat of the moment. And, in this work of supplying a new demand
of readers in search of this thematic, beginners and renowned writers may know
the chance both to express what they have, at the same time as their creations
"come to life" in paperback or digital files.
Unoriginal Dystopias: Arts and Pandemics
Given
all that has been and has been produced so far, what do publishers and the
publishing market have offered their readers? More than offering contracts to
already known authors, in the information age in which publishing has become
more democratic, beginning writers who one day seek fame in this craft or even
who have seen literature as a way of simply expressing themselves were able to
get to know the consequences of their literary contact with COVID-19.
History
has sorbed from pandemics and some classic works have stood the test of time. História da guerra do
Peloponeso, by Tucídides, and História
e descrição da febre amarela epidêmica grassou no Rio de Janeiro em 1850,
by José Pereira Rego, are two examples among many found throughout history. Rejane Dias dos Santos – executive director of the
Autêntica Group – says that during the pandemic there was a growth in sales of
books focused on social sciences, political sciences and general history
(Santos et al.), which can confirm that History and Public Health have a
millennial close relationship.
Written
language is not only about stories. Contrary to what the clichéd idea of common
sense sometimes proposes that literature is a closed system in itself that
feeds back, this art form has evident ties with epidemiology. Canonical works
such as Boccaccio's Decamerão and Edgar Allan Poe's A Máscara da
Morte Rubra have taken pandemics as a theme for their texts, as have more
recent works such as Mario Bellatin's Salão de Beleza and Emily St. John
Mandel's Estação Onze. Many other examples, older or more recent, can be
mentioned, and one realises that in different historical periods, the account
of the pandemic along with fiction is recurrent to the history of humanity.
Rejane Dias dos Santos states that the interest and consumption for canonical
works of literature have known an important increase, besides the Autêntica
group having known an increase of 84% in general book sales (Santos et al.). She
also adds that books like Pollyanna in which the characters are heroes
and benefactors, have sold more than books that address dystopias (Santos et
al.), perhaps due to the fact that readers, while seeking texts about
pandemics, also want to find "saviors of the world" in the space.
The 7th
art has also sometimes addressed the theme of epidemiology. In the time of VHS,
two examples were the films Philadelphia and Virus, while in the
DVD format can be found works such as Viral. Those who believe that the approach
of dystopias ends in Hollywood productions are mistaken, since Asian
productions – such as Pandora – have also turned the disease into a form
of entertainment and reflection. Possibly, the climax of film productions of
this theme will be with the streaming platforms, as is the case of Netflix
and the exhibition of films like How it ends in its catalogue.
Comics
and webcomics also offered their first texts to readers. The 2nd issue of the
independent magazine Pé-de-cabra had diseases as its theme – even before
the world empirically knew what a pandemic actually was –, and other comics who
opted for the online format also shared their creations, such as Sonhos de
Pandemia, by Alice Pereira, and Confinada, by Leandro Assis, posted
on social networks or webpages of their own.
This is
perhaps the great freedom and challenge for any potential writer: the absence
of contemporary models on what and how to do about texts whose theme addresses
the pandemic. Just as there may be doubts about which rules to follow in the
process of textual creation by writers – especially those who are starting out
– Koch can calm the anxiety and insecurity of neophyte authors by stating that
the only rule to be followed is not to get stuck on anything: "please
remember this. There are no rules. The moment one precept or another obstructs
your path instead of opening it, you must leave it aside. The moment some
opinion stifles your work instead of stimulating it, you must dismiss it"
(Koch XV).
Other
aforementioned examples can prove what Rejane Dias dos Santos stated: the book
was, in 2020, possibly the greatest protagonist of the human being (Santos et
al.), as well as other entertainment objects. In the midst of this, each writer
shapes their way of writing, being influenced by previous writers and
influencing new ones, as has always occurred in the history of literature.
New Literature for New Disease:
The
publishing market has experienced a boom in publications of the most varied
aspects. It is noticeable that from the economic concerns of Soou o alarme:
A crise do capitalismo para além da pandemia, by Fressato and Nóvoa, to the
colouring book How Pandemic Nurse Swear at work – Mental Healing Coloring
Book: A Humorous Swear Word Coloring Book for Pandemic Diseases, Epidemic
Nurses Pressure ... Nurse Mom Gift for This Mothers Day, by RNS Coloring
Studio, it is virtually impossible not to know about the current new
coronavirus pandemic. Before what was a taboo or something unbelievable to man
is now banalised and therefore less mysterious, and literature also plays an
important role in this reverse apotheosis of COVID-19.
What
has occurred in the Brazilian publishing market – especially in publishers with
less economic power – is not very different from the rest of the world:
literary contests and commissions from small and medium-sized publishers have
promoted a large uptake of short texts such as poems and short stories to be
published in literary anthologies. Two examples of this can be found in Together
in a Sudden Strangeness: America's Poets Respond to the Pandemic and 20
contos sobre a pandemia de 2020. It is a quick way of literary compilation,
since deadlines are stipulated and a good part of the costs for the production
of these works are shared among the writers contemplated with the publication –
generally sold on demand – ranging from tens to hundreds of dollars depending
on the quality of finish and support of the work. This practice can unite, in
the same work, good and bad texts, which interferes with its unity as a whole,
but it is a good opportunity for beginner authors to publish and disseminate
their first texts in the traditional way. When aspiring writers are familiar
with blogs or social networks, they can choose to publish in digital magazines
or even e-books, whose call for publication works in a similar way to print
publications.
Rejane
Dias dos Santos was impressed by the fact that many non-readers came into
contact with books during the first wave of the pandemic in Brazil. Moreover,
the executive director of the Autêntica Group and the writer Rogério Faria
Tavares – patron and occupant of the 8th chair of the Academia Mineira de Letras
– say that the pandemic favored a closer approach of the Academies of Letters
to the general population (Santos et al.). The proof of this are the hundreds
of literary contests promoted around the country precisely by members of these
academies, revealing local and national talents in various categories. Santos
also recognizes that what has been produced in the heat of the moment may guide
readers and writers how literature will be from the pandemic outbreak onwards
(Santos et al.).
According
to Dolores Prades – director of the Emilia Institute and publisher of Emilia
magazine – recognizing books as a resource that is as essential as basic food
has also helped to extend literature to non-readers, especially the less
well-off sections of the population, who have ended up with physical books and
– in some communities – even community libraries (Prades). Also according to
Prades, such actions go beyond the accumulation of books in a depository
environment and consequent actions of these fraternity campaigns have shown
positive results (Prades). An example can be found in the poems of Lucas Lins
published in its own social network site Instagram, known as Poesias pra
matar o corona (França).
Besides
the new talents who dared to express themselves through writing, artists who
were often shown by the media also took advantage of the pandemic of the new
coronavirus to launch their first texts. Martinho da Vila, one of the main
sambistas in the country, claims to be a reader of Machado de Assis and to have
used the time of isolation to write a book of chronicles to be published in the
future (Vila).
It is
clear from the above examples, therefore, that isolation can have its
beneficial side. And voluntary or forced solitude can provide writers with
moments that can be filled by self-expression through the use of words.
According to Koch,
Except
in journalism, writing is necessarily a solitary craft, the loneliest of all
the arts. The excessive quotient of loneliness implicit in the act of writing,
as well as the need not only to tolerate it but even to love it, is an
inexorable characteristic of the craft and one of the most obvious
psychological facts to understand about it. All too often, however, aspiring
writers condemn themselves – as if by punishment for their desire to write – to
find their way alone, half by chance and without any help, to the most
elementary methods of doing so (Koch XII).
Koch
further argues that deliberation about the act of writing is recurrent in
people's minds, but that few "brave" people actually risk producing
their first texts (Koch XIV-XV)
.
It is
still too early to assess the literary quality of these literary anthologies, a
job to be done by critics who are interested in what was produced at the climax
of the tragedy that marked the beginning of the 2020s. However, encouraging
production in the heat of the moment may be more fruitful than one might think.
CONCLUSION
Talking
about metaphors, Áureo Lustosa Guérios Neto - host and creator of the podcast
that discusses the relationship between history, arts and diseases called Viral
Literature – believes that literature can work as a buoy for a reader who is in
high seas (Guérios Neto and Vandystadt). This means that not only psychologists
can help those who had their mental health collapsed by the sudden changes
imposed by the pandemic of the new coronavirus, but the literary text, whether
fictional or not, can prove to be an important instrument to understand the
other and mutually enrich the helper and the helped. Biologically speaking,
according to Luís Giffoni, reading serves as prevention to Alzheimer –
especially fiction - because it stimulates the connection between neurons,
helps in affective relationships, sharpens the critical sense (Santos et al.),
and the same can also comfort those who were forcibly isolated from the old
routine, seeking refuge in the texts. In
this way, a reader who consumes what a writer produced in the middle of the
heat of the pandemic moment may have empathy awakened, besides being able to
seek more self-knowledge. It is not strange that this happens, because in these
moments of global and personal bewilderment it is natural for people to seek
dialogue with literature and not resort directly to specialists (Guérios Neto
and Vandystadt).
Just as
everything produced in the period between 1939 and 1945 about the Second World
War, for example, can only be evaluated with greater clarity long after that
world conflict has ended, what has been produced in the heat of the moment of
the pandemic may be better evaluated in the future, but the absence of the
report, vent, denounce or reverie of the present constitutes an erasure of
history and possible future recurrence, if a new catastrophe of the magnitude
of the new coronavirus or other disease capable of reaching pandemic
proportions spreads around the world.
Rejane
Dias dos Santos states that many writers have not been able to yield as they
would like because of the pandemic of the new coronavirus – as acknowledged by
the Anglo-Indian writer Salman Rushdie himself (Rushide 28) – as well as other
professions as well, but there are others who managed to find in the COVID-19
pandemic their great opportunity for textual production (Santos et al.),
offering them new texts for appreciation and criticism. Two examples of
national writers who used the year 2020 as a source of inspiration were Gisele
Mirabai – from Minas Gerais – with her novel Ana de Corona – and Felipe
Franco Munhoz – with Parêntesis.
According
to Koch,
The
life of writers generally passes in phases, and each new phase of a creative
life necessarily implies a kind of new beginning and, quite possibly, a new
technique as well. Starting afresh is difficult and can be daunting. We never
start again from the old starting point and we rarely arrive at the old
answers. Living this uncertainty at any time in life is a disturbing experience
- but also a great and wonderful one. It is the uncertainty of promise, the
anxious, experimental hope from which everything of value arises (Koch XVII).
The
current world crisis caused by the pandemic of the new coronavirus would be, in
this way, a new phase that all humanity has experienced. Having revealed itself
in a surprising way to the Earth, it has ended up as a surprise to many people.
And it is, therefore, precisely in this revelation that writers can act:
writing about their own venting, times and experiences, among many other
writing possibilities.
Certainly,
the year 2020 has served to take many people out of their comfort zones, and
one can take advantage of this forced change. At times like this, it is worth
considering what Koch says: "I have no doubt that the day will come when
you will be smarter or better informed or more skilled than you are now, but
you will never be more ready to start writing than right now. The time has
come" (Koch 2009). Being the time favorable or not, the writer will only
know if you really have talent for a number of factors such as refusal – and
their reasons – the approval with notes that can improve your text, the acceptance
and even the award for merit and / or literary quality. However, the potential
writer will only know which of these and other consequences life has in store
for him from the moment he begins to write his own texts.
The
reason why an author decides to write about the pandemic is not relevant. Those
who believed that no reader would be interested in the theme exhaustively
covered by the news media were wrong. Publications of different textual genres
have occurred and, if there is publication, it is because there must be demand.
Writing in the heat of the moment both supplies a demand from readers who are
interested in the theme of the pandemic(s) in the form of fiction or
non-fiction, and also prepares the literary field that will be able to focus on
the post-2020 production in order to evaluate what was produced with literary
quality at the climax of the pandemic crisis or what will be produced after it.
It does not matter what happens: those who value literature will benefit in
some way.
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