“Crowds confined into phalansteries built from their own data, human mass regressed into a hedonistic infant body.”

The article examines how László Garaczi’s Weszteg portrays isolation and mass formation in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. In the first part of my essay, I investigate the representation of the “quarantine state.” I argue that in the novel, technology deepens isolation instead of helping to connect with others. In the next section, I examine how the novel depicts the transformation of our relationship with “live” presence, physical proximity, and mass situations due to the pandemic and increasing technological mediation. As I show, physical contact with others and being in a crowd appear exclusively as inconvenient, frustrating, or threatening experiences in the novel. Thereafter, I analyze the dystopian images of violent, barbaric crowds in the text. I claim that they condense collective fears arising from the pandemic, and the novel sensitively points out the mechanisms of scapegoating in times of crisis. Finally, I argue that the novel also vividly portrays a mass experience that is not connected to physical presence. The “virtual crowd,” organized with the facilitation of mass media, is depicted as a multitude of lonely, isolated individuals. I scrutinize the characteristics of this crowd, as well as the role of biopolitical power and mass media—especially aggressive news streams—in organizing the masses and maintaining isolation.