What happens when 2020 is your Muse?
The Economist warns of an overflow of quarantine inspired stories that will hit shelves in 2021. After all, most creators channel their experiences into their work, and over the past year, most of our experiences have been the same – social distancing, being locked down at home, and a race to find (and receive) a vaccine.
So, what will this shared experience look like in the creative sphere? As creatives, should we be mining our recent experiences into our crafts?
It makes sense that the pandemic will be present in our art. After all, what is art if not a way to express the way one has experienced the world. Andrew Miller, the Economist’s culture editor, suggests that “the best efforts will be subtler” and will “capture the impact of the virus in indirect ways and settings”.
Incorporating Miller’s advice into our work would keep our art relevant, while also not sounding too repetitive. It does not take a literary genius to realize that a storyline revolving around a person being socially isolated by COVID would not pique much interest. But, if you draw on your COVID experiences in alternative and surprising ways, that might just capture interest – familiarity in the unfamiliar, finding new meanings without having to trudge through personal negative memories.
Events like wars and pandemics have pushed the arts in new directions in the past, the First World War was followed by the Roaring Twenties and the Lost Generation writers, the HIV/AIDS pandemic brought forth a surge of LGBT artists and creatives. But the question remains to be answered: How will the past year affect the next wave of art? And what can we bring to the creative table in the post-2020 era that will be of value?
How has the pandemic affected you in the arts? We would love to hear your thoughts on this! Leave a comment below or contact us.
Read Full Story in The Economist
Title: A Literary Outbreak
Author: Andrew Miller
Language: English
Published: 17th November 2020
Photo: Markus Winkler on Unsplash