Covid Literature

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One of PG’s offspring, eight years old, has been writing a series of stories about two imaginary characters, Fred and Joe.

PG just learned that the latest Fred and Joe story involved an unexpected side effect of Covid vaccinations that caused Fred and Joe to develop four arms.

During a text-message discussion of this literary work, this young author’s mother, PG was informed that Covid RomComs have shown up on BookBub.

This raised a question in PG’s mind – what will the long-term effect of Covid and all its related shutdowns, shelter-in-place, AntiVaxxers, etc., etc., have on literature of all sorts?

Feel free to opine.

(Brief update on PG’s water-in-the-basement adventures: Water no longer seems to be increasing. Wet places appear to be drying out. Another visit from the good plumber expected tomorrow morning.)

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3 thoughts on “Covid Literature”

  1. You can go either way on this one, I think.

    I recently read two P.G. Wodehouse novels set (and written) around the same time, roughly 100 years ago. The Indiscretions of Archie referenced the recently concluded First World War; the title character had served, with courage but not distinction. Someone he’d met during the war was a minor character. Jill the Reckless, on the other hand, made no reference to the war at all, even though all the young male characters would either have served or had some reason why they hadn’t.

    I have a contemporary urban fantasy series that I set aside for a few years and am now finishing up. I’ve chosen to continue it from the time I stopped in 2016, not least because of the changes in the world political climate that Caroline references in her blog post (the antagonists are bodysnatching Nazi sorcerers, which seemed a bit of a cliche when the series started but now has a completely different resonance).

    So it would be entirely feasible to write a “contemporary” novel set in a vague pre- or even post-COVID time that didn’t reference the pandemic at all. Or, if you felt it would contribute to your novel, you could mention it, or even make it a key driver of the plot.

  2. I’ll wait for the dominoes to finish falling.
    We’re living on “internet time” this century and things that seem enduring today may be displaced by something much more significant by tbis time next year.

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