"Alas Babylon"

[starsinmyeyes44]

Just finished the book by Pat Frank this morning. I have been wanting to read it for quite some time, but always seemed to find something else to read.

It's been recommended by a few here over the years...for good reason. It was quite a good read.

My father was in SAC when he was in the Air Force and we were stationed at some of the bases mentioned in the book during the 1960's. Pretty sobering to think back at what he was preparing for on the flight line every day. I was oblivious, of course. Going to work in fatigues each day and working on bombers was what all daddies did, right?

Glad I read it finally.

 

[starsinmyeyes44]

I've been doing some research on Pat Frank and on the novel itself.

I am surprised that it hasn't been made into a full-length movie. I know that it was made into a "Playhouse 90" TV production...but wonder why it hasn't been made into a movie.

One source I read said that the novel was used by the writer for "The Postman."

 

[Gravity_Ray]

Nuclear attack generally dropped out of the psyche of the Americans in the 70s. There has been a couple of TV movies and series about the aftermath of a nuclear attack, but it didn’t receive a lot of attention and ratings.

That’s probably why it wasn’t made into a movie, but I suspect most movies done since about this subject have stolen some material from this book. i read it when I was younger, I just prefer Heinlein when it comes to survivalist type stories.

I like stories like these not because of the idea of a nuclear attack, but it reminds me of the way humans work best. Which are small self sufficient groups. As a species we work best in smaller groups, and we get very strange when we grow in numbers.

 

[starsinmyeyes44]

"The Road" was one recent movie about a post-apocalyptic world (it is never revealed exactly what created the devastation). I thought it was excellent, but you are right....it was not a movie popular with the general public.

 

[jim48]

Alas, Babylon was required reading when I was in high school. It was written in the late '50s at a time when it was feared that the Soviets were far ahead of us in ICBMs, when in fact they weren't, but Sputnik had scared the bejeebers out of everyone. I liked it because it was set in Florida. I think that author Pat Frank was a New York Times reporter. I've read it once since high school and it's still a damn good read.

 

[crazyeddie]

Nuclear attack generally dropped out of the psyche of the Americans in the 70s. There has been a couple of TV movies and series about the aftermath of a nuclear attack, but it didn’t receive a lot of attention and ratings.

That's not how I remember things. The 80's was a scary decade of saber-rattling with Ronald Ray-Gun and his Star Wars program. Many of the popular songs of that era dealt with the fear and angst of the Cold War. "Testament" and "The Day After" were two films that dealt specifically with the aftermath of a nuclear attack. I frequently had bad dreams.....nightmares, really...... about such things at that time. Nuclear disarmament was one of Carl Sagan's pet topics, and I recall him and some other scientists being on a discussion panel right after "The Day After" was broadcast, and him saying that the reality of a nuclear war would be "much worse" than how the film depicted it. Do you remember talk of "nuclear winter"? All of this was very much a part of the American psyche until the Soviet Union collapsed, at which point it eased for most people.

 

[Mee_n_Mac]

One source I read said that the novel was used by the writer for "The Postman."

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Are you saying the David Brin used Alas Babylon as inspiration for writing The Postman or ???

 

[starsinmyeyes44]

One source I read said that the novel was used by the writer for "The Postman."

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Are you saying the David Brin used Alas Babylon as inspiration for writing The Postman or ???

I'm sorry. I will post from the Wiki article from which I obtained that information.



From the Wikipedia article on "Alas Babylon".....

"Effects of the novel

Cover of Bantam Books 1979 paperback edition, ISBN 0-553-13260-1In the foreword of the 2005 edition of Alas, Babylon, David Brin admits that the book was instrumental in shaping his views on nuclear war and had an effect on his own book, The Postman (pp. xi-xii, ISBN 0-06-074187-2, Harper Perennial Modern Classics)."

 

[jim48]

Nuclear attack generally dropped out of the psyche of the Americans in the 70s. There has been a couple of TV movies and series about the aftermath of a nuclear attack, but it didn’t receive a lot of attention and ratings.

That's not how I remember things. The 80's was a scary decade of saber-rattling with Ronald Ray-Gun and his Star Wars program. Many of the popular songs of that era dealt with the fear and angst of the Cold War. "Testament" and "The Day After" were two films that dealt specifically with the aftermath of a nuclear attack. I frequently had bad dreams.....nightmares, really...... about such things at that time. Nuclear disarmament was one of Carl Sagan's pet topics, and I recall him and some other scientists being on a discussion panel right after "The Day After" was broadcast, and him saying that the reality of a nuclear war would be "much worse" than how the film depicted it. Do you remember talk of "nuclear winter"? All of this was very much a part of the American psyche until the Soviet Union collapsed, at which point it eased for most people.

Friend Eddie, Ronald Reagan was a great president who helped to bring down the Soviet Union. He hated nuclear weapons, by the way.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

Friend Eddie, Ronald Reagan was a great president who helped to bring down the Soviet Union. He hated nuclear weapons, by the way.

Absolutely.

Reagan Address - On Reykjavik talks Reykjavik Summit

On "The Postman"

I loved the book, but I was less thrilled about the movie. The book was gritty and hard hitting. The movie.. meh, not very entertaining.

I have yet to see "The Road" or read the book. I plan on doing one of those. I read Alas Babylon a long time ago, I think. Honestly, I don't remember. So, I should probably pick up a copy and read it. It's a big classic and is cited by many authors.

 

[steve82]

I read the book years ago and just happened on a copy of the 2005 Harper Perennial edition which is in my "to read" stack. (I usually drop a hundred bucks when I go to Barnes and Noble). There were a lot of books to the point it was almost a genre of its own.
I always felt that the Cold War my generation grew up in (60's) was a lot scarier than the 80's because of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Berlin Wall where people were actually getting shot by East German guards trying to get across. WWII was still in our parents' minds and there was a sense of urgency in the development of offensive weapons. In comparison, Reagan's cowboy posture seemed like more of a negotiating position.

 

[crazyeddie]

Friend Eddie, Ronald Reagan was a great president who helped to bring down the Soviet Union. He hated nuclear weapons, by the way.

Yes, he did help bring down the Soviet Union....I agree. Was he a "great" president? Matter of opinion. He may have hated nuclear weapons, but the point was that his harsh rhetoric and high-profile plan to build an insanely impractical anti-missile "shield" contributed greatly to the fear and anxiety and angst of that time, and it was reflected in the popular music. Song such as "The End of the Innocence" by Don Henley and Bruce Hornsby, "Everybody Want To Rule The World" by Tears for Fears, "Russians" by Sting, "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, etc.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

...contributed greatly to the fear and anxiety and angst of that time...

Didn't contribute to my fear and anxiety. Just sayin'...