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Viruses

  • Raymond Malewitz (author)
Chapter of: Microbium: The Neglected Lives of Micro-matter(pp. 129–141)

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Metadata
TitleViruses
ContributorRaymond Malewitz (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.53288/0396.1.10
Landing pagehttps://punctumbooks.com/titles/microbium-the-neglected-lives-of-micro-matter/
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
CopyrightRaymond Malewitz
Publisherpunctum books
Published on2023-09-07
Long abstractOf the many kinds of living micro-matter, viruses might seem to be the least neglected—particularly now, given the recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. However, many aspects of COVID-19 history illustrate not only how viruses are neglected but also how their very existence depends upon their ability to evade detection. To explain this dynamic, the entry begins with a short reading of Mona Awad’s short story “A Blue Sky Like This,” published at the end of the first wave of COVID-19. The story’s strange protagonist and her interactions with New York City residents under lockdown illustrate both the motivations for and consequences of willfully neglect of viral dangers. This reading is juxtaposed with a discussion of scientific efforts to identify and understand viruses during the twentieth century, which illustrate the analogous challenges of understanding miniscule lifeforms, whose effects, in aggregate, can stretch to enormous geographical scales. The entry concludes with a reading of Charles Yu’s short story “Systems,” which attempts to represent these scales and overcome viral neglect by radically restructuring the form, content, and characters of conventional Western narrative.
Page rangepp. 129–141
Print length13 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Keywords
  • viruses
  • micro-matter
  • COVID-19
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • pandemics
Contributors

Raymond Malewitz

(author)
Associate Professor of English at Oregon State University

Raymond Malewitz is Associate Professor of English at Oregon State University. He is the author of one monograph, The Practice of Misuse (Stanford University Press, 2014), and is at work on a second, tentatively entitled “Epizootic Encounters: A Cultural History of Animal Disease.” His work has appeared in journals such as Critical Inquiry, PMLA, Modern Fiction Studies, and Configurations as well as more popular venues such as The Washington Post.