It's a little tough to truly feel free in a time of pestilence

"No longer were there individual destinies; only a collective destiny, made of plague and emotions shared by all." Many more people in Japan can identify that quote now than would have been the case two months ago. In 1947, when Albert Camus' novel "The Plague" first appeared, it was interpreted allegorically. World War II had shattered the world. A plague seemed an all-too-fitting metaphor for man's bleak fate among the ruins.