Skip to main content

All Fall Down

There is a good case for arguing that 2009 is shaping up to be the most catastrophic year in world history since 1939 (the start of the second world war). Despite the "Obama effect" - now in its 101st day - the world, in '09, is currently facing the most serious economic downturn since at least 1945, and, the most dangerous pandemic threat for forty years. On top of that, ongoing environmental degradation, and all the other problems that usually confront humanity, promise to make this end of the decade a particularly nail-biting one.

Eyewear, for one, is cautiously pessimistic. A few days ago, I believed that the swine flu virus might stay confined to those who had been to Mexico, or had contact with those there - but today, and as we move to Level 5, that seems less likely. Instead, health officials are now speaking of deaths - and the only question seems to be how many zeros after the one. One is reminded of Dylan Thomas who wrote that "after the first death there is no other" - but in a pandemic, that seems reversed - "after the first death there are so many".

This is a chilling time, almost a calm before the storm. London feels a bit like the first hours after the Martians landed on the common, that eerie normalcy that at heart is dreadfully false. How many days before the pandemic breaks out of its relatively contained mode, and really starts wreaking havoc in North America, Europe, and beyond? Time - often a healer - here may not be so kind. We all fall down.

Comments

italian eyewear said…
Because of the worldwide crisis, the italian eyewear industry will have a lot to suffer, because people won't have the money to pay for an expensive pair of sunglasses.
Rose Hunter said…
Hi Todd,

I am a writer living in Puerto Vallarta and am posting stuff about what's happening with swine flu in Mexico at my blog http://rosehunterblog.blogspot.com/

I am out of the eye of the storm as of now - amazingly, there are still no cases in this state, and in quite a few states in Mexico.
The second-largest city in Mexico - Guadalajara - has no confirmed cases yet (as of this morning's paper). Partially we don't know if this could be due to deficiencies in testing, as this is one of the things in short supply here, along with Tamiflu and masks, according to rumors. Quite a few people are not tempted to go anywhere near a hospital if they get sick either. I know of two people in this boat. Anyway, thought I'd post, in case you were interested....
I am not sure: some will always fall down, like Icarus maybe in the celebrated Auden’s poem.
But some others will not fall at all and pass by, like on that ship, vaguely hearing something like a splash somewhere near but not paying much attention, having always some business of their own to attend to.
Maybe this can be reassuring and optimistic.
Cautiously optimistic. The same caution maybe you put before your pessimism. I simply feel that in the “all fall down”, the “all” are too many and too “various” in a world in which I believe, as Louis MacNeice wrote, there is still “The drunkenness of things being various”.

Best wishes, Davide Trame
Alan Baker said…
This is an almost comically apocalyptic post Todd. The swine flu 'pandemic' is a media invention, something useful to fill the endless schedules of the 24-hour news outlets. The world is no more dangerous now than it was last year or 30 years ago.
EYEWEAR said…
Alan, I hope you're right.
Alan Baker said…
To Rosie Hunter, How interesting that there are still no cases in your state, and in quite a few states in Mexico, and that the second-largest city in Mexico - Guadalajara - has no confirmed cases yet. If anything else doesn't happen, please let us know.
Rose Hunter said…
Okay Alan, point taken. That non-news was meant to be in response to some of the hysterical media coverage that seemed to be implying that the whole of Mexico was falling down sick. I neglected to put it in that context, I realize. Don't know if that would have improved it for you, or not. Sweet of you to call me Rosie though.
Alan Baker said…
Rose/Rosie - yes, that does improve it. Apologies for the sarcasm. The media frenzy drives me nuts. The risk to anyone in the UK right now is infinitesimally small, and even those who've caught the bug are better now. It's a pity the world media doesn't whip up a panic about something that might really threaten humanity, like climate change.

Popular posts from this blog

CLIVE WILMER'S THOM GUNN SELECTED POEMS IS A MUST-READ

THAT HANDSOME MAN  A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought.  Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se.  What do I mean by smart?

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and  Silence of the Lambs .  I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".