Happy weekend folks! Of course, this salutation doesn’t quite pack the same punch it had done once upon a not so distant time, a time that I and many others across the world have fondly come to remember as the pre-COVID days. You know the time I am referring to, when weekends meant happy hours or dining out with family or gathering at a friend’s place for impromptu parties. Now the COVID-19 pandemic has left us with a real-life rendition of Groundhog Day, wherein we are living the same day over and over again, with no end in sight. And yes, I realize how depressing this sounds so lets just change the topic, shall we? Though we won’t stray too far away …
So, I wanted to share some thoughts on a book I recently read, or rather, re-read. This book came out in 2013 and featured a rather dashing American professor who has a penchant for sprinting around famous European cities to unravel secrets mired within layers of history, mythology and the occasional pinch of science fiction. I am, of course, talking about Robert Langdon – a character created by the author Dan Brown and brought to life on the silver screen by the actor lovingly dubbed as America’s dad, Tom Hanks. And the book I am referring to is Inferno, Robert Langdon’s last but one outing till date.
When I had first read this book, back when it had come out in 2013, I remember I had not been too impressed. While I had loved Angels & Demons and had thoroughly enjoyed The Da Vinci Code, I had felt that the following Robert Langdon novels had settled into something of a well trodden rut, churning out the same drama over and over again, albeit in different settings each time around. Anyway, I had read the book and then put it out of my mind till a couple of days back when I discovered its Kindle version on my phone. Having nothing else to do, and studiously ignoring the pile of unread books I had recently got from the library, I started reading Inferno again. And it turned out to be quite an interesting experience this time around.
At the risk of giving out spoilers, at the heart of the plot is the threat of an eventual global collapse due to overpopulation. At one place, the book references an excerpt from Thomas Robert Malthus’ An Essay on the Principle of Population which drives home a rather terrifying point – that the only way to counteract the dangers of a burgeoning population is by the way of a widespread culling of humans (see image below).
I don’t know about you but this really hit close to home. For years, experts having been warning against the hubris of the human race in assuming that an endless source of resources exist to sustain us. Forests are being encroached upon and many species are going extinct. The impact on our Earth’s natural balance may not be evident now but there is no doubt that we are at the precipice of disaster. That is why a part of me is wondering if this COVID-19 pandemic is Nature’s rebellion against our way of life. As it is, this one virus has completely upended life as we know it and continues to do so. If this is indeed our Earth fighting back, who knows what other terrors lurk in the shadows,waiting for their chance to level the playing field? When Dan Brown had written Inferno, I doubt he would have anticipated a day when echoes of real life could be heard among the words he had put to paper. Then again, who among us had anticipated we would be living in a world like the one we are occupying right now?
Superb post!!
Thanks!