Earth Abides
The Book, was recommended, several times, on some of the science fiction groups, I frequent.
A very enjoyable book. The world ends with not a bang but with a whimper
Its quite a simple premise Isherwood Williams a geographer, is out in the backwoods. As a plague strikes down the human race. The Angel of death passes overhead quickly.
Wandering in an empty world. Facing the dangers of wild dogs and wild men.Ish encounters stunned and stunted survivors Think of the opening scenes of ``I am Legend''
Isherwood, meets up with a woman. Emma, and she becomes his wife. They gather a gaggle of survivors around them. Sheltering in San Francisco.
The book recounts Isherwood's attempts to pass on his learning, his experience, his civilisation to the ``tribe'' of survivors that coalesced about him.
- - - - - - -
Some memorable passages
The carpenter and his wife. Despite having neither electric power or light. Keep a TV set, and a radio, because that's what they would have aspired too, in a normal world.
Ish, son Joey may have dyspraxia. He mentions him, having spatial problems.
The survivors live in a world of plenty. Ish worries about his children, growing up, and having unlimited access to booze. The bars, and liquor stores of SF, are empty. The Whiskey remains in the jars, on the shelf. This is his problem. There is no need for anyone to learn anything, there is still food on the shelves. The only
Ish worries about driving the wrong way up empty streets, or taking a abandoned police car. At one point, he meets a family of African Americans. (Book was written 1949) Who lower their eyes, and despite being the last people left in their state. Are wary of moving into the white districts.
Plague, and Plagues, (rats, and ants) the horrors of the pre modern world, now shape things. Years are remembered not by number, but by events. The year of the lions.
We learn of Ish's father, a small town history teacher, and his mother, who was in the YWCA. Ish, wether he realises it or not, follows this pattern, with Joey. He invests much in him, however in the end it will be in vain. The small town, and the YWCA, are gone. Rationality is a luxury of the modern world.
Only the Legend, only the myth, endures. As does the world.
A very enjoyable book. The world ends with not a bang but with a whimper
Its quite a simple premise Isherwood Williams a geographer, is out in the backwoods. As a plague strikes down the human race. The Angel of death passes overhead quickly.
Wandering in an empty world. Facing the dangers of wild dogs and wild men.Ish encounters stunned and stunted survivors Think of the opening scenes of ``I am Legend''
Isherwood, meets up with a woman. Emma, and she becomes his wife. They gather a gaggle of survivors around them. Sheltering in San Francisco.
The book recounts Isherwood's attempts to pass on his learning, his experience, his civilisation to the ``tribe'' of survivors that coalesced about him.
- - - - - - -
Some memorable passages
The carpenter and his wife. Despite having neither electric power or light. Keep a TV set, and a radio, because that's what they would have aspired too, in a normal world.
Ish, son Joey may have dyspraxia. He mentions him, having spatial problems.
The survivors live in a world of plenty. Ish worries about his children, growing up, and having unlimited access to booze. The bars, and liquor stores of SF, are empty. The Whiskey remains in the jars, on the shelf. This is his problem. There is no need for anyone to learn anything, there is still food on the shelves. The only
Ish worries about driving the wrong way up empty streets, or taking a abandoned police car. At one point, he meets a family of African Americans. (Book was written 1949) Who lower their eyes, and despite being the last people left in their state. Are wary of moving into the white districts.
Plague, and Plagues, (rats, and ants) the horrors of the pre modern world, now shape things. Years are remembered not by number, but by events. The year of the lions.
We learn of Ish's father, a small town history teacher, and his mother, who was in the YWCA. Ish, wether he realises it or not, follows this pattern, with Joey. He invests much in him, however in the end it will be in vain. The small town, and the YWCA, are gone. Rationality is a luxury of the modern world.
Only the Legend, only the myth, endures. As does the world.
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