Introduction

The year 2020 has been deeply marked by an irreversible global event. Thinking about the extreme impact of the pandemic has been the task undertaken by practically all the great specialists worldwide, in their most diverse areas of activity. It is interesting to observe how certain regions of knowledge constitute spaces of thought more directly related to the problems we are facing, such as the biological sciences, medicine, and pharmaceuticals. However, in the face of a problem of such wide proportions, why not question the role of philosophy in the context of the current crisis that everyone is going through due to COVID? Why cannot the philosophical approach occupy a prominent place in the investigation of possible damage caused by the pandemic crisis? Firstly, it is worth recalling the meaning of the term pandemic. According to a recently published article by Heath Kelly on the World Health Organization Website, “a pandemic is defined as ‘an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people.’ “ Although this definition is not elusive, it includes, however, “nothing about population immunity, virology or disease severity”.1 It means that a pandemic consists of a peculiar situation in which all the different aspects of life are damaged, not restricted, nevertheless, to a biological, or even medical, menace.

As it does not mean only a disease severity caused by the circulation of a virus around the world, but all the problems that come into the comprehensive area of human life, a pandemic is not only a subject concerning biological research or other related areas, but also the human sciences in general, that is, a philosophical approach allows us to see aspects that are commonly neglected when dealing with the problem.

Carl Plantinga illuminates the fact that the Western offers a platform by which the great experiment that is the formation of America offers us a canvas where the nature of the imposition of forms of ‘civility’ with complications can be explored, and that the interstitial figure of the gunfighter intensifies the notion of the price of social order, where violence, death and its consequences can be approached, contemplated and complicated. He states that traditionally:

With the gunfighter comes fighting, and this more often than not means death, with violence being the propellent of this character trope. Screen violence too is pleasurable to those who enjoy the Western narrative, and however much it may be shrouded in notions of heroism, justice and corrective retribution, it is woven into this the enjoyment of death and dying in dramatic forms. Plantinga continues: ‘Rationalizations of just retribution often cover darker motivations which are disguised or displaced in tales of skilful gunplay and heroic action. All of this helps us justify our allegiance with and pleasure in the protagonist's violence’ (75). This chapter will explore some of the ways in which the Western has approached the gunfighter's introduction into a social grouping as a deathly pleasure-dome and uses the example of selected works of Clint Eastwood as a stage by which to investigate these issues.

Introduction

Sorrow or suffering is a part of life and they occur and reoccur in different stages of life. Buddha is the prominent figure in religious circles who spoke and treated pain as the most common feature of human life. While there is no need for mentioning about pain and suffering as a common factor a pandemic situation, in the larger category of life, the role of pain and suffering is a relevant chapter. The concept of seva (service) is another important aspect that comes into prominence in the case of a such pandemic situation.

The unprecedented phase that humanity had faced during 2020–2022 in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the response towards it make us go a step closer to an attitude of ‘technocentricism’. This further entangles us with philosophical issues based on the ethical predicament of a technological era. Thus, the simple slogan, at present, ought to be ‘fight the virus, not the carriers’. The Anthropocene is leading a way to ‘technopocene’ where science and technology would reign supreme. The ethical paradigm of the humans would be changing its course to accommodate the concerns of the scientists and technical innovators. Posthumanism originated in the fields of science fiction, futurology, contemporary art and philosophy, which means a person or entity that exists in a state beyond being human. The shift challenges us to address issues of ethics and justice, language and trans-species communication, the post-social systems, and the intellectual aspirations of interdisciplinarity. Further, is there scope for ethics if all are programmed to act in a particular, specific way with no choice of free action?

Shannon Mattern argues that cities are not just sites of information access (and production) but a medium themselves. She writes, ‘our physical land¬scapes inscribe, transmit, and even embody information – about their histo¬ries, their state of repair, their potential uses, and so forth’ (2017: xii). In this vein, insurgent play inscribes new uses, unintended uses, covert uses. In this concluding chapter, I want to close with an account of the zenith of insurgent play, the spaces underneath flyovers. Flyovers are cast, and demanded, as a solution to density. Whether coveted or reviled, all flyovers have an under¬side. The underside of flyovers provides obscured patches for insurgent play. Concrete pillars, angled drains, supporting walls can all be utilised to make insurgent play space, along with fabricated ramps, bumps and pilfered street objects. The meshwork of built forms, waste, plants, animals and weather shape and reshape the underside of flyovers in ways unlike more visible spaces because the underside is the afterthought of elevated vehicular mobility. The underside is also the dark side, a space for the nefarious, the antisocial, the outcast. Rarely are these leftover spaces explored as play space. Yet globally, the best place to find insurgent play space is under a flyover. Seriously. Go and see.

I propose the spaces created under flyovers as an alternative to the open public space coveted in SDG 11, discussed in Chapter 1. The underside of flyovers is the insurgent parkland, the insurgent pitch or court, the insurgent playground. In some cities, the underside of flyovers is turned into open pub¬lic space for free use and/or designated use. However, in much of the world, the underside of flyovers is leftover space. Leftover space is used to build shel¬ter, to peddle goods, to dump waste, to park vehicles and to play. Given the ubiquity of the flyover as global urban form, undersides have the potential to be universal insurgent play spaces especially when fabricated using DIY techniques described in Chapter 3.

Despite the specious claims of opponents, New Women embraced mother¬hood, as evident in the poems in this chapter. Yet total absorption in mother¬hood, rather than pursuing other interests as well, concerned New Women seeking additional fulfillment. The poems herein, however, direct their focus to the joys of motherhood in the first section, followed by the deep pain wrought by the poverty that precludes proper care and, even more horrific, the death of a child. Many of the verses were written by Katharine Tynan, covering both the happiness and the heartache attendant upon motherhood.

The chapter leads with two selections by Tynan. In “Talisman,” the child's presence brings a heavenly bliss so powerful that the mother fears no harm shall come to her as she holds her child. “Baby's Song” compares the infant's utterances as matching the beauties of a blackbird's own song. Annie Matheson's “To a Little Child” likens the love projected to a religious expe¬rience for the doting mother. E. Nesbit's “Baby Song” is composed of two parts, with the first occurring while the infant sleeps under the guardianship of angels, and in the second segment the baby awakens to nature's beauty and a mother's love. Mathilde Blind speaks in “Motherhood” of the pain of the birthing process, but it is followed by the mother's unbridled love. In “A Child's Fancy,” Blind presents a child's view of nature as the mother encour¬ages him. Next come five poems from Augusta Webster's Mother and Daughter, an unfinished sonnet sequence. In “IV,” the child happily plays outdoors and calls for her mother to appreciate the budding flowers. The mother in “VI” admits that the child can be trying with her actions, but soon forgives the daughter that she holds so dear. The aging mother in “XVI” content¬edly realizes that her child's happiness is keeping her young.

The poems in this chapter castigate aspects of organized religion and its adherents. Christianity and the Bible consistently treated women as inferior, which served to justify their marginalization. New Women challenged male-governed ecclesiastical authority in their poetry and pointed to the problems with organized religion. In the chapter's opening section, the church and flawed “faithful” receive harsh criticism for corruption, apathy, hypocrisy, and selfishness. The next section explores agnosticism as articulated in mul-tiple ways by its adherents, both definitively and regretfully. The third group of verses raises questions that hold no answers for their speakers. The final section presents unconventional approaches to religion that offer alternative approaches to spirituality.

In the first group of poems, May Kendall's “Church Echoes” expresses dis¬dain for privileged churchgoers who lack sincerity in their faith as well as com¬passion for impoverished faithful also in attendance. Her “Otherworldliness” derides individuals preoccupied with their own souls while neglecting to help others in need. Mary E. Coleridge emphasizes in “Our Lady” that God chose a commoner as Christ's mother rather than a wealthy woman. “In and Out of Church” by L. S. Bevington condemns the clergy for its preoccupation with riches and its predatory behavior toward the poor.

Starting the second section, Mathilde Blind reveals the speaker's regret in “The Agnostic” that in good times gratitude toward God cannot be voiced. “The Agnostic's Psalm” by Constance Naden suggests that spiritual forces nevertheless course through a doubter's being. A nonbeliever in E. Nesbit's “Cul-De-Sac” regrets that death will bring no understanding because of the conviction that an afterlife does not exist. The speaker in Coleridge's “Doubt” laments the lack of a disbeliever's bond with God.

Not surprisingly, considering the sweeping Darwinian presence in the late nineteenth century, New Woman poets incorporated evolutionary concepts and terminology into their verses attuned to science and to gender. The poetry undermined cultural presumptions of women's inferiority through its pronounced familiarity with scientific discourse and issues. In some instances, the poets revised the script of the evolutionary process, addressing matters that broadened the scope of other writings to focus especially on alternate interpretations regarding the course of events and their ramifications. The poems included in the following pages offer insights into evolutionary pro¬gression, satirize assumptions of human superiority, and point to scientific endeavors.

The opening section, “Narratives of Evolution,” brings Mathilde Blind's masterful response to Darwinian discourse on the origins and development of life on earth. The first of three parts comprising Blind's The Ascent of Man, “Chaunts of Life” traces the evolutionary trajectory, and especially pertinent excerpts from the account are presented here. A second description of evo¬lution, A. Mary F. Robinson's “Darwinism,” identifies unrest as an evolu¬tionary stimulus. Isabella J. Southern's “Evolution” relates the process to the development of the human sense of reason.

The next group of poems, penned by May Kendall, brings a humorous element to scientific discussion. Kendall's several verses in this vein ridicule the arrogant stance that considered all nonhuman life forms as irretrievably inferior and the illusion that evolution brought unremitting progress toward perfection to humanity. In part, the humor stems from nonhuman speak¬ers pondering the topic. “Lay of the Trilobite” presents the extinct creature comparing its simple existence to human strife, bringing dismay to its human listener.

Since the pandemic spread of the virus SARS-CoV-2 or “Covid-19” globally took place in 2020, life has become increasingly online. Schools and universities had to adapt their classes to distance learning platforms; restaurants and cafes shut down and started operating through take away only; physical business quickly shifted into online stores; families and friends who would often physically meet each other, had to remotely talk though video call apps. While big tech companies like Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon recorded their highest revenue rates, many people all over the world lost their jobs and/or had to reinvent themselves working from home. In this overwhelming storm of digital gateways, social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Reels, and Snapchat escalated their levels of use and abuse, capturing even more deeply our lifetime and attention as a commodity for distraction, addiction, control and manipulation. Why is it no longer enough to be in the offline ordinariness of the here and now?

Although within the public world, individual acts of philanthropy by women were generally considered acceptable as an extension of their domestic work. New Women, however, brought forth the issue of poverty on a much broader public scale with their poetry. Poverty, among other social concerns, was an important issue to New Women seeking a more caring society, creating soli¬darity with other marginalized individuals as well. Economic perturbations at the fin de siècle created grave hardships for workers barely earning subsist¬ence wages and struggling to survive in a harsh world. Children born into poverty lived in horrific conditions in sharp contrast to children who thrived in comfort and security. In far too many cases, comparatively wealthy indi¬viduals ignored the suffering of others and concerned themselves only with their own well-being.

The plight of workers enduring difficult and inhumane conditions con¬stitutes the first section of this chapter's poems. E. Nesbit's “A Last Appeal” features the voices of laborers who make wealth for others and seek their fair share, with the threat of vengeance for inaction. A second Nesbit poem, “In Praise of Work,” relates the sad situation of workers who are accorded only a few days annually in which to gain a measure of freedom. In “A Song for Women,” Annie Matheson describes the bleak conditions of a seamstress whose work seems endless. May Kendall's “Legend of the Maid of All Work” focuses on this laborer who on a rare free day sees a much brighter world than the one she inhabits. The male speaker of Kendall's “The Sandblast Girl and the Acid Man” finds consolation in his affection for the titular female and, despite his sparse earnings, believes that he is far more fortunate than others in even worse situations. May Probyn describes a disturbing scene as a family man expires “At the Workhouse Door.”

Introduction

Although much has been written about the COVID-19 pandemic, relatively little has been devoted to reflect on this global phenomenon from a philosophical perspective. The bulk of the discussion seems to be focused on medical and virological experts say, or what political and social analysts say, tracing the causes of this virus and probing into the social and political origins and implications of the pandemic. While these discourses are no doubt important, they are by nature focused on the particulars and are unable to contemplate on the philosophical significance of the pandemic. This paper attempts to contribute to existing discussions about the pandemic from the perspective of Agamben's theory of biopolitics. The theory of biopolitics essentially argues that behind the particularities of modern bureaucratic politics is the expansion of a biopolitical paradigm which reduces human beings into “bare life.” This is a sort of governance whereby people are relocated within a zone of radical indistinction where they can be exterminated without committing murder. This is further expressed in the modern state through the concept of “state of exception.” This paper argues that Agamben's warning that biopolitics has become the dominant political paradigm of our time evidenced by government reactions such as the imposition of movement controls, mass surveillance, and even vaccine passports, which makes a farce of belief that we live in an age of liberal democratic progress. Although this paper adopts Agamben's theoretical frameworks, it also seeks to go beyond Agamben's radically pessimistic trajectories by considering prospects of a new political arrangement using Deleuze and Guattari's theory of the state.

Introduction

During a pandemic, the psychological disposition corresponding to hope proves to be one of the ways to react to the despair to which the terrible experiences of the past months have reduced human beings. In my analysis, I shall take into consideration some aspects of the Theology of Hope. My attention will be concentrated on some reflections on hope and faith expressed by Jürgen Moltmann in his work Theologie der Hoffnung. Untersuchungen zur Begründung und zu den Konsequenzen einer christlichen Eschatologie (Engl. transl.: Theology of Hope. On the Ground and the Implications of a Christian Eschatology).

The Christian virtue of hope has multiple references according to Moltmann. It is hope in the individual resurrection, in the new coming of Christ, and in God's promise of a new kingdom. Creation has not been brought about once and for all. God's promise of a new kingdom is the promise of the new creation of a new dimension of the world which is completely different to the present conditions. In Moltmann's view, the Christian theological virtue of hope does not only concern the dimension of the afterlife. Christian hope is directed at a complete renewal of the world and produces a new orientation in the life of the believers. Hence, the birth of hope in the believer corresponds to a complete modification of the person: the person who has hope acquires a new orientation in life. Life is, thanks to hope, directed towards the future and the modification of the present. The believer knows through God's promise that the dimension of the present does not exhaust the whole reality because a new dimension, a new creation will come; the believer is not imprisoned in an eternal present. The promise of change entails that the conditions of the present are not an inevitable destiny. Hope in a future of change corresponding to God's promise entails the believer's will to modify the present.