Netflix’s Audacious Riff on The Decameron Is Tons of Fun. But Is It Really The Decameron?
In the dreadful year of 2020, marked by the devastating spread of COVID-19, a generation unaccustomed to such widespread calamity sought solace and guidance in art. The popularity of contemporary speculative fiction about deadly viruses, including Ling Ma’s “Severance” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion,” skyrocketed. Readers also revisited classic tales of pestilence like Daniel Defoe’s “A Journal of the Plague Year” and Gabriel García Márquez’s “Love in the Time of Cholera.” However, no ancient text gained more attention than Giovanni Boccaccio’s “The Decameron.” Virtual book clubs formed to discuss its content. The New York Times even enlisted Margaret Atwood and Tommy Orange for their own adaptation, titled “The Decameron Project.” As reported by the fashion magazine Vogue, which prides itself on being in the know, “The Decameron Is Suddenly the Book of the Moment.”