I had planned on doing three posts on this book, but have failed as I have finished the book, but never felt like writing anything up. I have not been doing very well emotionally lately, and as I sit here thinking about the book, I realize how nice it would be for me to blame this book for that. I could get away with it. The book looks at how we, as humans, often repeat ourselves throughout history. When we destroy our history, there is a fair chance the same mistakes will be made.
This is, of course, a simple view of the issue, and the book deals with it quite well. Human's have flaws, but we have learned from ourselves in the past. We have overcome some of those flaws, but the greatest flaw may be thinking that now-we is better then then-we and that translates into now-we thinking we are better then tomorrow-we will ever be. The world is destroyed twice in The Canticle for Leibowitz; while difficult to find the silver lining here, note that humanity, like the cockroach seems able to be beating down, though not destroyed.
I'm rambling. I think the most important thing to learn from this book is to be weary of facts and texts. Stories (which I love) have to remain their own category of thing, separate from truth. I cannot believe every word of the bible is true, as there were far too many translations, and far too much separation between event, author, first draft, second draft, and so on. But there is a worthwhile story there, and in learning a story, we begin to discover truth; they are small, and they are gradual, but each step gets us closer.
No comments:
Post a Comment