The direct impulse for the undertaking was the experience of scientific work and exchange during the COVID-19 pandemic as a first-hand touch of the “poetics of disappearance” (p. 16). It is, needless to say, an experience with which the writer of these words deeply sympathizes, as most of the people nowadays probably do. Therefore, the book can claim a wide appeal, resulting not only from the topicality of its subject matter, but also the emotional affinity to the autho...
