Critical Essay on Station Eleven by Emily St. Mandel

Introduction

Station Eleven by Emily St. Mandel is a science fiction novel. The novel is the fourth in Mandel's library of publications. The novel has its settings in the Great Lakes region where it highlights a fictional swine flu pandemic. The swine flu as per the novel was known as the "Georgia Flu." The flue devastated the world reducing the world's population by a good number. In consideration of the focus of the novel which is largely on the survival of culture as opposed to the survival of the humanity which has been the message of most post-apocalypse novels, the Station Eleven novel won the Arthur C. Clarke Award of 2015.

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Despite the recognition of the station eleven novel among the best books in 2014 and that of Arthur C. Clack Award of 2015 for the award, the novel brings forth some shortcomings regarding the author's choice of plot and the general setting. The novel takes the reader through what transpired to Arthur Lender in the presence of Jeevan who was by then as a paramedic and had tried to treat Arthur since he started his training (Mandel 5). From the play, while taking a walk in the snow, Jeevan receives a call from a friend who informs him of the epidemic of the Georgia flu which was fast spreading through the city. He heeds to the call and goes to stay with his brother. At this instance, as a reader, a controversy is presented. A paramedic who is supposed to be on the site helping other people who might be affected by the outbreak flees for safety. Jeevan is also aware of Arthur Leander's death, instead of the morning with others, he chooses to run for his life.

The novel has its strongest aspects in the opening chapters which begins with the collapse and death of Arthur Leander on stage due to the heart attack while performing King Lear at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto. Jeevan, a survivor of the Georgia Plague epidemic, who was present in the occasion, tries to save him due to the sympathetic bond that existed between him and the old man (Mandel 14). However, his attempts went in vain. The story of the novel then flashes forward to a group of motley group twenty years later traveling back roads performing Shakespeares as well as other masses of classics as a way of spreading the remnants of civilization and culture. The author does well in factoring in the aspect of culture as well as its preservation. However, the author fails to note the dynamic nature of culture which is often greatly affected by civilization.

The author shows great compassion in her understanding of her work from the depth of her descriptive powers. In the novel, she brings forth a careful and witty dramatization of Leander's death as well as the immediate aftermath which was somehow catastrophic to the group of his fellow actors and other technicians who took to drinking at the theatre bar to discuss and mourn the passing of Arthur. The choice of text in this context was appropriate. However, with the impending epidemic, the author ought to have twisted the flow to bring to their knowledge what was to transpire. With such a twist she would have brought in a new aspect in the novel and thus bringing in more topics of discussion. Mandel's choice of text in her literary work does also not choose to give hope to the remaining humans who have been swept out by the epidemic Georgia Plague but instead continues to present more catastrophes to the remaining race such as the dodgy landscape, the crazed preacher and much more.

Conclusion

The primary purpose of the text in the Station Eleven novel by Emily St. Mandel, however, is the preservation of art and culture in the post-apocalypse. In her work, the author chose not to focus on the immediate aftermath of mayhem and horror of the epidemic and the survival of humanity which is always the central theme of most science fiction stories. Instead, her choice of theme was primarily set to be fifteen to twenty years after the flu pandemic. Thus, this made her focus more on the new culture as well as the new world that began to emerge from the originally affected world. In her new altered world, she captured the aspect of culture and art by including a traveling Shakespearean theater company as well as an orchestra who were touring an isolated community within the Midwest. The novel takes into account what transpired before and after the apocalypse. However, the novel stumbles into the post-apocalypse feature and loses much of its literary thread causing it to limp into a cliched and unimaginative conclusion. These aspects make the novel as well as the author to lack affinity for the desired tropes of any given science fiction genre. Various other greatest writers such as Philip Roth in his novel "The Plot Against America," Margaret Atwood in her dystopian of the "The Handmaid's Tale" and Walter Milner in his classic of "A Canticle for Leibowitz" also exhibit the same characteristics (Roth 65; Miller 89; Atwood 47 ).

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. Handmaid's Tale. S.l.: Vintage Classics, 2018. Print.

Mandel, Emily S. J. Station Eleven. London: Picador, 2014. Print.

Miller, Walter M. A Canticle for Leibowitz. London: Gollancz, 2013. Print.

Roth, Philip. The Plot against America. , 2016. Print.