![]() ![]() Spinney also presents how the flu influenced historical events and processes. ![]() The Spanish of the time often called the flu “The Naples soldier” ( Soldado de Napoles), not because they thought it was from soldiers from Naples but because the catchiness of the flu had been compared to a song of that name from the musical operetta “The Song of the Forgetting” ( La cancion del olivido). ![]() The neutrality of Spain allowed its newspapers to fully cover the flu, unencumbered by wartime censorship. These countries minimized or censored news about the flu in their country. Most of the other major powers, including the United States, were engaged in the war. It came about not based on any evidence that the pandemic originated or was more severe in Spain. I am not sure that this was the wisest of choices given how the common name arose. Yet despite the title, Spinney follows tradition and frequently refers to the pandemic as the “Spanish flu”. As a result, Porter’s color vision was diminished, leaving her seeing the world in washed-out colors. This story was influenced by Porter’s personal near-death experience with this flu that had inflamed her optic nerve. Spinney named her book Pale Rider after a Katherine Ann Porter novella, “Pale Horse, Pale Rider”, about the relationship between a solider and a journalist during the pandemic. ![]()
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