First published in 1959, A Canticle for Leibowitz reveals to the reader a world in which humanity did use nuclear weapons to annihilate one another. The narrative follows the Catholic order of priests founded by the titular character as the world recovers from the Deluge (the nuclear holocaust) over 1,500 years. The book is divided into three sections separated by 500 years each: Fiat Homo, Fiat Lux, and Fiat Voluntas Tua. Fiat Homo follows the travails of a young man as he discovers a small shelter where relics of Leibowitz are unearthed. The reader learns that the Post-Deluge world is a barren place, both physically and intellectually. Most of the world has descended into a tribal system and the Utah desert where the abbey of Leibowitz lies is but a small patch of learning in a desert of ignorance. The charge of the Order of Leibowitz is to preserve knowledge and specifically books. They do this through copying of texts, and should the texts be destroyed, memorization of texts.
500 years later the world has managed to progress to a level of development similar to the time before the Enlightenment. The greatest scholar of Texarkana, one of several kingdoms occupying North America, hears strange tales of a library in a remote abbey that may revolutionize his research. As he seeks to piece together the technology from the age before the nuclear holocaust, war between the kingdoms of North America threatens the brief glimpse of light which the Thon seems about to uncover with the help of the cloistered monks of Leibowitz. Another 500 years pass and technology has progressed forward at a full run. While the Abbey of Leibowitz stands as it has for more than a thousand years, the landscape around has changed. Cars speed down streets controlled by computers, monks have abandoned their task of copying out books for other duties, and the world seems on the brink of nuclear holocaust yet again.
Perhaps as a reader who has been exposed to many post-apocalyptic narratives, I can not fully appreciate A Canticle for Leibowitz as much as readers in the 60s, but I can still feel the strands of plot that run throughout this book, tightly connecting all three sections. While I sped through the first two sections of the book, I sometimes found myself feeling disconnected from the third, and final, section of the book. The first section is rich in the detailed explanation of monastic life as well as the deplorable conditions to which the world has descended after the Deluge. The second section was equally appealing to me. Political intrigue, a world on the cusp of great discoveries, the piecing together of ancient texts misunderstood for centuries - perhaps the removal of anything 20th and 21st Century grabbed my attention. While I did enjoy the final section, at times the characters blended together and it seemed as the themes began to overtake the characterizations. However, (Spoiler Alert) the idea that humans would plan for another nuclear war and what to do in the aftermath instead of simply trying to avoid another Deluge at all costs somehow rang true. I think the author, who may at times alienate some readers with his almost unrelenting paean of medieval and post-deluge Catholicism, has something quite profound to say about the nature of humanity. While I did not realize this at the time I finished the book, this week is the 66th anniversary of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While set in the far future, this book serves as a reminder of the past and an exhortation to stop what could be a possible future.
500 years later the world has managed to progress to a level of development similar to the time before the Enlightenment. The greatest scholar of Texarkana, one of several kingdoms occupying North America, hears strange tales of a library in a remote abbey that may revolutionize his research. As he seeks to piece together the technology from the age before the nuclear holocaust, war between the kingdoms of North America threatens the brief glimpse of light which the Thon seems about to uncover with the help of the cloistered monks of Leibowitz. Another 500 years pass and technology has progressed forward at a full run. While the Abbey of Leibowitz stands as it has for more than a thousand years, the landscape around has changed. Cars speed down streets controlled by computers, monks have abandoned their task of copying out books for other duties, and the world seems on the brink of nuclear holocaust yet again.
Perhaps as a reader who has been exposed to many post-apocalyptic narratives, I can not fully appreciate A Canticle for Leibowitz as much as readers in the 60s, but I can still feel the strands of plot that run throughout this book, tightly connecting all three sections. While I sped through the first two sections of the book, I sometimes found myself feeling disconnected from the third, and final, section of the book. The first section is rich in the detailed explanation of monastic life as well as the deplorable conditions to which the world has descended after the Deluge. The second section was equally appealing to me. Political intrigue, a world on the cusp of great discoveries, the piecing together of ancient texts misunderstood for centuries - perhaps the removal of anything 20th and 21st Century grabbed my attention. While I did enjoy the final section, at times the characters blended together and it seemed as the themes began to overtake the characterizations. However, (Spoiler Alert) the idea that humans would plan for another nuclear war and what to do in the aftermath instead of simply trying to avoid another Deluge at all costs somehow rang true. I think the author, who may at times alienate some readers with his almost unrelenting paean of medieval and post-deluge Catholicism, has something quite profound to say about the nature of humanity. While I did not realize this at the time I finished the book, this week is the 66th anniversary of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While set in the far future, this book serves as a reminder of the past and an exhortation to stop what could be a possible future.
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