Covid-19 through "Blindness"
In his article, Daniel Marachalik draws parallels between the global response to the Covid-19 Pandemic and Saramago’s depicted response to the fictional blindness disease. The primary crux of Marachalik’s argument is that, just like Saramago’s fictional disease, the unravelling of such a deadly disease has illuminated the selfish and discriminatory nature of many societies. In particular, both the Covid-19 Pandemic as well as the fictional Pandemic within the “Blindness” has exposed in terrifying light issues such as systemic racism, health-care access, and the danger of misinformation.
From Marachalk's article, we are able to view and interpret the Covid-19 pandemic through various new perspectives. In this sense, the cultural and technical conditions of Saramago's "Blindness", which allowed the novel to be distributed and preserved, contributed heavily to its impact and legacy. More specifically, by the books' preservation and distribution across the world, it allowed for scholars such as Marachalk to use the novel as a medium to gain a greater understanding of the relationship between society and epidemics.