Fear is an old emotion, laid down deep in the nervous system. Without its promptings no species of animal life could have survived and civilization could not have developed. Certainly…
The first time she flies home for the holidays, Iris makes two friends. She is seated between a married couple, because the woman prefers the window and the man prefers…
Among the many things disrupted by the spread of the novel coronavirus and the global mobilization against it has been our sense of time. In part, this is simply the…
On the fifteenth of March in Paris, as the novel coronavirus outbreak—just deemed a global pandemic—ravaged Spain and Italy, I strapped my infant son into his stroller, grabbed a bottle…
From The Unreality of Memory, which will be published in August by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Viruses and bacteria hijack our minds; they make us act weirdly. For example, Toxoplasma…
A letter written in 1943 in response to a request from the Committee of National Liberation in Algiers to outline the mood in France, which was under Nazi occupation at…
From reports of items whose popularity has increased since the novel coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic in March. Antiseptic wipes Bleach Bicycles Freezers Cologne Ventilators Surgical masks Pornography featuring…
From The Punishment, which was published in April by Yale University Press in its Margellos World Republic of Letters series. Originally published by Éditions Gallimard, the book recounts the author’s…
From a real-time diary posted on Reddit by newlyweds Rachel and Tyler Torres, who were quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, off the coast of Japan, following the outbreak…
From Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars., which will be published this month by Ecco. The novel tells the story of John Earle “Whitey” McClaren, a sixty-seven-year-old businessman who is beaten…
From attributes and behaviors of subjects in TikTok videos that the company deemed inappropriate for the site. TikTok is a social network where users share sixty-second videos, often of themselves.…
From Mezzanine, a collection of poems, which will be published this month by Ecco. Does the season match the birdsong, did I hear the birdsong over the white noise machine,…
From bogus preventive measures and treatments for the novel coronavirus that have circulated online since January, some of which were initially promoted by politicians and celebrities. Driving a tractor Exposing…
From a Facebook post that was published in March by the Newport Police Department in Oregon. Do not call 9-1-1 because you ran out of toilet paper. History offers many…
From a manuscript in progress. It was a typical February 29th, Chiming with the senses, Which reported pink White, and purple fires Lighting up eligible trees One by one at…
In April, an epidemic of influenza exploded in the Far East. Starting in Hong Kong, it spread thousands of miles in all directions in less than two months. As we…
The old window gave a grand view of Yellow Tree, trunk to branch. They called it Yellow Tree even though the ginkgo was yellow for only about a week each…