Maybe it's time to re-read Poe's story "The Masque of the Red Death."

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

A disease called the Red Death causes its victims to die quickly and gruesomely. The disease is spreading quickly, so the wealthy prince locks the gates of his castle to fend it off while ignoring the ravages the disease is inflicting on his country. Instead, he throws a fancy masquerade ball. Everybody is enjoying the party but at midnight a new guest arrives. His mask looks like the face of a corpse with spots of blood suggesting that he is a victim of the Red Death. The prince is annoyed, but the other guests are so afraid of the masked guest that they fail to prevent him from walking through the castle's rooms. The prince finally catches up to the new guest in the last room and dies. When other guests enter the room, they find that there is nobody inside the costume. Everyone else dies, too, because the Red Death has entered the castle. Here's the whole story: https://www.poemuseum.org/the-masque-of-the-red-death

I guess we could call an updated version "The Masque of the Orange Death"?

[liberalmuse]

1. I listened to that on YouTube the other day.

I love Poe.

[Maeve]

2. I always suspected the plague really came in thru the backdoor

He had to have servants...

[MFM008]

3. Good movie

With Vincent Price.

[NNadir]

4. It's been many years since I read fiction, but I have been thinking a lot about Camus' "La Peste..."

...often translated as "The Plague."

I read it as a young man, and I still remember it.

I'd like to go get a copy in original French, but the bookstores are closed.

[Leith]

5. I remember seeing this clip in high school in the early 1970s

Or one like it.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. "The tastes of the duke were peculiar."

"He had a fine eye for color and effects. He disregarded the "decora" of mere fashion. His plans were bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre. There are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was not. It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be sure he was not." Poe was prescient, I guess.