Coronavirus is worse than the plague. I don’t mean literally; I mean from our perspective. This is the plague we know. This is the plague we cannot quite understand. This is the plague that has fragmented our world. And much of what we know about the plague is from novels like Camus’s The Plague and the Nobel Prize winner Sigrid Undset’s The Cross, the third novel in her Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy. We never thought such an untreatable virus would happen here.
There are more cases of Covid-19 every day. And so we practice social distancing, and wash our hands till they’re chapped. And yet who would think coronavirus threatens on a lovely spring day? The sun is shining, the weather is mild, and the dogs are having the time of their life, because they’re going on walks constantly. The dog parks are closed, because dog parks mean A GATHERING OF DOGS. (And humans, too, that’s the problem.). But it is a pleasure to see the dogs on their leisurely walks.
I am not reading about the plague, though I am thinking about getting a dog. (Pet adoptions are up.) Still, I highly recommend Nobel Prize winner Sigrid Unset’s masterpiece, the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy. Set in the Middle Ages, this Norwegian bildungsroman takes us from Kristin’s childhood in the 14th century to her death in the plague era. Undset’s lyrical style subtly mimics certain cadences of medieval lit, especially in Charles Archer’s 1920s translation. The 1990s translation by Tina Nunnallly is in more modern English. I have read and enjoyed both.
The first two books, The Wreath and The Wife (in Archer’s translation they are called The Bridal Wreath and The Wife of Husaby), tell the story of Kristin’s forbidden love affair with Erlend, an elegant but careless man of noble family, and their difficult marriage, because Erlend has a bad reputation after living for 10 years with a married woman, has neglected his estate, and been generally indiscreet, especially in politics. And Kristin, who is constantly pregnant and ill, must restore and run the estate. She suffers much in her marriage, but her religion saves her.
We don’t get to the plague until the third book, The Cross, when Kristin, who has become increasingly religious since her marriage, goes on a pilgrimage. She is in a convent when the plague strikes, and she and the nuns are exposed as they care for the sick.
Here is a particularly dark passage. Don’t read this if you’re not up to it!
Death and horror and suffering seemed to push people into a world without time. No more than a few weeks had passed, if the days were to be counted, and yet it already seemed as if the world that had existed before the plague and death began wandering naked through the land had disappeared from everyone’s memory… It was as if no living soul dared to hold on to the memory that life and the progression of workdays had once seemed close, while death was far away; nor was anyone capable of imagining that things might be that way again, if all human beings did not perish.
My recommendation is that you read the first books of Kristin Lavransdatter and save The Cross for later–might as well wait till after the virus!
The last movie I saw in a theater (I hope just the last SO FAR) was Call of the Wild. The movie itself was excellent with a bit of problem with a very few minutes of otherwise spectacular doggie animations. But, what was the best part, was getting me to reread Jack London’s novel. I maybe read it in school probably almost 60 years ago. In that time I have seen various movies, read the Classics Illustrated and so forth. I had forgotten it was about a DOG. I don’t think anyone ever created a more believable dog than Buck. The book was truly London’s masterpiece. You see very few dogs on walks who remind you of Buck though. When my own Ginger Pye (a Wheaton Terrier just-past puppyhood) hears the Call of the Wild it’s basically to chase a squirrel in the backyard.
I would love to see Call of the Wild. I am a big Harrison Ford fan, anyway, and I thought the previews looked good–though I did read something about animated dogs. I’ve never read Jack London, but am a sucker for a dog story.
I thought the animation was VERY good. Better than the latest Lion King farce. Indeed I think London might have approved of this one — and he never would have of the all the other movies (four? Five?) I think it is available now on iTunes and Vudu and I think I’ll pick it up to watch again while sheltering.
Actually the dog looked real to me in the preview! I will look for the movie.
Dog adoptions are up here as well in the UK. I think people have been getting them for company as much as for the opportunity to go out for a walk. I’ve been thinking a lot about the 14th century episode of the black death. As a result the whole economic system was completely upturned in Europe. Given how much money is being poured into fighting this and into supporting those who can no longer work, I can’t help wondering if the same would be true this time round.
It’s hard to grasp all the ramifications. I hope we’ll see a flattening of numbers of cases soon, but these things take time, they say. Stay safe and well!
That quote is frightening in its appropriateness, it could have been written last week. I think I’ll give this book a miss for now, but might read it when things return to some kind of normality, and we are able to reflect on what has happened.
I know–I was shocked by its relevance. The Cross is not the book to read right now!