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A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960)
• Walter M. Miller (1923-96)
• Engineer; bomber in WW2; Catholic
convert; sci fi story writer
• Recluse, suicide
• Canticle his only novel
• HISTORY from Time Machine:
• WW1 (1914-18), Great Depression,
Russian Revolution, fascism
• WW2 (1939-45), nuclear arms, space
race
• Cold war (1946-91): western capitalism
vs. communism; Cuban revolution „59
• Espionage, threat, proxy wars (Vietnam)
• Threat: nuclear war
• Actual world apocalypse
• Prevent: mutually assured destruction
• 1960: Gary Powers
• Krushchev at U.N.
Nuclear Apocalypse fiction
• Red Alert (Dr. Strangelove), On The
Beach, Fail Safe
• Post-apocalyptic survival: mutation,
survivalism, alternate economies, small
societies
• Miller: looks to past history:
• end of Roman empire – 5th century
• “Dark Ages”
• Roman Catholic church emerges:
• repository of knowledge, order
• Dominates middle ages
• Renaissance (14th-17th centuries)
• Church vs. new science, worldliness
• Monasteries / abbeys:
• self-sufficient, remote, strictly regulated
• life of prayer and celibacy
• scriptoriums
• Latin
Leibowitz time line
• 20th century nuclear apocalypse (61)
• Attack on learning: “Simplification” (62-3)
• Isaac Liebowitz, electrical engineer,
survives, starts monastic order:
“Albertian” (63-4); martyred (64)
• American south west
• Book one = 600 years later
• “Dark Ages”
• Book two = 500 after that
• “Renaissance”
• Book three = 600 after that
• “modern world”
• nuclear war
• Cyclical history
• Rediscovery of past glories
• Reverence
• Questioning
• Ignoring
Fiat Homo
• America largely empty, tribal (55)
• Monastic order in desert
• The Church = surviving bureaucracy (56)
• Hybrid Catholic practice
• Brother Francis a novice during Lent
• Young, eager, dumb
• “pilgrim”
• In pt. 2 as “Benjamin,” pt. 3 as tramp
(255-6, 275)
• The Wandering Jew (163, 168)
• Leibowitz? (164)
• statue (83)
• The fallout shelter (17)
• Confusion of religion/myth/history
• Veneration of ancients vs. anti-
intellectualism
• Assumption of sophistication (75)
• Junk of past = holy relics (25-6)
Manuscript
• Francis confronts technology: 74
• Francis in scriptorium
• Illuminated manuscript of wiring diagram /
blueprint
Church vs. Science, Church vs. Church
• 69-70 “trial” of Leibowitz
• postulator (85) vs. advocatus diaboli (90)
• Politics of canonization vs. beatification
(42-43)
• reluctance to claim miracles
• politics in faith/religion
• 93 canonization
• 96 mutation and theological implications
• “two heads”
• New Rome 106-7
• Poverty 110
• Return of pilgrim 114-5
• FIRST PART:
• knowledge & faith vs. ignorance
• ignorant veneration of past & science
• politics of faith
• theological implications of post-apoc.
life
Fiat Lux
• A Dark Age passing (143)
• “Renaissance” = rebirth, rediscovery
• Assertion of human centrality, ability:
• Rise of science (empiricism)
• Rise of the state
• Redefining of Church‟s position
• Questioning of inherited forms
• Here “Awakening Generation” (132)
• 119, 123 complicated politics
• Characters:
• Thon Taddeo Pfardentrott, scholar
• Marcus Apollo, pol. rep. of New Rome
• Dom Paulo, abbot of Leibowitz
• Brother Kornhoer, monk inventor
• Hannegan II, ruler of Texarkana
• Mad Bear, clan chief
• The Poet
• Benjamin
• Thon: “natural philosopher” (125)
• incredulity at past (126-7) & religion
• Dom Paulo: old traditions of Church, fear
of change, dying
• 180-1
• Koernhoer: blend of science & religion
• Apollo: politician of religion; “realpolitik”
• Machiavelli?
• Hannegan: manipulative politician;
expansionist; tries to use Church
• the future
• Mad Bear: politics of force (156)
• The Poet: cynic, truth speaker,
“removable conscience” (219)
• Benjamin: alternate tradition of faith,
voice of history, context
• Turning point in history: 210-11
• Optimism vs caution:
• threat of future 220
• New Reformation 227?
• Or cynical manipulation of faith?
• Electric light 188
• monks slave to the light
• Officers mapping monastery 192
• Rise of state
• State vs church
• vs technology
• War as driver of
technology
• 228ff confrontation
• 234-35 Renaissance: hope and politics
• Last chapter: violence
• Book 3: Fiat Voluntas Tua (thy will be
done)
• Alternate future: space travel, nuclear
energy, computers
• New Cold War: Asian Coalition vs Atlantic
Confederacy
• Introduction: 243-7:
• vision of future
• 1st person “poem” of centuries
• interview with Minister
• Lucifer is fallen
• Fragmented and misleading
communication
• to autoscribe and Abbot Zerchi
• Nuclear test and warning shot
• Quo peregrinatur grex 259
• “Where wanders the flock?”
• Characters:
• Zerchi: despairing (264); stick to
absolutes of the church (315)
• Mrs Grales/Rachel: mutant, miracle birth
• 330-31: baptism and Eucharist
• savior? 232
• Doctor Cors: science‟s response
• Brother Joshua: conflicted 283-8
• indecision in a garden, snake
• will save remnant of mankind
• Conflicts of Book 3:
• role of Church in technological society
• moral teaching vs necessity
and compassion
• free will vs religious decree
• Conclusion of book:
• cyclical history: nuclear war
• Brother Francis (328)
• nature: buzzards and sharks
• (anti) pathetic fallacy
• Entire book . . .
• Cyclical history: pessimistic
• Idiocy of humankind = apocalypse
• Specific cultural fears:
• nuclear war
• battle between faith and science
• dangers of emerging technologies
• reactionary ignorance