Where did the title of our June book, On the Beach, by Nevil Shute, come from when the book was first published in 1957? Was it this poem?
The Hollow Men
By T S Eliot
·
In this last of
meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river…
·
…This is the way the
world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Or this poem, featured
in the year-2000 movie about the book:
On the Beach at
Night
BY WALT WHITMAN
·
On the beach at night,
Stands a child with her father,
Watching the east, the autumn sky…
From the beach the child holding the hand of her father,
Those burial-clouds that lower victorious soon to devour all,
Watching, silently weeps. (The DVD changed this
line to “Watching finally weeps.”
This book was full of discussion
catalysts and was so disturbing that discussion was probably the best way to quell
the anxiety the book aroused! It is a quintessential Book Club book! The
characters were all coping in their own characteristic ways with the doomsday
reality they were facing. Talking about these coping mechanisms, Lydia thought
Moira was a more sympathetic character than those who were carrying on their
lives as if everything were the same as it always had been. Cindy V. noted a
quote from the book: “Everybody was going a bit mad.” Dennis said that the best
idea he could think of for those characters was to plant trees, as opposed to a
garden to be harvested within the next few months. Trees might be maturing and
helpful when the radiation eased and a new generation hopefully began a new
lifestyle on earth. Shirley noted that the characters carrying on as usual were
probably in denial and were doing things of the moment to avoid feeling like
and acting on giving up.
Carla noticed that the people
of Australia weren’t rioting and looting, which would probably be evident were
anything like this to happen again. Pam said she related most to Peter, who was
trying to understand everyone’s points of view, especially that of his wife,
who didn’t want to think about the problems and what MUST be done to prepare for
them. Pam thought Moira had more of the right idea than Dwight. Moira accepted
the reality and coped with it in a variety of ways that were useful to her;
whereas Dwight tried to hold on to false hopes, though he seemed to accept
reality at the end. Joyce M. said that those who decided to help sink the submarine
were actually ending their own lives in the name of patriotism, but that this
act was metaphorical, as there was no hope for even other countries to take
over the ship and its technologies. Marcia felt that the situation was so devastating
that it was unrealistic for the population to be cavorting at bars and
restaurants, with the world having suffered as much destruction as it had. Joyce
said that with the radiation spreading from the north, she would have headed
toward Antarctica to attempt to survive longer.
We talked about what might
have happened in the world of the book that resulted in bombs being aimed and
sent and filling the world with radiation. Then we talked about some of the dangers
presented in this old book and still relevant today, even if slightly changed.
Current events include cyber attacks, similar to the supposedly confused bombing
in the book in that mistakes can occur. We can now track cyber attacks, and in
the 1950s, they had some ability to track where bombs originated and were
aimed. Denial by the perpetrator is similar now to the way it was then, though
the resulting confusion in the book is, we hope, beyond what could happen now.
For those of us who saw the
movie, there was no question that the book was better than the movie! No remake
wanted!
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