[Author’s note – A little embarrassing to admit but I just read this book even though it is a science fiction classic. “Canticle” is one of the backbones of post apocalyptic dystopian novels. Looking back I can see the novel’s influence in books, TV shows, movies, and video games. As always, spoilers from here on out so if you don’t want to know, stop reading.]
Walter Miller wrote “Canticle” in 1960. Along with other books such as “Alas Babylon” it represented an attitudinal shift in the American public’s perception of nuclear weapons and nuclear war. The government and the military had previously sold the American public on the limited dangers of nuclear war and the notion that civilization and the nation could survive an all out nuclear attack.
Miller had served in the Air Force in World War II and knew the effects of conventional bombing on civilian targets and had no illusions about a “winnable” nuclear war.
The story itself is told in three interrelated vignettes spanning about 1600 years after a nuclear war. Briefly, it follows the gradual re-establishment of civilization over hundreds of years as it relates to a monastic order founded by a religious martyr called Edward Leibowitz. The order strives to recover and preserve all knowledge and writings found in the wastelands. They create illuminated manuscripts from innane things such as repair manuals and handwritten notes. The hope is that this accumulated knowledge may one day help mankind return to what it was before the war.
Over the centuries it becomes clear that civilization beginning to reassert itself but it is also repeating the same pattern that led to its downfall before the war. Although some members of the order oppose this, the order is powerless to stop it. In the final story civilization has returned but so has the threat of nuclear war. The order decides that something must be preserved in case nuclear war breaks out again. The accumulated monastery artifacts are loaded onto a starship along with some monks and sent away from Earth towards the new colonies in another star system where it is hoped that mankind has finally learned its lesson.
I picked up two themes while reading the book.
Firstly, the way that the rise of civilization seems to travel in an almost predictable course and that even with the best of intentions we will still make the same mistakes over and over again.
Secondly, A polemic against scientists inventing and then releasing new concepts and technologies into the hands of the general public and in particular into the hands of the government. Do scientists or researchers (in this case the monks) have a moral obligation to consider how their discoveries may be used by those in power? Are they blameless if someone accidentally or maliciously misuses a technology or do they have an obligation to keep this hidden if there is a possibility of harm being done?
The second point is interesting in that many atomic researchers at the time of the book felt that they had done a grave disservice to mankind by working on the atomic bomb project. Many wished that they had not done so but now it was too late.
As I mentioned above the novel definitely influenced many post-apocalyptic stories. Twilight Zone definitely has some influences as do movies like the Mad Max series. Even video games like Wasteland have “Easter eggs” that give a nod to this novel.
The novel is definitely not a simplistic sci-fi story of the future but a meditation on our possible fate and the decisions that led us there.
Highly recommended.
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