Survival is insufficient.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was reading this book.  I finished it yesterday.  I said it wasn't as amazing as The Country of Ice Cream Star, but I did really enjoy it and thought lots of it was terrific.  There were moments while reading that I was completely shocked and surprised (and my mouth dropped wide open) and I really cared about the characters and it made me think about what you would do to survive, if everything came crashing down around you.  For example, I have an earthquake bag in our basement, and they tell us you should have at least three days worth of stuff to tide you over until things get back to normal.  But what if things never got back to normal?  Where would you get water?  (We have creeks on either side of the building, but I'm not sure if the water is good to drink.  Obviously, we'd have to see.  Daisy can drink it, but I don't think that's a good test, because dogs can drink out of puddles on the street.)  What about food?  In both Station Eleven and Ice Cream Star the people have to hunt.  We see lots of birds, but they are very fast and very wary of us.  How would you kill one?  We have no weapons and don't know how to use them if we did have them.  And I have a few edible things growing in the yard, but not enough to feed us for long.  The yard is very shady and so most vegetables don't do well.  How would you defend yourself?  If stronger people came with weapons and told us they were taking the house, we couldn't do anything to stop them.

The author of this book chose to set most of the story years after the initial pandemic that kills most of the people.  She said she did this because she was not as interested in the initial mayhem that would ensue, but more in what people would do to try to rebuild society.  The Travelling Symphony has decided to move from community to community and put on concerts and plays, because "survival is insufficient".  This is a quote from "Star Trek: Voyager" (one of my husband's favourite shows) and the main character in the book, Kirsten, says it's her favourite quote of all time and she has it tattooed on her arm (I read a review that said this was an odd "favourite" for her to have when she has all of Shakespeare, but I don't think I agree.  This quote is from something that she loved that is gone forever and it is the raison d'etre for her and her companions).  They perform Shakespeare and Beethoven because people would want the best from the world that has been, for the most part, destroyed.  In another place, a man has created a museum of civilization in which he preserves things from the old world -- cell phones and credit cards and pieces of identification.  Someone else starts a newspaper and looks after a library.  What would you treasure most if disaster struck?