- Joined
- May 14, 2019
I finished A Canticle for Leibowitz. It's a very special book, I see why it has the reputation it does.
BASIC PREMISE
(Keeping in mind the book was written in 1959)
Nuclear apocalypse destroyed much of the world, and in retaliation for it there was a mass movement of Luddites. The Catholic Church (based out of St. Louis) survived and, like the first Dark Ages, preserved texts and learning, albeit very imperfectly. Several hundred years later, the American Southwest and Plains have become a pseudo-Medieval society and a monastic order continues to investigate past learning, eventually leading to new cycles of rebirth and destruction.
BACKGROUND
Heard about the book mostly through the After the End mod for Crusader Kings II, which draws inspiration from it in having its Medieval post-apocalyptic America and the St. Louis Papacy.
The Order also seems to have had a strong influence - I assume - on the Brotherhood of Steel from Fallout.
OPINION
The book is wonderfully written, it makes excessive use of Latin which I find pompous but the Latin is justified in-universe as a consequence of liturgical language being preserved better than vernacular English. The scope of the book opens up through its three acts - each set in a different time period, corresponding basically to Medieval, Renaissance, and Space playing out in a new cycle of history - with similar threads coming up again (the focus on the Saint Leibowitz and repeated miracles, which are always presented in an ambiguous way) and each act seems to have its own sort of central conflict or debate. The first act doesn't really have a debate, as such, just being focused on a novice who makes a miraculous archaeological discovery and then has to deal with the lifelong consequences of it, persecuted for it by clergy that feel threatened against the genuine and innocent faith of a rank-and-file member.. The second act focuses on the theme of secular vs religious scientific inquiry and whether to withhold knowledge or share it (like the Brotherhood of Steel I mentioned earlier). The final act is focused on the idea of nuclear armageddon, which is used as a springboard to talk about the ethics of euthanasia.
What I really loved in the first act that got me hooked is that this is, hands down, the most respectful treatment of the Medieval worldview I've seen. It's a world where people don't have a full understanding of science, and they have a sort of magical, superstitious, religious based understanding of their surroundings, but people are still shown to have a rational way of thinking. A blueprint for an electrical circuit becomes a religious icon, and the monks UNDERSTAND using their own logic that it's a symbolic representation of some abstract concept (movement of electricity), they just can't quite piece together what's being represented. One monk spends fifteen years of his life making a beautiful illuminated manuscript of the circuit blueprint - like how Bibles would have fancy illustrations and calligraphy - and it shows just the beauty of the normal world when viewed through the innocent eyes of a people capable of wonder.
The second part isn't as good, and in the third part I started REALLY disagreeing with the Papist scum, but the third part was also magnificent in its own way, dark desperation.
It's a wonderful book, could tell by the first act it would be one of my top books I've read.
BASIC PREMISE
(Keeping in mind the book was written in 1959)
Nuclear apocalypse destroyed much of the world, and in retaliation for it there was a mass movement of Luddites. The Catholic Church (based out of St. Louis) survived and, like the first Dark Ages, preserved texts and learning, albeit very imperfectly. Several hundred years later, the American Southwest and Plains have become a pseudo-Medieval society and a monastic order continues to investigate past learning, eventually leading to new cycles of rebirth and destruction.
BACKGROUND
Heard about the book mostly through the After the End mod for Crusader Kings II, which draws inspiration from it in having its Medieval post-apocalyptic America and the St. Louis Papacy.
The Order also seems to have had a strong influence - I assume - on the Brotherhood of Steel from Fallout.
OPINION
The book is wonderfully written, it makes excessive use of Latin which I find pompous but the Latin is justified in-universe as a consequence of liturgical language being preserved better than vernacular English. The scope of the book opens up through its three acts - each set in a different time period, corresponding basically to Medieval, Renaissance, and Space playing out in a new cycle of history - with similar threads coming up again (the focus on the Saint Leibowitz and repeated miracles, which are always presented in an ambiguous way) and each act seems to have its own sort of central conflict or debate. The first act doesn't really have a debate, as such, just being focused on a novice who makes a miraculous archaeological discovery and then has to deal with the lifelong consequences of it, persecuted for it by clergy that feel threatened against the genuine and innocent faith of a rank-and-file member.. The second act focuses on the theme of secular vs religious scientific inquiry and whether to withhold knowledge or share it (like the Brotherhood of Steel I mentioned earlier). The final act is focused on the idea of nuclear armageddon, which is used as a springboard to talk about the ethics of euthanasia.
What I really loved in the first act that got me hooked is that this is, hands down, the most respectful treatment of the Medieval worldview I've seen. It's a world where people don't have a full understanding of science, and they have a sort of magical, superstitious, religious based understanding of their surroundings, but people are still shown to have a rational way of thinking. A blueprint for an electrical circuit becomes a religious icon, and the monks UNDERSTAND using their own logic that it's a symbolic representation of some abstract concept (movement of electricity), they just can't quite piece together what's being represented. One monk spends fifteen years of his life making a beautiful illuminated manuscript of the circuit blueprint - like how Bibles would have fancy illustrations and calligraphy - and it shows just the beauty of the normal world when viewed through the innocent eyes of a people capable of wonder.
The second part isn't as good, and in the third part I started REALLY disagreeing with the Papist scum, but the third part was also magnificent in its own way, dark desperation.
It's a wonderful book, could tell by the first act it would be one of my top books I've read.
