Don't Talk About The War

[poliphilo]

 British films made immediately after the end of WWII are either all about the War or else ignore it completely. Case in point: The October Man (1947) an effective little thriller about a man recovering from a serious head injury who is falsely accused of murder. So how did he get that injury- bullet to the head? piece of flying shrapnel? Colliding with a tree after baling out of his Lancaster? No, he was travelling on a late night bus and the brakes failed and it smashed into a wall.  Why, yes, of course- an entirely civilian accident. I look at him and all the people round him and I think, "Two years ago all of you were either in uniform or sheltering from air raids and it's as if none of it ever happened"

I think I get it. The war was such a big thing in everybody's lives that it had either be dealt with full on- as in your standard war movie- or not at all. Refer to it even casually in a story about something else and its going to take over. It's not yet- and perhaps never will be- something to be treated casually.

I think something similar is happening with Covid.