Alfred Tennyson’s passionate book-length elegy was once among the most popular poems in English. Today, it shows us how soulful art can stir us to life and stave off banality.
In this age of social distancing and lockdowns, communion is hard to find especially for more than two million Australians who live alone. A whipsmart feminist podcast can help.
The Munich-based record label ECM specialises in jazz and Western classical music. The artistry found in its catalogue allows a degree of abstraction that can be energising while enduring a pandemic.
Contrived plots, two-dimensional characters, ridiculous resolutions: the master of comic novels takes these elements and spins them into gold, bringing consolation during these grim times.
It may seem counter-intuitive to turn to Leonard Cohen’s ‘depressing’ songs during times of grief and uncertainty. But he shows there is always a reason to keep on keeping on.
Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, and Emilie François in Ang Lee’s film of Sense and Sensibility (1995).
Columbia Pictures
If it’s escapism you’re looking for, watch Schitt’s Creek or The Good Place. But if you want a dirty dive that makes the real world look good by comparison, try It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Samantha Morton in Code 46.
BBC Films, BBC, Kailash Picture Company
Playing Red Dead Redemption 2 during a pandemic is a surprisingly moving experience. The game is a haunting meditation on time, death, and the persistence of the past.
A rollercoaster washed up on a Jersey beach after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
Tom Mihalek/AAP
Books are both solace and provocation during a pandemic. This novel set during Hurricane Sandy is a poignant, often hilarious, reckoning with catastrophe and mortality.
Titian,The Death of Actaeon (1562).
Wikimedia Commons