Pandemic!  

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"Who, going forward, will be able to afford to continue shaking hands and embracing? The privileged few, that’s who. Boccaccio’s Decameron is composed of stories told by a group of seven young women and three young men sheltering in a secluded villa just outside Florence to escape the plague which afflicted the city. The financial elite will similarly withdraw into secluded zones where they will amuse themselves by telling stories in the manner of The Decameron, while we, ordinary people, will have to live with viruses."--Pandemic! (2020) is a book by Slavoj Žižek


"Many dystopias already imagine a similar future: we stay at home, work on our computers, communicate through videoconferences, exercise on a machine in the corner of our home office, occasionally masturbate in front of a screen displaying hardcore sex, and get food by delivery, never seeing other human beings in person." --Pandemic! (2020) is a book by Slavoj Žižek


"Trump announces proposal to take over private sector. The US president said he would invoke a federal provision allowing the government to marshal the private sector in response to the pandemic, the Associated Press reported."

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Pandemic! (2020) is a book by Slavoj Žižek on the coronavirus. The book is dedicated to Michael Sorkin.

Blurb:

As an unprecedented global pandemic sweeps the planet, who better than the supercharged Slovenian philosopher, Slavoj Žižek to uncover its deeper meanings, marvel at its mind-boggling paradoxes, and speculate on the profundity of its consequences, all in a manner that will have you sweating profusely and gasping for breath?

We live in a moment when the greatest act of love is to stay distant from the object of your affection. When governments renowned for ruthless cuts in public spending can suddenly conjure up trillions. When toilet paper becomes a commodity as precious as diamonds. And when, according to Žižek, a new form of communism may be the only way of averting a descent into global barbarism.

Written with his customary brio and love of analogies in popular culture (Quentin Tarantino and H.G. Wells sit next to Hegel and Marx in these pages), Žižek provides a concise and provocative snapshot of the crisis as it widens, engulfing us all.

Table of contents

Introduction: Noli Me Tangere 1

1. We’re All in the Same Boat Now 5
2. Why Are We Tired All the Time? 17
3. Towards A Perfect Storm in Europe 29
4. Welcome to the Viral Desert 37
5. The Five Stages of Epidemics 47
6. The Virus of Ideology 53
7. Calm Down and Panic! 61
8. Monitor and Punish? Yes, Please! 71
9. Is Barbarism With a Human Face Our Fate? 83
10. Communism or Barbarism, as Simple as That! 95
Appendix: Two Helpful Letters from Friends 107

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Pandemic!" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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