I sent out my first invoice in nearly four months yesterday - since early April, according to my invoicing app. And that last invoice I sent was literally the last invoice I will ever send to Fairfax/Nine. They kicked my arse to the kerb in the first week of lockdown.
And yet I'm still doing better than a lot of people, and a hell of a lot better than most peeps in media and publishing. If you're doing it tough wherever you are, my thoughts are with you.
Perhaps some apocalyptic fiction might help?
Sparty Williams, who has a couple of cameo appearances in the next Zero Day book, sent me an encouraging link to a piece in The Grauniad reporting on the benefits of reading end of the world fiction here at the end of the world.
For those of you who whiled away hours on the sofa watching society crumble in the face of marauding zombies, deadly aliens and infectious diseases – it’s time to reap the rewards.
Psychologists have found evidence that fans of apocalyptic movies – where global order is upturned – may be more resilient and better prepared to deal with the coronavirus pandemic than the rest of us.
The bleak scenarios thrown up by films such as Contagion, from panic buying and isolation to fear of others and fake claims of miracle cures, appeared to help viewers take the outbreak in their stride and work out how best to handle the crisis.
Admittedly, I've been writing a lot of apocalyptic splodey-fic during lockdown, but for my own reading I’ve been getting into high fantasy and space opera. To each their own.
My main takeaway from the Guardian piece wasn't that horror movie fans were better prepared, emotionally, for the pandemic than most people, and those who favoured "prepper” movies were the best prepared of all, but rather that the lead psychologist on the study, a guy called Coltan Scrivner from the University of Chicago, has built his career around studying "morbid curiosity."
So I guess I'm not the only one.
Also, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a prepper movie. Maybe there is a secret category at Netflix?
Its funny how the preppers who spent the last decade getting ready for the apocalypse were the first to melt down when asked to wear a paper mask for a few weeks but I digress.
Totally agree on the value of apocalyptic fiction in the current situation. If anyone hasn't watched Contagion yet go do it now. Also recommend to read Station Eleven, by Emily St John Mandel, which deals with a very similar scenario to the current pandemic right down to the run on toilet paper and the stupid cultists popping up. It was written in 2014!
Hey! If you remember, when this whole zombie Covid thing started, I was the one who posted here ruminating about how best to defend his village with cricket bats and toasting forks. Turned out not to be necessary, as it happens, but the thought was there.
It certainly feels like my mental health hasn't been as badly hit as colleagues in a similar cultural and socio-economic position to me, this is a reasonable hypothesis but how to test?
HA!!! I see that now its moved to elcktronic ya bags of cashola system aint working, thinking about that some more..what have you been feeding the bunnies if cash cirk is almost gonski!
Its funny how the preppers who spent the last decade getting ready for the apocalypse were the first to melt down when asked to wear a paper mask for a few weeks but I digress.
Totally agree on the value of apocalyptic fiction in the current situation. If anyone hasn't watched Contagion yet go do it now. Also recommend to read Station Eleven, by Emily St John Mandel, which deals with a very similar scenario to the current pandemic right down to the run on toilet paper and the stupid cultists popping up. It was written in 2014!
I agree. The Time of Covid really suits the non-tactile, introvert, apocalypse dreamers among us.
Hey! If you remember, when this whole zombie Covid thing started, I was the one who posted here ruminating about how best to defend his village with cricket bats and toasting forks. Turned out not to be necessary, as it happens, but the thought was there.
It certainly feels like my mental health hasn't been as badly hit as colleagues in a similar cultural and socio-economic position to me, this is a reasonable hypothesis but how to test?
Surely I'm not the only one whose criteria for a place to live includes defencibility in the situation of a zombie apocalypse?
HA!!! I see that now its moved to elcktronic ya bags of cashola system aint working, thinking about that some more..what have you been feeding the bunnies if cash cirk is almost gonski!