Finally started TLOU and man, this shit hits hard. (I don't think these are spoilers?)
It's the littlest details that get me. The way the infection signs (all metal-craft and official) are all aged and withered -- this isn't just "a new normal", this is and has been life for awhile. The way Joel needs his bag back -- such a little thing, but you really don't think factories are producing the little plastic bags so many of us take for granted in our day and age? They're not, that's why he needs it back.
The parallel of humanity -- the way such deep human kindness is shown to the little kid, in a "just look at the flowers Lennie" kind of way. The way it's contrasted immediately with the military executing people for trying to illegally come and go in a way that used to be so, so free such a short time ago.
And what a time for this to come out, especially for those of us who were just kids when 9/11 happened. Sarah asking if it was terrorists. The world is not so nearly unrecognizable, but in many ways it is. It feels angrier and more isolating, and it feels like many people are quite okay with increasingly more violent tactics to protect themselves and quarantine against "diseases", only instead of a fungus it's things like books and gender affirming care and bodily autonomy. It strikes me that this world is feeling more and more like one where the answer is swift and immediate "justice" by way of death, it hits that fear deep down.
But what gets me the most are two very prominent words: curfew, and quarantine.
I love reading about etymology, because within every word is a very deep and very storied past of the things my ancestors went through to get to where we are today. I recently learned about both of these words, when I was writing Every Day Another Step Away (Good Omens, 14th Century).
The word curfew comes from the phrase "cover fire". It was a word for the ringing of the bells, after which it was mandated that people had to cover their fire for the night and bank it for the next day. The intention was to prevent devastating incidents where houses and villages would burn to the ground. It was a rule created from a place of suffering, with the intent of surviving.
The word quarantine comes directly from the plague -- yes, The Plague. Italy, during the black plague, instituted a rule where incoming ships had to wait for thirty days before coming on shore. It was, at some point, determined that this wasn't enough, and therefore increased to forty days. Thus, we get quarantine. Again, it comes from a place of great human suffering, but the key to it all was the will to adapt, overcome, and survive.
These words are so embedded in our lexicon that I don't even know if anyone would think to question where they came from, or how they tell the stories of generations upon generations that fought before them for the opportunity to live another day. These words are scars, age old ruches of flesh where there were once gaping wounds that threatened to put an end to us altogether.
And that brings us to the very beginning of the episode, with the (?) epidemiologist who wasn't afraid of a bacterial or viral pandemic, because in every single case, the outcome has been this: humanity won. Perhaps worse for the wear, but we survived all the same.
And so, in TLOU's universe anyway, the world's greatest battle yet is underway, to see if they can keep the fire of the human spirit alive. Damn. What a fucking emotional rollercoaster, and it's only just the start.
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