Wordless Wed: Prague Artist

An artist at the Prague Castle in the Czech Republic. 

I bought a painting from him after 

touring the castle in the pouring rain.

More Wordless Wednesday here.
Photo by moi.

A Journal of the Plague Year

A Journal of the Plague Year

by Daniel Defoe

★★★☆

With Ebola outbreaks on the news and debates on vaccinations on every blog, it seemed like a perfect time to return to one of the original records of a disease outbreak. I was particularly curious to read this book because it was mentioned multiple times in “On Immunity”. The author of Robinson Crusoe wrote this fictionalized account of a man who lives through the bubonic plague in England in 1665. Defoe was only 5-years-old at that time, but his account is considered one of the most accurate ones of the plague.

Defoe looks at the plague through the eyes of one man. He’s forced to decide if he should stay or go when the outbreak begins. So many people fled, but some didn’t realize they had already been infected. They carried the plague with them to other towns. Some people who were sick would throw themselves into the pits of the dead and wait their death out.

The book is surprisingly interesting for a nonfiction account written centuries ago. Defoe talked about the actually details of how the outbreak was handle. For example, when one person in a family got sick, the rest of the family was kept in their house with a guard posted out front or other times they were all sent to the sick house, where they often became infected even if they weren’t sick before.

Random Tidbits:

The scene from “Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail” where they are yelling out “Bring out your dead!” was a real thing. People went around with carts and actually yelled that out to collect the dead bodies.

The standard of burying people six feet under was also established at this point. It used to be a very arbitrary depth before the plague.

BOTTOM LINE: It’s less about the plague itself than it is about the study of a society in duress. It was fascinating to see the different ways people reacted. Their fight or flight tendencies haven’t changed much over the last 300 years.

Crow Call

Crow Call 
by Lois Lowry
★★★★★

Occasionally there are children's books that just hit a sweet spot. This one was such a treat and it's hard to even explain why. There are gorgeous illustrations, (like the one below), and a story that's based a the author's real life experiences, but there's no overarching lesson to be learned. 

A young girl heads out one morning with her father who has recently returned from World War II. Clad in a big flannel shirt with blonde pigtails,the girl is going crow hunting with her Dad. They stop at a diner for some breakfast and each scene gives us a little more insight into their dynamic.

There's something about the girl that just reminded me of myself when I was little. That tomboyish streak, the desire to be out in nature, I just loved it. Each illustration gave an added layer of depth to the story. They represent the budding relationship between the father and daughter, the understanding the find with few words, etc. 

I had the opportunity to hear the author, Lois Lowry, speak in 2010. I grew up adoring her books, The Giver and Number the Stars. She spoke about her life and this was one of the books she discussed. She said this happened to her and she'd always wanted to tell the story in some way. I think she certainly did it justice.

Image from Crow Call