The Monthly Digest: April 2020

This month we at LARB created space for our contributors to share their thoughts on the great enormous challenge facing our species. It’s far too soon to pass definitive judgment on the novel coronavirus pandemic and its consequences, but a record must be kept. With that in mind, we have inaugurated a series of Short Takes on the unfolding events, which include reports from Iran and Mauritius; analyses of the racist and anti-immigrant forces this emergency has unleashed; arguments against ageist triage; reflections on social distancing in the age of gigging; and more. One of these takes, by Michael Marder, is itself the first of a series of essays on the pandemic that will appear regularly in The Philosophical Salon, the LARB channel he edits. But this digest begins with a different form of response — a new poem by Fady Joudah, who is also a practicing physician on the frontlines of the fight. We hope this varied offering helps readers make better sense of our shared experience as, in Joudah’s words, the “distances close in on us.” — LARB Editorial