Man, this sounds like I'm writing an essay, doesn't it? Haha, oh well. I'll try to have fun with this while keeping you all interested (but if you don't want to put up with me talking about books for the next few paragraphs, you should scroll down. If it helps, just look at the pictures).
One of my all time favorite books that I have read in this genre is "Earth Abides," by George R. Stewart. The story follows the life of a boy named Isherwood (Ish) Williams.
At the beginning of the story, Ish is living in a mountain cabin in California, doing research for his graduate studies, isolated from the rest of civilization. At one point, he gets bitten by a rattlesnake and is forced to remain in bed until he can recover. While in bed, Ish gets horribly ill, and fears that he is coming down with something on top of the rattlesnake poison within him. When he returns to health, he travels back to society to discover that everyone has been killed by a deadly disease that has decimated the world's population.Ish travels across the country, searching for survivors of this terrible plague. While traveling to New York city and back, he comes across and adopts a dog that he names Princess. He meets up with several survivors that are attempting to live off the food and trash left behind in the city. As he travels, Ish realizes that staying in the city would mean certain death, as there would soon be little to no food to live off of. Realizing this, he returns to California where he meets Em, a strong woman who he falls in love with and marries.
Once he meets Em, a new section of the book begins entitled "the quick years" and describes in a few pages the next 21 years of their life, how several other survivors joined their new "colony" and how their numbers began to grow rapidly with the large numbers of children being born. At one point, Ish remarks how "each child pushes the darkness back a little further", referring to the expansion of his now tiny world. After this brief section, the middle portion of the book describes the "year 22," and all the eventful things that happen during that period of time (i will not reveal that here, you'll have to buy the book yourself, the link is given). this is then followed by another interlude entitled "the quick years." This section marks an undetermined number of years as the colony moves forward in its life. After this, a third and final section marks the conclusion of the book, with an ending that I, myself found satisfying, yet wanting more.
There are several main topics that Stewart inserts into the story, one of these is the resulting return to nature, and how that will affect the world around them. The characters in the novel are forced to endure plagues of ants, and rats. buffalo and lions (i believe it was lions, although I cannot recall, sorry), as the natural words struggles to return itself to the way things were had humanity not existed on Earth.
The second topic that Stewart covers its the loss of technology and literature. Several times in the story, Ish remarks how much knowledge will be lost, and attempts to teach the children in the colony as much as possible. However, the children are reluctant to learn, having never experienced "school" as we know it. Ish fears that the colony will not be able to survive once the things left behind by the "Old Americans" as they are called, are gone. He fears that without guns and bullets, they will not be able to catch game, or without their supply of running water from the dam, that they will not be able to get enough water. However, as the years pass, the subsequent generations learn what they need to survive through Ish's careful guidance. As Ish was attempting to get the children to learn for school, he realized that they would not because it wasn't fun, so instead he tried to make the important things they needed to learn into games and fun activities. so, in an attempt to save his colony, he build the children some bows and arrows ( he "reinvented" them) and gave them to the children to play with. Later, the children took these bows, and adapted them to suit their less childish needs as the guns that they were using began to fail because of rust.
A third topic that Stewart covers is a reintroduction into myth and superstition into this new colony that does not understand the world around them. A child is confused by a coin with a winged lady on it (or something, I cannot remember) and asked Ish if that was what the "Old Americans" were like. The new generations believed the "Old Americans" to be almost Godlike, having built the impressive, yet imposing structures that the new generations know nothing about. Imagine living in a primitive world, but having a structure like the golden gate bridge looming out of the fog. what would you think? Ish also carries a hammer around with him, he's had it since page one of the book when he got bit by the rattlesnake, and it has never left his side since. The rest of the tribe sees Ish as their leader, and when Ish gets old, and asks one of the children to bring his hammer that was resting against the wall, the child refuses to touch it. Ish then realizes that the children have become very superstitious about this hammer, treating it as a symbol of power, and authority. in another time, Ish notices how one of his great-grandchildren explains to him how when building arrows, they fabricate the heads, out of coins. However, they only use "the red ones" for one type of animal, and the "white ones" for another.this lack of understanding about the world is very interesting, and could be where some of our very own superstitions come from.
all in all, i thought this an amazing book, and I will come back to it later, I promise.
So, for those of you that are bored with books, I am now going to talk about a T.V show (Yay!!!!). This show is called Survivors and it airs on BBC America. It takes place in Britain, and follows the story of a couple survivors of a massive plague that killed 99.9% of humanity. It's similar to Earth Abides, I know, but it's different enough and presented in a different media that it's enough to get me hooked.The main character (and my favorite) goes by the name of Abby Grant. While the plague was happening, Abby's son was away at camp and Abby was left at home with her struggling marriage. Abby got sick with the virus and somehow managed to survive (the only one who did, sorry if that reveals too much, but it had to bed done). Once Abby recovers, she begins to search for her son Peter, because she believes he might still be alive because she survived. Throughout all of season one (in which there are only episodes :( so sad ) she is searching for Peter frantically, searching every possible lead she finds on his whereabouts, not giving up when they lead to deal ends.
Joining Abby as part of the cast is Tom Price, an ex-convict who we know little about; Dr. Anya Raczynski, a doctor that ran into Tom when he got in trouble and helped him out; Greg Preston, a solitary man that wants to go his own way; Al Sadiq and Najid Hanif, a playboy and child forced together after the plague. Each of these characters have their own backgrounds that make them unique, Anya attempts to keep her being a doctor a secret because she was devastated by the fact that she couldn't save anyone from the plague. Greg doesn't want anything to do with them and wants to start a farm on his own, Tom is constantly confronted about his past, Najid is an indian child who lost his whole family. Al, the son of a wealthy father, had been living the good life, and is finding it difficult to adjust to this new world. Abby persuades them all to stick together by telling them that they will be able to survive easier on their own. the speech she gives is really powerful, and brings out the motherly nature she holds for everyone she knows.
I believe one of the major themes this show is teaching us is "are people basically good or evil." In this new world, the survivors have to decide between what is now right and what is now wrong. Am I allowed to shoot someone if they try to steal my food? What are the new rules in this strange world? Tom is always quick to raise a gun to anyone who threatens Anya or the rest of his group. Is he doing what's right, or taking advantage of people? In a time like this, all the rules we currently possess change. what was wrong before might be right now, and vice versa.
through all media of this Genre, it is interesting to read about how the next generation is effected by whatever disaster befell mankind. One such example of this is the novel "flood," by Stephen Baxter.
This novel depicts a world that is slowly flooding due to oceans under the crust breaking open, flooding the whole planet over a span of 65 years. near the end of the novel, when some of the main characters are on rafts, (I'm sorry, but I do not have the book and cannot quote it properly) the children are described to be diving down to depths and for lengths that were previously thought impossible to be done without aid. With no knowledge of the "old world," this new generation finds themselves in a world that for them has always been like this. Then have no feelings of loss at all. They have no memory of a New York City, trees, or insects. I think it's amazing how authors depict how the newest generation adapts to their world. It's truly inspirational, even if it's not real.Well, that's about it. I hope you enjoyed my spiel, sorry it took so long. Next time i'll inform you of what I've been up too. Promise.
See you all soon,
dan
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