The Last Americans (book review of Earth Abides)

The Backwoods Engineer Blog ^ | 8 February 2014 | The Backwoods Engineer

[backwoods-engineer]

Ol' Backwoods just finished a book that I have been avoiding since my teen years, a book, I supposed, so utterly despondent in its outlook, so stolid in its prediction of failure of civilization, that it would cast its pall of darkness over me, without recovery.

But I was wrong.

Earth Abides (Amazon)

Earth Abides by George R. Stewart is one of the most important, one of the more comforting, and one of the more hopeful books I have ever read.

Surprised?  Yeah, so am I.  What could an atheist Berkeley professor write that should impress a backwoods Christian engineer so much?  As you will see, Stewart used The End of The World As We Know It to reinforce lessons that I, that is, WE, ought to have learned before.

The image [above] represents the protagonist Isherwood Williams ("Ish", to his Tribe, both nickname and title), wielding his sacred Hammer, carving into rock the Number of the Year since the Great Disaster, in which all of the world but the few Old Ones died from a deadly plague that swept the world in mere weeks.

Right after the Disaster, Ish drove his car across America from one end to the other and back, following The Mother Road, old Route 66, searching for survivors.  He found few.  Most of the few dozen that were left were insane with normalcy bias following the Disaster.  The couple in New York City that sat around playing phonograph records and drinking expensive but warm mixed drinks. The crazy "prophet" in LA that started a white-robed cult of doom.  Some were better off, but strange to Ish the intellectual:  the African-American tribe in Arkansas who lived off their garden, livestock and land, but who spoke a nearly-incomprehensible patois. br />
These were the Last Americans.

In the fullness of time, Ish became the patriarch of the Tribe of the Golden Gate Bridge, which numbered in the hundreds by the end of his days, sometime after the Year 42, in which Ish and the Tribe stopped hammering the Year into the Rock.    Along with Ish's wife Emma, George and his wife Maurine, Ezra and his two wives Molly and Jean, Ish began to re-populate the Earth which Abides even after man falls.

Ish taught his many great-grandchildren the way of the Bow and Arrow after the great stores of rifle ammunition from the warehouses began to be unreliable.   He taught them to make dog-driven carts after the last of the gasoline, tires, and spark plugs gave out.  But other than poor Joey who died in childhood, Ish could never get any of his children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren to learn to read, write, or do simple arithmetic.  They just had no interest.  Ish constantly worried about the ramifications of them not learning, and about much more besides.  In this, Ol' Backwoods identifies with Ish.

'Til her dying day, Ish's wife Emma reminded Ish not to worry so much about whether this or that system of support would break down (they all did eventually), whether this or that disaster would befall them (many did anyway), or whether the children and their children would learn enough primitive skills to survive on their own without depending on the now-rotting leavings of the long-dead civilization (they did).  Emma's approach was to live life and not worry about it; she would face death or danger with courage when necessary, but above all else, to live. Even in death, Emma gave courage to the Tribe.

But the Tribe lived on.  They hunted, grew food, laughed, cried, loved, had children and more children.  They defended themselves from wild animals, sought refuge from the devastation of earthquakes and wildfires, and carried water after the ancient water pipes rusted out and no more water came from the faucet.  They made fire with the bow drill, after the last of the matches were gone.

The Tribe lived on.  In time, they merged with other tribes, gave each other immunity from diseases, and shared practical knowledge and ancient traditions alike.

They told stories of the Old Ones, they who had built the houses, the buildings, and the bridges.   They told of a time of magic light, and magic music, and of those who knew how to read the Books in the Great Library.  These Old Ones were the Americans, and they had been great before the fall.

Ish's children did not consider themselves Americans.  And truly, they were only American by geography.

As far as the Tribe knew, Ish was The Last American.

Talking with my own children, who have now become adults, I share some of the worries that Ish had. Had the children learned enough to make it in the great wide world?  My son is not a reader, as his father is, and this worries me.   My daughter is helpless when it comes to fixing anything for herself.  What about these and all the things my children do not seem to grasp; could they make it in the world without them?

Combine this microcosm of my children with all that is happening to my country, and perhaps we have something approaching a trend.  In a way, I feel as though my generation, Gen X, are also the Last Americans.  Not precisely in the way Ish was in "Earth Abides"-- no, we have not (yet) had a civilization-killing event that left only a handful out of hundreds of millions.   Our changes are not sudden and abrupt as in "Earth Abides", but the change is just as relentless, far beyond the mere "fundamental transformation" that this Present, er, President spoke of.  Much more, more than we even can guess from our present perspective.

The kids of my son's generation are almost as different from Gen X as the Tribe were from Ish.  They are more inwardly-focused but paradoxically, also more relationship-focused.  They are concerned more about what they are doing with their friends than making their mark in the world.  Ambition is almost a thing of the past.

They know, as Ish's Tribe knew, that the coming years are not going to be as easy, as prosperous, as materially plentiful as the years of the Old Ones had been.  They know that their money will be worth less, their work harder, their time on earth more painful.  There are no more great works or doings of man: no more moon landings, no more Twin Towers or Empire State Buildings, no more Boulder Dams, no more nuclear ages, no more intercontinental wars.  Low-earth orbit is now a metaphor for the low ambitions of man.  If my son and his Tribe have the X-Box, and the Wii, and the corporate or government check, it is enough.  If they have life and love, food to eat, water to drink, and petty amusement, they will be content with that.  Hmm, I think I've heard that somewhere before...

As the Last Americans of Gen X become grey and frail, and then go to the grave, the Tribes will go on, content with what they have, not asking for a bigger place in the world.  As one of Ish's great-grandsons said in the closing pages of the book, "Yes, I am happy.  Things are as they are, and I am part of them."

This is why Earth Abides is such an important book to me.  For that old atheist professor George Stewart, "Ish" himself, re-taught a lesson to me that I should have learned fully from the Apostle Paul in my youth, when I first read:

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ... (17) 

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

-- 1 Timothy 6:6-19, New International Version (NIV)

I'll leave you Last Americans with the final verse from 1 Corinthians 13:

And now these three abide: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

[backwoods-engineer]

Full text as always for my FRiends, from this blogger with the FR seal of approval from humblegunner. I would appreciate a click, though; there many more interesting articles at my blog, along the right margin.

[backwoods-engineer]

Ping for possible interest to the FReeper Preppers and Survivalists.

[smokingfrog]

bfl

[Dick Vomer]

it was a great book... just loved it. It was funny how the kids just did enough homework to make him leave them alone to have fun.

[BookaT]

I read this book in high school after reading something about jimi hendrix liking the book.

This has been my favorite book for along time. I am not a big reader of fiction though.

[Jet Jaguar]

Great book!

I highly recommend it.

[Jet Jaguar]

I liked the kids making arrowheads from silver coins.

And the respect the people had for the hammer.
It was like a sceptre.

[Argus]

First read EA in high school, have re-read many times since. Tried to get a movie made when I was in production, but so many imitators have ripped off Stewart’s work it came to naught. I’d still like to see it adapted though - set in its original 1950 period, in wide screen B&W.

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[alexander_busek]

An important book, that can be read, analyzed, and enjoyed on multiple levels.

First read it 40 years ago (required reading in my 10th-grade English class). Re-read it again last year (while on a binge of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic sci-fi: "Alas, Babylon," "A Canticle for Lebowitz," etc.).

What "bothered" me the most on re-reading it was just how "Ish" and the few survivors with whom he banded together to form the nucleus of the "Tribe" weren't able to jump-start civilization. Stewart plainly states that other survivors became unhinged due to the mass death and due to the subsequent vanishing of civilization, but only hints at the fact that "Ish" and his friends are likewise somehow "lessened" by the catastrophe (they were mostly only 100 I.Q. people anyway) - and that "Ish," himself, though of above-average intelligence, is too passive, too much a mere observer, to take charge.

Even though I am not a practicing survivalist, I've read up on the subject, and that background makes it especially wry / ironic to ponder on how many mistakes "Ish" makes in his attempt to re-establish society. (In that regard, "Alas, Babylon" is even more of a laugh - Can you imagine having advance warning of the coming catastrophe, and preparing an "iron reserve" of supplies and bartering items consisting ONLY of, e.g., a lb. of coffee, two bottles of whiskey, a bottle of aspirin?)

Regards,

[piroque]

bump

[Larry Lucido]

Going to look for this. Fascinating. Thanks!

[BwanaNdege]

Excellent read! I guess I first read it 40 or 50 years ago.

Glad to see that others still appreciate it.

Thanks for posting and for having the full text available.

Your closing comments are the best part of your Post, though!

[csvset]

KSFO radio used to play radio shows. I heard Earth Abides which was done for the radio show Escape.

Years later I read the book. Entertaining.

[csvset]

Fwiw, the Escape radio show is available on the web.

[who knows what evil?]

I love the old radio shows...one of my favorites was a modern ‘update’ of War of the Worlds broadcast by WKBW out of Buffalo. The broadcast sounded just like their regular programming...rock music...the disc jockey was someone that most listeners were familiar with. All seemed normal UNTIL the ‘huge metal cylinder’ crashed on Grand Island in the Niagara River. You could hear the despair in the DJ’s voice as the machines he thought were trapped on the island straddled the river and entered Buffalo. IIRC, poison gas got him; then the voice-over about the germs ended the broadcast. It was VERY well done.

[DCBryan1]

I like the part where the grandson brings grandfather a coin and calls it “corns”. At least grandpa taught them how to build bows. A great book that all preppers should read.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

One part of the ending of the book caught my eye. The author describes the younger people returning to tribalism, which he suspected would be like Native American tribalism. Yet the way he described it is more like Germanic tribalism, and this is an important difference.

Germanic tribes first evolved the idea of “warrior egalitarianism”, that all warriors were equal in stature. In turn, this lead to trial by a jury of peers (that only other warriors could judge a warrior), innocence before guilt, impartial courts and advocates, because even a good warrior may not be well spoken, and finally, that that which is not expressly forbidden is by default legal.

And these ideas migrated to Britain and became the Common Law. Common Law is biased to development and prosperity, entrepreneurship and civility.

So in the case of Earth Abides, the younger generation had the right idea.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Another apocalyptic story, though not on Earth, is Issac Asimov’s “Nightfall” (1941), that was later enlarged into a novel, and even made into a low budget movie, which was universally panned. The short story and novel were far better.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightfall_%28Asimov_short_story_and_novel%29

It takes place on a planet with several suns, which is in perpetual daylight. And archeologist discovers that mysteriously, about every 2000 of their years, their entire civilization collapses, only to begin again.

Doing some astronomy, he and others figure out that about every 2000 years, an alignment of suns happens, allowing the planet to experience night. This is too much for the people who live there, who all go violently insane because of the dark, and destroy their civilization.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I haven’t read it, but you would think someone would remember how to mix sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter to make gun powder.

Years ago, I read that the Apaches learned to make their own gunpowder from an Apache boy slave who had escaped from the Spaniards.
The Spanish were so upset by this that they began to supply the Apaches gunpowder in hopes they would soon forget how to make it.