Virus novels and the Anthropocene:
A philosophical diagnostics of the present
Abstract
If (as Hegel once argued) the objective of philosophy is to develop a diagnostics of the present, emerging viral threatsstand out as an important focus of attention and as a distinctive feature of the current era. Since the first AIDS cases were reported in 1981, viruses have increasingly drawn the attention of virologists, public health experts, philosophers, bioethicists and novelists. In recent years, we saw the emergence of new global viral threats to human health, including coronaviruses (SARS, MERS), bunya-viruses (Schmallenberg), influenza viruses (H5N1, H1N1, H7N9) and henipaviruses (Hendra, Nipah), but also the expanding spread of viruses that were previously confined to tropical regions. And today, Zika viruses trigger public health concerns. The resurgence of viral threats is closely related to demographic, technological and cultural developments. Rapid population growth combined withincreased urbanisation, global connectedness and global mobility, but also climate change, environmental and ecological disruption, deforestation and the destruction of previously pristine habitats, all these factors facilitate the emergence and global spread of viruses. The pattern of disease outbreaks has changed from localized clusters of disease in confined populations to dispersed outbreaks with opportunities for further transmission. Viruses have become actors on the global stage, co-determining our future.They are part of the new era: the Anthropocene (Crutzen). Paradoxically, while human health hassignificantly improved during recent decades, environmental deterioration produces new health threats (Mackenbach; Ten Have). As David Quammen phrased it in his book Spillover, “zoonotic spillover” (viral transfer from animal hosts to humans) is “a word of the future, destined for heavy use in the twenty-first century”, representing “the most significant growing threat to global health” (2012, p. 21). In my lecture, I will address viral threats from an oblique perspective, namely via the window of virus novels. H5H1 for instance became a source of inspiration for best-selling novelist Dan Brown in his novel Inferno. Viral novels such as Infernoarelaboratories of the imagination where future scenarios can be explored. Beginning with Bram Stoker’s Dracula (a virus novel avant la lettre), I will analyse virus novels such Sakyo Komatsu’sVirus(1964) and Greg Bear’s Darwin’s radio (1999) to indicatehow they may inform and inspire contemporary philosophical, bioethical and societal debate.