Tag Archives: Journal of the Plague Year

Anti-Vaxxers Ignore the Past

By Robin Bates | Published: July 10, 2023

Anti-vaxxers should read 19th century novels, which describe high mortality rates

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "University Hospital Boston", anti-vaxxers, Birds' Christmas Carol, Bleak House, Charlotte Bronte, Childbirth, Cholera, Daniel Defoe, Jane Eyre, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Mary Oliver, Nemesis, Oliver Twist, Philip Roth, plague, Polio, Robert Kennedy Jr., Scarlet Fever, Secret Garden, Small Pox, Turberculosis, typhus | Comments closed

Plague Lit on Life Returning to Normal

By Robin Bates | Published: March 28, 2021

Plague Lit teaches us how people behave DURING plagues. How about how they behave when life returns to normal? Camus may be best on this.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Albert Camus, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, Last Man, Mary Shelley, plague | Comments closed

Post of the Year: Plagues in Literature

By Robin Bates | Published: December 30, 2020

A survey of literature through the ages that has dealt with plagues.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aeneid, Albert Camus, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, Emily St. John Mandel, Katherine Anne Porter, Louise Erdrich, Margaret Atwood, Oedipus, Oryk and Crake, Pale Horse Pale Rider, plague, Sophocles, Stand, Station Eleven, Stephen King, Tracks, Virgil | Comments closed

A Literary Survey of What Plagues Mean

By Robin Bates | Published: April 19, 2020

A survey of how literary authors have grappled for meaning in times of pestilence bolsters our own search. I look at Sophocles, Virgil, Defoe, Porter, Camus, King, Mandel, Atwood, and Erdrich.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aeneid, Albert Camus, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, Emily St. John Mandel, Katherine Anne Porter, Louise Erdrich, Margaret Atwood, Oedipus, Oryk and Crake, Pale Horse Pale Rider, Pestilence, plague, Sophocles, Stand, Station Eleven, Stephen King, Tracks, Virgil | Comments closed

Church Attendance in Plague Times

By Robin Bates | Published: April 18, 2020

Defoe in “Journal of the Plague Year” captures people’s need for church in plague times.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged church attendance, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, worship services | Comments closed

Journal of a Plague Year

By Robin Bates | Published: March 18, 2020

Defoe’s “Journal of the Plague Year” has many unsettling parallels with our current situation.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged coronavirus, COVID19, Daniel Defoe | Comments closed

What Defoe Would Say about Ebola

By Robin Bates | Published: October 21, 2014

Daniel Defoe’s “Journal of the Plague Year” has good advice for dealing with outbreaks, such as not to react with overly harsh and fearful measures.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Daniel Defoe, Ebola virus, London plague, plague | Comments closed