Alas, Babylon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alas,_Babylon

I'm almost through this one.

The book starts with a "normal" Floridian society, circa 1958, and goes to post apocolyptic (nuclear-war type) pretty quick.

A very well written book. Cant put it down, after you pick it up, and that is very very very rare for me!

Two things that stand out to me in reading this:

1) If Nuclear War is imminent, do not, I repeat DO NOT---go outside and look for mushroom clouds. This sounds like "duh" advice, as in, it should be self evident, but as I was reading one chapter in which the 'poo was hitting the fan' so to speak, i.e., bombs going off, and this guy is letting his nieces out into the front yard to "watch" nearby cities get bombed--I was yelling in my mind, and even said out loud at one point, "GET THOSE KIDS IN THE BASEMENT AND PUT THEIR FACES IN A PILLOW!!!".

When a nuke goes off there is a 'flash' that occurs, and this flash will BLIND those who witness it within a certain range.

Sure enough, one of the girls gets blinded when Jacksonville goes up in flames.

Lesson learned; dont let yer kids (or yourself!) look around outside when a nuke attack has been signaled because even if they [you] are far enough away to survive the blast, they could still be blinded by the flash-fission explosion. Not good to be blind and wandering around the neighborhood during wartime and general societal collapse.

2) People will be in denial of reality right up to the point that they kill themselves, "killed" either intentionally or by their stupidity. It happens several times in this book.


Warning: This is not light reading. I'm almost done with it, and I already half feel like a refuge!

Hi Matt,
There was a time in the last century when those of us of a certain age (adults in the sixty and seventies) lived with the imminence of nuclear war. We were aware that there were facilities prepared by services and places of significance had early warning alarms.

Some people, including myself, studied the possibility of constructing a home fall out shelter and having emergency food and water stores.

Thankfully, as the century moved along, this horrific possibility receded. I hope this threat of the imminence of a nuclear holocaust does not increase again.
regards
Derek

Yeah, Im a product of those times as well. Reagan scared the H out of me when I was a kid. The whole era of the early 80's was very 'Cold War' type in my area (SAC airbase).

Maybe that 'apocalyptic' mindset got imprinted on me in my youth and is rearing its head again in my leaning toward that type of literature, especially as of late.

We never had 'air-raid' drills, but every Spring there is tornadoes and the "folks" head for the shelters.

The vast majority of people in this society---especially the younger generation---are totaly ignorant of this mentality and would be beyond lost should the unthinkable occur.

It has always amazed me since I was a kid that men would actually make weapons that would do this stuff to other people. Unbelievable.