love in the time of coronavirus

Next Day. Same Time. Same Place:  How Waiting Out the Pandemic Is Like Waiting for Godot

Next Day. Same Time. Same Place:  How Waiting Out the Pandemic Is Like Waiting for Godot

Even though these times of self-isolating feel absurd, the Theater of the Absurd has a lot to teach us about waiting, time, isolation, and feeling like we exist.

Pandemics and Trumpian Echoes in Miller’s ‘Blackfish City’

Pandemics and Trumpian Echoes in Miller’s ‘Blackfish City’

When we can't turn to the federal government for the truth, sometimes we need to turn to fiction. Sam J. Miller's Blackfish City maps a pandemic in a post-United States future.

Reading Pandemics: From Boccaccio to Indigenous Futurism

Reading Pandemics: From Boccaccio to Indigenous Futurism

Join us -- at a safe distance -- on this journey through the canonical and radical as we look to literary representations of pandemics in the past to help us understand the politics and possibilities of the present COVID-19 pandemic.

Work Doesn’t Always Look Like Work: In Defense of Radical Laziness During COVID-19

Work Doesn’t Always Look Like Work: In Defense of Radical Laziness During COVID-19

Expecting financially devastated artists to produce during the coronavirus shutdown is akin to handing a condemned man a typewriter on his way to the gallows. To hell with that.

Stressed About COVID-19? Seek the Tao of Coen

Stressed About COVID-19? Seek the Tao of Coen

"Son, you got a panty on your head." As purveyors of gallows humor, filmmakers the Coen Brothers teach us how to laugh at things that aren't funny -- but kinda are.

The Cure’s ‘Seaside’ Cure for Sheltering at Home

The Cure’s ‘Seaside’ Cure for Sheltering at Home

In these times of pandemic turmoil and outright trauma, what better match does the tempestuous human soul have than the sea? And what better lyricist than the Cure's Robert Smith, who twins the wrath (or sadness) of the sea with similar human emotions?
Why Boccaccio’s ‘The Decameron’ Can Help Guide Us Through COVID-19

Why Boccaccio’s ‘The Decameron’ Can Help Guide Us Through COVID-19

Rather than write about death and the world unfolding in the throes of the Black Plague, Giovanni Boccaccio instead wrote about the utopian potential of storytelling.

Some of One World’s Comfort Songs Are Off-Key

Some of One World’s Comfort Songs Are Off-Key

One World: Together at Home and what our choice of anthems says about how we cope with a crisis.

I Would Like to See My Doctor: Social Distancing and Telemedicine

I Would Like to See My Doctor: Social Distancing and Telemedicine

My first COVID-19-era "telehealth" video call had me looking up my doctor's nose. Who could blame him for turning his camera off?

Willie Nile Celebrates Fans, Family, Friendship With “Under This Roof” (premiere + interview)

Willie Nile Celebrates Fans, Family, Friendship With “Under This Roof” (premiere + interview)

Willie Nile moves forward with a message of unity and love in the wake of COVID-19 and remembers friends, John Prine and Hal Willner.

Our Monsters, Ourselves

Our Monsters, Ourselves

Not just for devotees or scholars, The Monster Theory Reader provides a framework for understanding humans at least as much as monsters.

Plenty Tough: A Conversation With Jon Langford of the Waco Brothers

Plenty Tough: A Conversation With Jon Langford of the Waco Brothers

The Waco Brothers' Jon Langford talks about politics, the social climate, and being a musician in the wake of COVID-19. "It's the political equivalent of prog rock!"

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