@kzodasnowman It’s even been done before! Often enough the soul sickness does end up with a disease metaphor. There are some stories in closed cultures reckoning with rapacious consumption as a disease or supernatural predator metaphor, for instance; likewise Tolkien expanded the same concept from the merely-personal in a very brief reference to “dragon-sickness,” a reference to the lindwyrm myth. We are seeing hints of similar in new stories - most often in horror, which deals regularly with widespread unconscious fears. I’d like to see more of the converse in futurisms, such as solarpunk, where collective dreams and desires are reflected and given forms according to either metaphors or literal possibilities in the lexicon of their present-day authors, though.

One example in horror: Sinners is one of the best films of the last century, hands down. But it also came along, was spawned and written and then (rightly) celebrated, just when both creators and audience alike had been traumatized with the experience of *a parody of normal* outside, where death wears familiar faces and wants you to join in the fun.