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Collected Item: “Humans of Covid-19 AU: Alex Landragin”

Give your story a title.

Humans of Covid-19 AU: Alex Landragin

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

Instagram post

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

“COVID19 hasn’t really made a huge difference to my life. I was working full time up until last year, then I quit my job to go back to writing full time. I live alone, and my office is in my home, so I already spend most of my time socially isolated. I'm not sure yet how the pandemic will impact on my writing. I am using this time to do a large amount of reading and take in many ideas.
Weirdly, the novel that I published last year is actually an apt one for a pandemic. A big part of the novel takes place in Paris in 1940 as the narrator, who is Jewish, waits for the Nazis to invade France; he is largely stuck in his flat and there’s a curfew going on. So in a way, my novel reflects the current reality.
Sometimes a silver lining doesn’t justify the damage caused by the thunderstorm. But I hope that this pandemic will lead to a recalibration of our priorities, away from a fantasy happiness bubble living beyond our needs. I hope the return to scarcity will be accompanied by a return to cooperation, mutual assistance, empathy. Some of those values that we associate with helping each other through tough times
I've been making a concerted effort to not rely too much on technology. I’ve made a deliberate decision to read more and I hope this quarantine will lead to a revival in interesting reading for all.
I've been reading a book that was written almost 100 years ago. The main message I've taken from the book is that you’re never going to get used to this. The only thing you can do is get used to not getting used to it.”

Instagram post on Alex Landragin, writer, and his experience during the pandemic, which was created by a psychology student living in Melbourne who was interested to hear about how COVID-19 was impacting on different peoples’ lives.

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Amira Moshinsky

Give this story a date.

2020-05-06
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