Well, the institution where I teach has finally pulled the plug on in-person classes, indefinitely. My only creative-writing class this semester is one small workshop; I’ve given them the option of meeting via Zoom or the more mechanical, bloodless option of just posting comments about one another’s poems on Blackboard. I hope they choose the former — they’re a good group, and I like meeting with them a couple of times a week. But they’re going to have to be on board with the idea if it’s going to work on line.
As I’ve said before — and I’m not the only one — this coronavirus scare seems like a time-lapse rehearsal for the climate crisis. Especially the “scare” part — fear’s a big motivator, as we’re seeing. And as I’ve also said, climate chaos is going to mean a re-think of how we teach and publish. I expect both activities to migrate more and more to the virtual world, at least while it’s still an option. (I just joined a Facebook group devoted to on-line creative-writing pedagogy.) In a way, this is an introvert’s dream come true, so I’m not that bothered by the precautions. It probably will create more opportunity for reading and writing, as well. And less travel and industrial energy production — hence lower emissions of CO2 & other grungy pollutants (that kill more people than this virus probably will). But there is a danger that we will become more isolated from one another, even to an unhealthy degree. Tocqueville pointed out the political danger of social atomization for a democracy — viz., the divided are easier to conquer by a would-be autocrat. For all I know, that may be transpiring before our eyes. As socially marginal as literature is in the U.S., it does occasionally bring people together — at schools, libraries, book clubs, readings, etc. And (as Tocqueville also pointed out), interactions within civil society form a network that can be a backstop against autocracy. Those kind of communities and social interactions often become the infrastructure of political resistance. And they’ve gone by the boards in recent decades (the “Bowling Alone” phenomenon) — more so since social media has taken over our lives. Facebook and Instagram can help ignite social movements; but they can also be used to quash, fragment, or selectively enflame them (as the Russians have shown us). I expect climate breakdown to limit travel in future — for financial reasons, if nothing else. So, the restriction of intra-country travel in China and Italy, or of international travel to the U.S., may be a trial run for what will happen (perforce) in a climate-contracted world. At any rate, it’s a taste of what massive disruption of daily life looks like. And if you think this is bad . . . It also may be an opportunity to re-think the way we as writers and teachers of writing do business, in the era of climate collapse. In that case, if we survive the virus, there might be a silver lining to this particular cloud.
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June 2021
Kristin Prevallet Author/Editor
I'm a writer & teacher in Lawrence, Kansas who actually believes the scientists. I wrote a book of poems called Of Some Sky that seems to have something to do with all this. |