Apocalypse Now. The enduring significance of A Canticle for Leibowitz.

NRO ^ | October 10, 2006 6:02 AM | By Thomas Hibbs

[.cnI redruM]

Confession: I LOVED that novel. Easily up there with Asimov and Bradbury in terms of well-crafted Science Fiction.

[omega4412]

S Leibowitz, ora pro nobis

[the invisib1e hand]

“When one age dies, its symbols lose their referents and become incomprehensible,”

I was thinking all our rock and roll idols will be kicking off [relatively] soon...

[.cnI redruM]

Who was your favorite character? Mine was poor, misbegotten Mrs Grales. What an imaginative and powerful person...

[.cnI redruM]

I guess P. Diddy just doesn't rank up there with The Fab Four...

As obnoxious as he was, John Lennon did seem to tower over the mediocrities who caterwaul for their suppers today.

[Joe 6-pack]

Read it years ago...back when the the anti-nuke crowd was heralding it as a sign of things to come. I found it intriguing; far better than "The Day After," agitprop of the day.

[50sDad]

There was an artist, I sadly forget his name, who drew all manner of strange images several hundred years ago, famous for tryptychs and such. To the people of his time, who understood symbolic language, his works were outragously Christian. (A horse was St. Peter, a heart the Heart of Christ, etc.) A scant seventy years later, his works were being burned as heretical devil-worship because they were so strange. His audience had moved on, and forgotten the common shared language that made his early works understandable.

[50sDad]

Fiat Lux!

[RedStateRocker]

And it holds a lot of meaning just in the context of pre Vatican II changes; the underlying concept that the Church was something more than a theology or a building but that essence that allows humankind to go on; dark ages or no.
I particularly liked the way a character from one era, who we'd see 'warts and all' would later be revered (the Poet comes to mind).

[.cnI redruM]

Hieronymus Bosch. Yes, he was brilliant. Yes he was off his dead. He suffered from eating poorly grown wheat which was infected with ergot fungus. It caused him to see psychedelic visions, which many art historians believe caused him to devise some of his landscapes.

But, he was a very talented man.

[50sDad]

Hieronymus Bosch, I believe.

[OpusatFR]

The absolute best. I have my well-worn copy and hide it from the kids.

As an aside, one of my super liberal co-workers borrowed it and returned it with the remark that I must be sexually repressed because I enjoy a book without sex so much.

Totally missed the theme of the story. I suppose he is one of the Simpletons that will arise after the Flame Deluge.

[SlowBoat407]

I discovered the book from a reference to it in James Michener's "Space". Loved it.

[.cnI redruM]

Some apocalyptic fantasy is legitimate literature, not just PC bilge. "On The Beach" by Neville Schute was profound as well.

[Young Werther]

The Wandering Jew!

In "Canticle" religion and science reconcile. It is the inablility of many to accept religion and science that causes mankind's ills. It is a story full of sound and fury and ...

SciFi always gets the point and points the get!

[RedStateRocker]

End-times stories have become quite popular in recent years. In a recent New York Magazine piece, entitled “The End of the World as They Know It,” Kurt Anderson observes that from “Christian millenarians and jihadists to Ivy League professors and baby-boomers, apocalypse is hot.”

People were freaking out and expecting the Second Coming since about 70 AD. There was a good scene in 'name of the rose' where the whole monastery seemed convinced that Antichrist was nigh.

[.cnI redruM]

Yeah, the libs wouldn't understand the concept of a religious individual who wasn't hanging his genitalia out in some helpless individual's face. They've been brainwashed. They remind me of Mrs. Grales without the redeeming traits.

[Oberon]

As obnoxious as he was, John Lennon did seem to tower over the mediocrities who caterwaul for their suppers today.

I have wondered if, one day, John Lennon sat up in bed and said "Oh my Gud! I've broken up the best band in the history of rock and roll...for Yoko Ono! Somebody shoot me!"

And the rest, as they say, is history...

[Joe 6-pack]

Indeed...I think much of the book was largely lost on the left...that religion has been the repository, preserver and transmitter of culture in spite of a the society's level of technological prowess.

[the invisib1e hand]

As obnoxious as he was, John Lennon did seem to tower over the mediocrities who caterwaul for their suppers today.

The least talented beatle (not lennon) was a marvel. Together they were magic.

so, who will step up to take their places?

it's interesting the effect of the whole media culture on society...the death of idols leaves a gap the people will rush to fill...no wonder idolatry it forbidden.