I really enjoyed this book! Although it was a long read, Earth Abides by George R. Stewart was very entertaining. Stewart questions ideologies about social standards including companionship, education, religion, civilization, leadership, and maintaining ethical beliefs. The plague the kills off most of humanity, and those left are left to do whatever they wish.
We are able to follow Ish as he grows, and see the choices he must make on a daily base. What he wants for not only his children, but also humanity. He hopes that civilization will return to what it was before, that the future will be like the past again. This reminded me of a teaching (I’m going to butcher it:/) :trying to convince a baby that they will need to walk is pointless, because they must crawl first. The baby cannot understand this, until they have experienced the process. The entire time Ish is attempting to tech his children to read and about religion, they FIRST needed to learn the basics of surviving, like hunting and making a fire without matches.
I watch the tv show “the walking dead”. I saw many similarities, (but no “walkers”) in scavenging, and the hope to rebuild civilization. However in both and many other apocalyptic stories, that the human race severely damaged, and “men go and come, but the earth abides”.
