From literature and films, what did you expect and what did you not expect about a pandemic?

[KindergartenKop]

I'm quite a fan of apocalyptic books. There are a few things about the current pandemic which appear as tropes in this genre. For example, there are still buses with posters on advertising films released in March!

On the other hand, the books and films never warned me about the government floundering though this situation. In the books it all happens much more quickly and the government are usually all gone by week 3 (I get that in reality that would be a very bad thing though!)

What did you expect?

[PoulePouletteEternellement]

Can't remember if anyone's mentioned the TV series Twelve Monkeys - which appears to be about a virus.

Is it worth my time and money??

[EsmeShelby]

I didn't expect it to be so boring.

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

I can never remember anyone's usernames, so don't worry about that I constantly worry that I've just been horrible to someone who's always really nice to me.

Also, sadly I'm crap IRL. I occasionally manage to make someone smile when laboriously typing with one finger after just the right amount of , and I'm always chuffed when that happens.

But thank you!!

[TheSeedsOfADream]

do stand up.
I'm sure the mutant virus hasn't laid you flat.

[TheSeedsOfADream]

Jesus, you're going to think I'm a mad stalker but I'd love you to stand up or write a book. Thank you for existing!

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

@sueelleker

Yes, and it should have mutated at least two or three times by now!
I thought it had? Once at least. I was working in a an NHS hospital pharmacy when bird flu started, and everyone was panicking-we were even measured for respirators, which never materialised; and all the panic died down. I rather hoped Covid would go a similar way.

I don't mean boring mutating. I mean proper mutating, like in Outbreak. So in the first mutation, it grows a tiny propeller and some grappling hooks. This is after about a day. In the second mutation, it grows guns. In the third mutation, it talks in the quiet carriage. And so on.

[SplitEndsNHairyLegs]

I thought there would be a lot more foraging, fighting for survival and passionate apocalyptic sex. Not so many Netflix marathons in me PJs.

[StealthPolarBear]

"you're on MUTE" is definitely the slogan for this pandemic

[minou123]

I expected to be beautiful!

Hear me out...

In the film, complete armegeddon, the female lead is immaculate, not a hair out of place, eyebrows perfect, makeup professional.
Me - 2 inch roots, eyebrows look dubious and not worn makeup for 6 months.
How do they do it?

[HeronLanyon]

Well this has reminded me of the archers - completely off air for a while then monologues then two handed scenes only and now still only 4 episodes a week. I’m worried about what is going on when we’re not listening in !!
Nothing could have prepared me for this !!

[Chosennone]

Ar one point I thought TV schedules were going to be worrying affected. Watching Ant & Dec completely change their format for Saturday Night Take Away, I was very unsettled! Then there was talk of Coronation St 'running out of episodes by summer', I was horrified... how could it come to this 🙈

[TheOrchidKiller]

"I'm just disappointed they closed the pubs in the first wave so we couldn't make a crazed dash through a series of suburban back gardens to hole up in the Winchester."

"Pork scratchings, anyone?"

I was expecting a cross between 28 Days Later, Dustin Hoffman in a hazmat suit, & the bit from Father Ted when the Irish mammies discover that Eoin McLove is staying on Craggy Island.

These disaster films never feature anyone doing jigsaws, or their video conference being disrupted by shit wifi or a cat.

[daisychain1620]

In Stephen King's The Stand people were tearing down weather stations as they thought that was the cause of the deadly virus. Surely people aren't that stupid in real life....oh yeah 5g masts torn down!
I would have expected groups of semi feral people, in cool Walking Dead type outfits forming gangs, lots of helicopters and more haz mat suits.

[HalloweenGhostlyHare]

I have an actual zombie plan.

I'd throw our elderly bad-tempered matriarch cat at them then run. She sees off foxes and our neighbour's rottweiler. Zombies would be no match.

(And she loves a good scuffle so she would not mind at all).

[TracyBeakerSoYeah]

Smug me thought 'thank goodness we'll never have a pandemic ever again' 😂
Then when the pandemic kicked off I thought that everything would be done & dusted by Easter 🤦‍♀️

Now nothing surprises me & yes it's really boring 🤷‍♀️

[tattooedmummy1]

halloweenghostlyhare God I hope so!

[Oblomov20]

Like you've all said, they couldn't make a film of it, because it would be so friggin boring.

[SleepingStandingUp]

There needed to be a spare of deaths in a big Western city, then a mass fleeing and road blocks, people getting past and spreading it.

The TV station and news channels seen to go quite quickly so no endless sitting around watching spreadsheets and politicians.

People aren't dying in the street and in not aware of mass looting

[HalloweenGhostlyHare]

@tattooedmummy1

I'd hoped it would be zombies.

I didn't expect the sheer amount of conspiracy theorists and covid-deniers and "masks are muzzles". Tbf they still baffle me nearly 9 months in.

to be honest we still don't know everything about the virus........there could be zombies yet

[Youandmealwaysandforever]

I never expected the outrage at two cucumbers in the script

[wanderings]

@ThePlantsitter I have seen graffiti saying "Blood on Govt's hands", in London.

Thinking about how boring it is, people who have been on Big Brother have sometimes said how boring it was; it's not like how it appears on TV at all.

[tattooedmummy1]

I'd hoped it would be zombies.

I didn't expect the sheer amount of conspiracy theorists and covid-deniers and "masks are muzzles". Tbf they still baffle me nearly 9 months in.

[Cismyfatarse1]

I was expecting more hot doctors. Not hot because of cheap ill fitting PPE but sexy, life saving hunks and glamorous swishy haired babes. All highly skilled but simultaneously very good looking.

Where are the hot doctors?

[CaraDuneRedux]

I'm just disappointed they closed the pubs in the first wave so we couldn't make a crazed dash through a series of suburban back gardens to hole up in the Winchester.

Pork scratchings, anyone?

[PoulePouletteEternellement]

@GoldenOmber

Probably the story that came closest is this one: So Much Cooking about a food blogger in a bird flu pandemic.

That story was uncanny. Here's a commentary on it by the author, Naomi Kritzer, written in April of this year:

www.tor.com/2020/04/14/didnt-i-write-this-story-already-when-your-fictional-pandemic-becomes-reality/