Since the pandemic began, I've been reading everything I can that sheds light on how pandemic + mass crisis shapes society—history, theory, science fiction, + beyond.

From those 25 books or so, I distilled something of a blueprint for what comes next. https://onezero.medium.com/we-already-have-a-blueprint-for-what-comes-next-7298e4a409f7

I wound up putting together a wide-ranging reading list that touches on key works about pandemics + plague—from Frank Snwoden's Epidemics & Society to @StevenbJohnson's the Ghost Map to @WalterScheidel's the Great Leveler—but also fiction + nonfiction about how crises reorient us

I argue that key among works for understanding this moment are @NaomiAKlein's Shock Doctrine, Rebecca Solnit's A Paradise Built in Hell, @Marylgray + @Ssuri's Ghost Work, David Noble's Progress Without People, @EricHolthaus's Future Earth + @DavidGraeber's Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

As for the fiction—I cannot emphasize how contextualizing + instructive it can be to read good pandemic fiction right now. Camus's the Plague should be required reading for affirming humanity in crisis time.. Ling Ma's Severance is as cutting, vital + critical as everyone's said.

Of the science fiction, @Nicolaz's Ammonite + Connie Willis' Doomsday Book surprised me the most — thoughtful, engrossing visions and narratives of what it means to co-exist, as humans, with pandemic. I think both were twitter suggestions, so thank you!

Doing this reading was incredibly helpful for orienting my thinking about what to expect as the pandemic progresses and beyond—because as novel as it seems, this has not only happened before, but in the context of human history, it is always happening.

After the virus, there will be vast consolidations of power, and a vast potential for leveling the field. There will be new state powers entrenched and new innovations in technology + medical science attempted. New forms corporate exploitation will collide with new solidarities.

There will be—or already are—new spaces of hope, new opportunities. And also new excuses for draconian repression. Being alert to these openings will be crucial, and will determine whether we reform or condemn our societies

Hopefully some of you find this blueprint useful, too. And I'm grateful to all the authors who examine the nature of pandemic + crises.

It's long, but hope you'll check it out. Would love to hear thoughts + books that help you think through all this https://onezero.medium.com/we-already-have-a-blueprint-for-what-comes-next-7298e4a409f7