The Final Solution: Rock Around the Clock

You may be one of those who have exulted in terminal uniqueness. You have tenaciously held onto the love of extraordinary people with larger than life personalities, who seem to be impervious, invulnerable and insouciant and who seem to have written the music for the march to the beat of that different drummer. Well, it seems like coronavirus has drained all the exquisite eccentricity out of the world. All the proto-Edwardian dandies, the Oscar Wilde clones, pundits and insouciant fops, the "Kubla Khan" loving Coleridge-wannabes with the world-weary views have all been displaced by EMS workers in their hazmat suits. How is it possible to be different and special when the world is falling apart? The whole bohemian rhapsody has been eradicated in the face of a disease. Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet? Down the tubes, at least for now. In the era of social distancing Verlaine and Rimbaud wouldn’t get close enough to have it out with each other. The dyspeptic Bob Dylan, with his whining complaint is an afterthought. No one is rocking around the clock. Do you really want to see Mick Jagger performing the social distant version "Gimme Shelter" wearing a mask in front of an empty seat bank? What about The Remembrance of Things Past in the time of coronavirus?