tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post113114192592828926..comments2024-03-24T11:31:02.882-04:00Comments on Olman's Fifty: 35. Earth Abides by George R. StewartOlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-46430642141240837072007-05-23T14:16:00.000-04:002007-05-23T14:16:00.000-04:00A two-part radio play was created about this book ...A two-part radio play was created about this book in 1950 as episodes 131 and 132 of the series Escape. I have posted the files at my blog: http://porousmind.blogspot.com/2007/05/earth-abides.html.<BR/><BR/>The shows are part of the public domain. They may be enjoyed and spread to others without fear of copyright infringement.Dochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04663294509271088537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-1131803553377580892005-11-12T08:52:00.000-05:002005-11-12T08:52:00.000-05:00I am very annoyed that my review was deleted (by m...I am very annoyed that my review was deleted (by me) by accident. Mike and I had a little conversation about it.<BR/><BR/>I've been walking around with the book in my head for a while because I knew I'd be teaching it to my 7th graders. The 7th grade course themes are "what is government and why do we have it?" I thought the second section of the book, once more survivors show up and the tribe starts to have kids is most interesting because they are literally reconstructing and rebuild society themselves.<BR/><BR/>I do consider the book a sort of blueprint for what will happen when the power goes off. I think Stewart neatly sidesteps the millions of people dying issue with some battle-scarred, hollow-eyed survivors. But wouldn't it be more like 28 Days Later, the riot scenes in the beginning of the movie? Or like Outbreak, the government torching whole cities in an effort to quarantine the disease...<BR/><BR/>Anyway, the most important part of the book for my class will be when the tribe has to decide what justice is, when the outsider comes and messes with the slow girl...we have been studying why we have gov't (including reading excerpts from Rousseau (we team up/have Gov't to protect us from dangerous world), Locke (we team up and have Gov't to protect Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Property), and Hobbes (people are generally warlike and unless we have Gov't/team up life is nasty, brutish and short). So now we see two individuals, Ish and Emma, whoo get to decide everything.<BR/><BR/>One of the things that strikes me as dated, and I really feel lucky to live in our modern times, is that Emma is overwhelmed, on page 118, that Ish doesn't care that she is Jewish. Amazing, that that was a forbidden thing, or taboo broken, or a line being crossed that makes Ish special. And that little exchange between the two of them makes WW2 feel especially close.<BR/><BR/>Anyway. I have a lot to say about the book. My kids aren't enjoying it so much and I blame my student teacher. She is sucking the life out of it. I am going to be doing the lessons next week, so I will report back later. We did watch the first 35 minutes of 28 Days Later to get the same sense of disorientation that Jim/Ish have. Of being left behind. Ish and Jim both go to their parents house. Jim goes to a church, while Ish declares he is more of a scientist...<BR/><BR/>I did also say, as a reaction to something Mike said, that I especially liked that being an "American" made Ish a god of sorts, that he was the last to remember the old times, and wondered if that was symbolism, in the context of WW2, for Ish being the last person who could remember a pre-nuclear world, that Ish represented the war generation. The book was written after the soldiers got back and should have acclimatized themselves to a peaceful Cold War. And that America was going on with its business, and that maybe the vets themselves felt lost, that their parades were over and thanks a lot but we're moving on. The older soldiers feel lost and so too does their avatar, Ish. That's just some English major mumbo jumbo, maybe.<BR/><BR/>I could talk about this book all day.WeSailFurtherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00682759107915210686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-1131653222275611792005-11-10T15:07:00.000-05:002005-11-10T15:07:00.000-05:00What a great review!One thing I'd like to note is ...What a great review!<BR/><BR/>One thing I'd like to note is that in the end, the boys are depicted as very bright, capable people. Their education was different than that of the pre-apocalypse days, but certainly more pertinant. Without spoiling too much, it takes a great deal of intelligence to craft a useful bow and arrows.<BR/><BR/>I was also interested in Ish's attempts to preserve the university library, a place only his son was privy to. A son, mind you, who could not survive in this post-apocalypse world (that, if anything, was predictable). One thing I enjoyed about the book was the notion that all knoweldge accumulated over millenia could be lost. This is especially disturbing to 21st century readers, now that all knowledge going to be digital. Is Ballard still alive? If so, I have an idea for him... "Crash" could take on a whole new meaning.<BR/><BR/>I found the author's anthropological (as you aptly said), hands-off approach to <I>what would happen,</I> to be refreshing.<BR/><BR/>But I agree that the intelligent/stupid thing was distracting at best and offensive at worst.Crumbolsthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07904072631196385632noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-1131390058637343902005-11-07T14:00:00.000-05:002005-11-07T14:00:00.000-05:00One thing you should bear in mind that 1949 Brita...One thing you should bear in mind that 1949 Britain was still very much in the WWII mindset. The country had still not recovered economically and they were very concerned about threats from an expansionist Soviet Union and, less imminentnly, Germany.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps many of the author's approaches are derived from the situation at the time.Buzbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10910617923053008744noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-1131160438837422742005-11-04T22:13:00.000-05:002005-11-04T22:13:00.000-05:00The intelligent/stupid theme seems to be a relativ...The intelligent/stupid theme seems to be a relatively consistent theme in early P-A and British New Wave books. Often the narrator holds the intellectual high ground and apportions a large part of the blame for the decline/inability to rebuild on the masses (read: stupider folk). I suspect this is an somewhat an artifact of the time. The postwar period saw a breakdown of the more rigid class barriers and the expansion of the middle class. I'm reading a Ballard book right now that drives straight at this point. Watch my blog.Jason Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03669997643023511165noreply@blogger.com