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goodnight_moon 's review for:
On the Beach
by Nevil Shute
I found this to be well thought out and deliberate. Every moment where I wished for more felt intentional and evoked emotion.
I think it's short-sighted to criticize the premise, that humans facing certain extinction would go about their routines, as unbelievable or naive. Ursula K LeGuin, my favorite author, was praised in Left Hand of Darkness as "A planter of signposts to Utopia" - not ignoring the evil in the world (it is as present and relatable in her works as the radioactive cloud here), but "daring to posit how society could be better and fairer and wiser than the one we have" in spite of it. I felt that same effort here.
It's cruelly ironic that our society feels less likely to collapse abruptly from nuclear war than steadily and agonizingly to wildfires and hurricanes and droughts, to medical bankruptcy and mass shootings and evil dictators democratically elected by the willfully ignorant. Maybe the suddenness and the certainty and innocence of their destruction provided a necessary mental clarity for their "utopia". But we have something they didn't - a chance to correct course, maybe not to rid the world of evil people but at least to build community for those kind enough and brave enough to oppose them. The eventual outcome may be the same, but we can be inspired to do more than our daily routines, because tyranny can be resisted where radioactivity cannot. I put this book down both sad and inspired, which is an impressive balance to strike.
"Some games are fun even when you lose. Even when you know you're going to lose before you start. It's just fun playing them."
"Some kinds of silliness you just can't stop. If a couple of hundred million people all decide that their national honor requires them to drop bombs upon their neighbor, well there's not much that you or I can do about it. The only possible hope would have been to educate them out of their silliness."
A good friend listed this book as one that changed the way he sees the world; that's the only reason I learned it exists or picked it up. I have no idea how he came upon it, because he isn't 60 years old and the book doesn't seem famous. But I'm really glad I read it. I hope everyone has at least one friend they discuss books with enough to appreciate their opinion enough to pick up a book because it changed them.
I think it's short-sighted to criticize the premise, that humans facing certain extinction would go about their routines, as unbelievable or naive. Ursula K LeGuin, my favorite author, was praised in Left Hand of Darkness as "A planter of signposts to Utopia" - not ignoring the evil in the world (it is as present and relatable in her works as the radioactive cloud here), but "daring to posit how society could be better and fairer and wiser than the one we have" in spite of it. I felt that same effort here.
It's cruelly ironic that our society feels less likely to collapse abruptly from nuclear war than steadily and agonizingly to wildfires and hurricanes and droughts, to medical bankruptcy and mass shootings and evil dictators democratically elected by the willfully ignorant. Maybe the suddenness and the certainty and innocence of their destruction provided a necessary mental clarity for their "utopia". But we have something they didn't - a chance to correct course, maybe not to rid the world of evil people but at least to build community for those kind enough and brave enough to oppose them. The eventual outcome may be the same, but we can be inspired to do more than our daily routines, because tyranny can be resisted where radioactivity cannot. I put this book down both sad and inspired, which is an impressive balance to strike.
"Some games are fun even when you lose. Even when you know you're going to lose before you start. It's just fun playing them."
"Some kinds of silliness you just can't stop. If a couple of hundred million people all decide that their national honor requires them to drop bombs upon their neighbor, well there's not much that you or I can do about it. The only possible hope would have been to educate them out of their silliness."
A good friend listed this book as one that changed the way he sees the world; that's the only reason I learned it exists or picked it up. I have no idea how he came upon it, because he isn't 60 years old and the book doesn't seem famous. But I'm really glad I read it. I hope everyone has at least one friend they discuss books with enough to appreciate their opinion enough to pick up a book because it changed them.