“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
We’ve all heard of cabin fever. Well, welcome to self-quarantine during the Coronavirus, with social distancing and young folks who are being advised to stay far away from the Boomers.
So far my room is clean; we created an at-home office for me in the old guest room; the dishwasher broke; and we had to buy organic toilet-paper because Costco was sold out of, well, everything. You could try Amazon but they are out of everything, too. As the whole world is being asked to stay home during the coronavirus outbreak, many are learning first-hand the definition of feeling distraught because of prolonged confinement, which is just becoming more and more a fancy way to say stir-crazy.
It’s not all bad, except the harmony of my household has been severely affected. You see, I’m a senior in college and finding out that you’re going to be homeschooled until April isn’t exactly my cup of tea. Mainly because I’m an extrovert who is trapped living with three introverts. I’ve never been more homesick before, and I’m at home now. It’s strange to find out who you are when you’re in quarantine. Three of the four people in this household have been sent home, and man, have we butted heads. You find out people’s worst habits, and we all want to get out but have nowhere to go. I feel like I’m living in a modern-day The Shining (without the killing…). The most recent development of isolation with family was last night when there was a fight between two brothers on our front lawn, and the police came and had to talk to them. When you have a lot of pent up anger and emotions towards someone, being trapped with them may sound like a good idea, but in reality, I’d prefer the police not to show up in my driveway.
Now is this new version of isolation Fantastic? I think the Fantastic part about this all is how this pandemic has the human race on their toes. Only old people are dying; Italy is on lockdown; and neighbors are serenading each other from balconies. And the big one: we are all very unsure when this will end. Or maybe the Fantastic part of it all is watching nature take back her land. Fish and swans return to Venice’s canals as Italy’s lockdown leaves the water uncannily pristine. Some say there is already a difference in air quality over there. Spring is still blooming on schedule, and it’s getting warmer again.
I wonder if this is how we save the planet.
Even though I live in the Blue Ridge mountains, I still have school work and forget to go outside most days. If I’m going to go crazy, I might as well follow suit and stay in my pj’s all day. The only escape is my dreams, which are more like nightmares of missing class, no wifi, and dying.
We are being told that this is the new normal for a while, that’s the only way we can rationalize our anxiety about being restricted to one location with people who may be your family but aren’t really your apocalypse crew of choice.
Olympia: I’m eager to read more about the ways in which this pandemic might, as you say, “save the planet.” It’s looking for a silver lining in an awfully dark rain cloud, but the destruction of the planet is already about as dark a cloud as one can possibly imagine. A year or two from now, or perhaps a little longer, we’ll see the way literary writers have tackled this pandemic. Scientists’ responses will, I hope, be such more immediate.
Olympia, you bring up the idea that we are rationalizing our anxiety about the isolation. I never thought about it that way. I always thought of it as coming up with a justification for following the rules of self-isolation and social distancing. Using it as a way to drill into the heads of the people who are always on the move and always interacting with people. The “end” of the virus is certainly another aspect of the fantastic I didn’t think of.
Cabin fever definitely seems to be a staple of the fantastic, bringing out our deepest fears, insecurities, and feelings towards one another. Oftentimes, it is more the driving force in fantastic fiction than the actual fantastic element itself; it will be interesting to see how isolation will continue to affect our relationships and our lives as the virus continues.
I’m interested in your point about nature reclaiming the world. In the class Deviant Forms and Bodies with Professor Nevison, we’ve read a section of books about monsters and which fears they represent. One that kept coming back was the fear of nature reclaiming itself and conquering mankind. It’s interesting to think of nature, which based on the word itself is the most natural thing, and how it relates to the fantastic and horror specifically. Things might be better for nature in the long run, but it certainly makes things difficult on humanity.
I love how you described exactly what it feels like to be stuck in the house!! When I went to my boyfriend’s house, we were butting heads constantly! I was only there for three days! You captured the tension perfectly. I especially love the quote you opened the blog post with. I, too, wrote about how nature is taking back its “playground.” I found it so interesting that in Italy, the canals are clear and fish came back.
Things seemed to settle down shortly after a week or so. Still no solid schedule for anyone but we are all trucking along.
Olympia,
I could understand how you think that the Fantastic part about COVID-19 is eco systems restoring however, I would have to disagree. I think that it’s already taught to us that we are destroying the environment and the only way to fix it is to back off of pollution, gas emissions, etc… So I don’t think it’s necessarily fantastic and more factual.