So of course is denial and a tendency to put self interest ahead of public health.
He’d had no inkling that when the pestilence took hold Reykjavík would empty and convey the impression that nothing was happening at all that the town would become an abandoned set.’ In the face of an invisible enemy, staying home and trying to stay safe is a default human reaction.
In a scene that recalls drone footage of empty city centres under lockdown, Máni Steinn (the ‘moonstone’ of the title) goes: ‘on the prowl in the deserted centre of town. In the background, a volcanic eruption has created a miniature climate crisis, with Iceland experiencing the coldest, wettest winter on record and World War 1 ends: ‘In Reykjavík the cessation of hostilities was greeted with the same indifference as the cessation of the Katla eruption a few days before….There has been no cease-fire in the influenza’s war on the inhabitants of the town.’ Rereading Moonstone in the last few days, there were moments of eerie recognition. Moonstone weaves together stories of the ‘Spanish Flu’ or Great Influenza (H1N1) pandemic of 1918 with the birth of a sovereign Iceland and the cultural changes wrought by the advent of the cinema.
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