‘The Dying Never Stops’

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/opinion/letters/coronavirus-economy.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Will We Get Used to the Dying?,” by Charlie Warzel (Opinion, May 6):

How apt that “Live and Let Die” played as an arrogant President Trump — without a mask — visited a factory in Arizona that makes masks. It is a perfect theme for his re-election campaign because the message to those of us who are classified as “old” or “poor” or “working class” is that we are expendable. Thousands of deaths a day is our society’s offering in exchange for reopening our economy.

The poor and the working class return to work because they have to, they take their chances, serving all of us, as our economic needs trump their health. They have been told by the president that they are “warriors” and some must die, but the dying never stops. Those on the front lines — the health care workers — carry on without adequate protection.

Our message to President Trump must surely be that we will not “get used to the dying,” that our vote is power, and that we will leverage our vote in November — if we live that long.

Patricia Aiken O’NeillNaples, Fla.

To the Editor:

Orhan Pamuk’s excellent article “What Plague Novels Tell Us” (Sunday Review, April 26) struck me as not paying enough attention to the greatest modern pandemic novel of all: “La Peste” (“The Plague”), by Albert Camus.

At the time of the book’s publication (1947), with the memory of Nazism still fresh in most people’s minds, it was understandably interpreted as an allegory about the rise of fascism. The warnings were there. Why didn’t people do something?

The central character, Dr. Rieux, in Oran, Algeria, watches bubonic plague strike his town. He sees the danger, and recognizes the cause. But the civil authorities are frozen and helpless. So the plague spreads unchecked.

The book can certainly be read as an allegory. But in the light of today’s headlines it reads equally well as a well-realized narrative of how pandemics strike. A film of the book was released in 1992, starring William Hurt. If there is ever a remake, my nomination to play the part of Dr. Rieux would be Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Peter GroseSt. Pierre d’Oléron, France

To the Editor:

Re “Nude Selfies Are Now High Art,” by Diana Spechler (Sunday Review, April 26):

I noted with interest how the art historian Kenneth Clark distinguished between the concepts of nude and naked, “‘naked’ implying an unwanted lack of clothing,” Ms. Spechler writes. “The word ‘nude,’ on the other hand,” Sir Kenneth wrote, “carries, in educated usage, no uncomfortable overtone.”

I have been an art educator for 29 years, working with children and adults. When we enter any museum, I always stop before a nude Greek or Roman sculpture, preferably life size, and ask the children to describe what they see.

Inevitably one of the children will say the figure is “naked,” after most have giggled. “Naked” to them means what they are when they come out of the bath. “Nude” now applies to a work of art.

We then discuss the differences between nude and naked. Problem solved. No more giggles for the rest of the trip. I find this method works with children, adults not so much.

Helane E. RheingoldStamford, Conn.