Earth Abides

Earth Abides is a novel written by George R. Stewart that recounts the experiences of a young man named Ish in the aftermath of mankind's near total extinction. Humanity has been devastated by an unknown virus that appears to only effect humans and primates. The novel is split into three parts: the effects of mankind's absence on nature, both plants and animals; the effects on the remaining pockets of humanity who are left to adapt or die in the new environment, and the tenacity of lack thereof of the old, civilized world.

I found Earth Abides to be a very well-written novel that tends toward an analytic approach to the apocalyptic narrative. However, behind Ish's scientific observations lies a rather beautiful and poetic vision of our planet's will to carry on without us. Reading Earth Abides I couldn't help but think that in spite of humanities sloughing off of higher modes of thinking and philosophizing in favor of more utilitarian tendencies, that we'll be okay, and we will come back around when the time is ripe.

Ish's children and grandchildren, Joey excluded, have no use for literature, art, or philosophy, because it has no bearing on there immediate concerns. The civilization that Ish's world held so dear have become for the next generations, nothing more than ancient ancestral tales. In a sense Ish has become like a shaman to this new tribe of humanity and all of his higher learning and the great men of civilization have become the ancestral ghosts of a bygone and shadowed age. In my opinion this is neither bad or good, it simply is. Mankind has shed all things that are of no consequence to his immediate survival.

Eventually mankind will lose the need for clocks and other time keeping implements and the sun will continue to rise and fall countless times without measure. In this environment a thousand years can pass in the blink of an eye. Mankind will rebuild the world anew and innumerable civilizations will come and go, but earth will abide in its blind orbit. Ultimately Earth Abides is, in my opinion, a somewhat optimistic novel about mankind's tenacity and fluidity in adapting in the face of nearly insurmountable odds.