Coronavirus is a bit like the Airborne Toxic Event in DeLillo’s White Noise. It’s out there, it’s a threat, there’s nothing we can do about it, so it just lurks there in the back of our minds, occasionally reinforced by headlines and half-heard news broadcasts. Another thing that might get us.
The trouble is, there are so many of these things already, that if we let ourselves think about them, we might become hysterical. Coronavirus — a murky danger that could and likely will happen to at least some of us, eventually.
This is how the Terrible Twenties begin, ushering in a time of rumor and fear, as well as genuine peril…
