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Just Re-Read: A Canticle For Liebowitz by Walter Miller
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Francis A. Miniter
Jan 16, 2012, 9:16:07 PM1/16/12
to
I first read this wonderful novel at least 30 years ago,
maybe more. The stimulus to re-read it was provided by an
essay about it in Walker Percy's _Signposts in a Strange
Land_ , a title which itself takes direction from the title
of another famous sci-fi novel by Robert Heinlein. But to
call this science fiction is both correct and not correct.
Written in 1959, I think it may be the first novel in the
sci-fi genre to transcend the genre and become an important
part of 20th century literature, or to use the words of
Walker Percy (writing in 1971), "the peculiar merit of this
novel is that it is both subliterary and transliterary."
Percy did not regard science fiction writing to date as
literary.
Percy's article complains that "[I]t is not for every
reader. Walter M. Miller Jr.'s A Canticle for Liebowitz is
like a coded message , a book in a strange language . . .
Like a cipher, the book has a secret. But, unlike a cipher,
the secret can't be told. Telling it ruins it. But it is
not like 'giving away' a mystery by telling the outcome.
The case is more difficult." Nor does Percy give it away,
though he points the reader by drawing his attention to a
difference that this book has from other sci-fi novels.
They, he says, have one coordinate line, the x-line,
denoting time. But this novel has one or more crossing
lines, y-lines representing cultural interpretations of
events. In this case, the y-lines represent Jewish and
Christian perspectives, and, he says, "The Jewish
coordinates are identical to the Christian save only where y
crosses x." Though rather abstract, that statement in fact
did help me to understand the novel better.
Without spoiling the story as Percy would enjoin me not to
do, I will say a little about the story and much more about
what I see is its affect on sci-fi literature as a whole.
The novel has three parts, the first set 600 years after a
nuclear holocaust of the 20th century; the second, a further
600 years in the future; and the third, another 600 years in
the future. At the start of the novel, an abbey located
somewhere in what is now eastern Colorado, has been storing
up writings from the time before, by acting as bookleggers
and memorizers (a tip of the hat to Ray Bradbury there),
storing there treasurers in the vaults of the library run by
the Albertine Order of Liebowitz, whom, we learn, was a
Jewish-American nuclear scientist, who after the holocaust
took up booklegging for the church (the only organization to
remain intact after the holocaust) and was eventually burned
to death by those who opposed any form of learning.
What immediately becomes clear is that the monks know
nothing of what they are preserving. Like the monks of the
dark ages, they copy without understanding. And so, the
point is made that information is not knowledge, and neither
is either wisdom or culture. By the time we come to the
second part, the world is now composed of city-states, whose
rulers are more likely than not to be illiterate, and so the
divide between information, knowledge, wisdom and culture is
reasserted at a different stage. In the final part, the
world has recaptured the knowledge that it had before the
holocaust, but the various nations are on the brink of
blowing each other up once more.
Through all of this, one character persists. And old Jew,
who dresses in rags, and who is old at the start of the
novel and still going in the final part. Thirty years ago,
I had never heard of the legend of the Wandering Jew. The
intervening years have cured that deficiency. This old Jew,
whose name is at different times Benjamin Eleazar or Shemi
Lazar or Lazarus, is drawn from those legends. And first a
word about the origins of the legend. The first appearance
in writing of the legend was in what is now Austria in 1602,
and it spread rapidly across Germany that year, with
pamphlet after pamphlet being published in any town with a
printing press. It is, of course, an anti-Semitic legend,
the main point of the story being that as Jesus was carrying
his cross to the place of execution, an old Jew repeatedly
insulted him, to the point that Jesus in a very
un-Christlike moment condemns the man to live upon the earth
until he, Jesus, returns, i.e., the Second Coming.
But this instance of the legend is different. First, it is
not clear just how old he is. By one account, he is the
Lazarus that Jesus raised from the dead, and that is why he
is not able to die. By another, he is another 2200 years
older and would date from the age of Abraham. We are given
two sets of coordinates. In any case, though, Miller has
altered the legend, and made the Wandering Jew a
sympathetic, likeable figure, not one to give some an excuse
for race hatred.
Now, to what I see as some of the literary affects of this
novel.
First, the structure of the story, setting three inner
stories in the same place at three different times in
history, many hundreds of years apart, was used recently by
Iain Pears in _The Dream of Scipio_ where he set the novel
in and about Avignon in 476, 1348 and 1944. Each, as in
Miller's book, poses an ethical question in real time
calling for some form of response.
Then there is the opening of the book, with a solitary dark
figure walking across the desert. Stephen King used the
same image to start _The Gunslinger_ , the first book of The
Dark Tower series. Also in The Dark Tower Series, indeed, I
think also in The Gunslinger, there is a cat with six paws,
the middle set just hanging uselessly from the sides. The
same image occurs in Miller's novel. It well may be that
Miller provided the conscious or unconscious source for
these images.
As to the end of the novel, Frank Herbert's _Chapterhouse
Dune_ seems to me to parallel it in many ways, which I will
not here list.
But there is so much more to the novel. It provides so many
ethical dilemmas, and argues both sides so well.
--
Francis A. Miniter
Mesure is Medicine þauh þou muche ȝeor[n]e.
Al nis not good to þe gost þat þe bodi lykeþ,
Ne lyflode to þe licam þat leof is to þe soule.
William Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman
Passus I, lines 33 - 35
maybe more. The stimulus to re-read it was provided by an
essay about it in Walker Percy's _Signposts in a Strange
Land_ , a title which itself takes direction from the title
of another famous sci-fi novel by Robert Heinlein. But to
call this science fiction is both correct and not correct.
Written in 1959, I think it may be the first novel in the
sci-fi genre to transcend the genre and become an important
part of 20th century literature, or to use the words of
Walker Percy (writing in 1971), "the peculiar merit of this
novel is that it is both subliterary and transliterary."
Percy did not regard science fiction writing to date as
literary.
Percy's article complains that "[I]t is not for every
reader. Walter M. Miller Jr.'s A Canticle for Liebowitz is
like a coded message , a book in a strange language . . .
Like a cipher, the book has a secret. But, unlike a cipher,
the secret can't be told. Telling it ruins it. But it is
not like 'giving away' a mystery by telling the outcome.
The case is more difficult." Nor does Percy give it away,
though he points the reader by drawing his attention to a
difference that this book has from other sci-fi novels.
They, he says, have one coordinate line, the x-line,
denoting time. But this novel has one or more crossing
lines, y-lines representing cultural interpretations of
events. In this case, the y-lines represent Jewish and
Christian perspectives, and, he says, "The Jewish
coordinates are identical to the Christian save only where y
crosses x." Though rather abstract, that statement in fact
did help me to understand the novel better.
Without spoiling the story as Percy would enjoin me not to
do, I will say a little about the story and much more about
what I see is its affect on sci-fi literature as a whole.
The novel has three parts, the first set 600 years after a
nuclear holocaust of the 20th century; the second, a further
600 years in the future; and the third, another 600 years in
the future. At the start of the novel, an abbey located
somewhere in what is now eastern Colorado, has been storing
up writings from the time before, by acting as bookleggers
and memorizers (a tip of the hat to Ray Bradbury there),
storing there treasurers in the vaults of the library run by
the Albertine Order of Liebowitz, whom, we learn, was a
Jewish-American nuclear scientist, who after the holocaust
took up booklegging for the church (the only organization to
remain intact after the holocaust) and was eventually burned
to death by those who opposed any form of learning.
What immediately becomes clear is that the monks know
nothing of what they are preserving. Like the monks of the
dark ages, they copy without understanding. And so, the
point is made that information is not knowledge, and neither
is either wisdom or culture. By the time we come to the
second part, the world is now composed of city-states, whose
rulers are more likely than not to be illiterate, and so the
divide between information, knowledge, wisdom and culture is
reasserted at a different stage. In the final part, the
world has recaptured the knowledge that it had before the
holocaust, but the various nations are on the brink of
blowing each other up once more.
Through all of this, one character persists. And old Jew,
who dresses in rags, and who is old at the start of the
novel and still going in the final part. Thirty years ago,
I had never heard of the legend of the Wandering Jew. The
intervening years have cured that deficiency. This old Jew,
whose name is at different times Benjamin Eleazar or Shemi
Lazar or Lazarus, is drawn from those legends. And first a
word about the origins of the legend. The first appearance
in writing of the legend was in what is now Austria in 1602,
and it spread rapidly across Germany that year, with
pamphlet after pamphlet being published in any town with a
printing press. It is, of course, an anti-Semitic legend,
the main point of the story being that as Jesus was carrying
his cross to the place of execution, an old Jew repeatedly
insulted him, to the point that Jesus in a very
un-Christlike moment condemns the man to live upon the earth
until he, Jesus, returns, i.e., the Second Coming.
But this instance of the legend is different. First, it is
not clear just how old he is. By one account, he is the
Lazarus that Jesus raised from the dead, and that is why he
is not able to die. By another, he is another 2200 years
older and would date from the age of Abraham. We are given
two sets of coordinates. In any case, though, Miller has
altered the legend, and made the Wandering Jew a
sympathetic, likeable figure, not one to give some an excuse
for race hatred.
Now, to what I see as some of the literary affects of this
novel.
First, the structure of the story, setting three inner
stories in the same place at three different times in
history, many hundreds of years apart, was used recently by
Iain Pears in _The Dream of Scipio_ where he set the novel
in and about Avignon in 476, 1348 and 1944. Each, as in
Miller's book, poses an ethical question in real time
calling for some form of response.
Then there is the opening of the book, with a solitary dark
figure walking across the desert. Stephen King used the
same image to start _The Gunslinger_ , the first book of The
Dark Tower series. Also in The Dark Tower Series, indeed, I
think also in The Gunslinger, there is a cat with six paws,
the middle set just hanging uselessly from the sides. The
same image occurs in Miller's novel. It well may be that
Miller provided the conscious or unconscious source for
these images.
As to the end of the novel, Frank Herbert's _Chapterhouse
Dune_ seems to me to parallel it in many ways, which I will
not here list.
But there is so much more to the novel. It provides so many
ethical dilemmas, and argues both sides so well.
--
Francis A. Miniter
Mesure is Medicine þauh þou muche ȝeor[n]e.
Al nis not good to þe gost þat þe bodi lykeþ,
Ne lyflode to þe licam þat leof is to þe soule.
William Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman
Passus I, lines 33 - 35
Titus G
Jan 17, 2012, 11:16:45 PM1/17/12
to
Francis A. Miniter wrote:
> I first read this wonderful novel at least 30 years ago,
> maybe more.
I read it 20 and 40 years ago and began it again last year but have only
> I first read this wonderful novel at least 30 years ago,
> maybe more.
read the first third this time. Thank you for your interesting and
informative post which I shall keep to re-read when I return to this book.
BlokeDownThPub.
Francis A. Miniter
Jan 23, 2012, 1:45:30 PM1/23/12
to
I have just started Saint Leibowitz and the White Horse
Woman, the "sequel" (set about 90 years after part 2 of the
original book) published after Miller's death in the 1990s.
I found I was wrong about the location of St. Leibowitz
Abbey. There is a map at the front of the second book, and
I noticed that the great rivers of central North America are
laid out carefully, and the Abbey is marked as just to the
west of the Rio Grande at a certain point. So I got out an
atlas, and WOW. Miller put the Abbey were Los Alamos is now.
Lois
Jan 23, 2012, 5:28:26 PM1/23/12
to
I think I'll have to re-read it too. I'm sure I have a paperback copy
because I have a lot of science fiction from that era and I remember reading
it back then.
Lois
"Francis A. Miniter" wrote in message news:jfk9sd$4ls$1...@dont-email.me...
because I have a lot of science fiction from that era and I remember reading
it back then.
Lois
"Francis A. Miniter" wrote in message news:jfk9sd$4ls$1...@dont-email.me...
Francis A. Miniter
Jan 23, 2012, 6:33:20 PM1/23/12
to
On 1/23/2012 17:28 PM, Lois wrote:
> I think I'll have to re-read it too. I'm sure I have a
> paperback copy because I have a lot of science fiction from
> that era and I remember reading it back then.
>
> Lois
I think most of us have to read it in paperback. Even an
> I think I'll have to re-read it too. I'm sure I have a
> paperback copy because I have a lot of science fiction from
> that era and I remember reading it back then.
>
> Lois
ex-library first edition goes for over $400, and the prices
go up from there. A 1997 hardcover reprint goes for about
$50. Whoever has a 1960 era copy should probably buy a
paperback to read and spare the wear and tear on a valuable
book. Alas, I do not have a hardcover copy.
Titus G
Jan 24, 2012, 12:02:53 AM1/24/12
to
Francis A. Miniter wrote:
snip
My favourite books are the first two of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy
but the third decreased my appreciation for the first two so when my friend
who recommended "A Canticle....." told me that he was disappointed with the
sequel which was also completed by others after the author's death, I did
not read it, but would be interested to read any comments you care to share.
snip
> I have just started Saint Leibowitz and the White Horse
> Woman, the "sequel" (set about 90 years after part 2 of the
> original book) published after Miller's death in the 1990s.
snip
> Woman, the "sequel" (set about 90 years after part 2 of the
> original book) published after Miller's death in the 1990s.
My favourite books are the first two of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy
but the third decreased my appreciation for the first two so when my friend
who recommended "A Canticle....." told me that he was disappointed with the
sequel which was also completed by others after the author's death, I did
not read it, but would be interested to read any comments you care to share.
J
Jan 24, 2012, 6:09:31 PM1/24/12
to
On Jan 23, 6:33 pm, "Francis A. Miniter" <famini...@comcast.net>
wrote:
Gollancz in their "Masterworks" series. I don't think I paid anything
like $50. I also got the sequel from England, when it came out.
(Bisson says he only wrote about 100 pages of it; the rest is Miller.)
wrote:
>
> I think most of us have to read it in paperback. Even an
> ex-library first edition goes for over $400, and the prices
> go up from there. A 1997 hardcover reprint goes for about
> $50. Whoever has a 1960 era copy should probably buy a
> paperback to read and spare the wear and tear on a valuable
> book. Alas, I do not have a hardcover copy.
My hardcover of CANTCILE is the 2001 British edition, published by
> I think most of us have to read it in paperback. Even an
> ex-library first edition goes for over $400, and the prices
> go up from there. A 1997 hardcover reprint goes for about
> $50. Whoever has a 1960 era copy should probably buy a
> paperback to read and spare the wear and tear on a valuable
> book. Alas, I do not have a hardcover copy.
Gollancz in their "Masterworks" series. I don't think I paid anything
like $50. I also got the sequel from England, when it came out.
(Bisson says he only wrote about 100 pages of it; the rest is Miller.)
Francis A. Miniter
Jan 24, 2012, 6:55:40 PM1/24/12
to
As to Wild Horse Woman, I wonder which 100 pages he wrote.
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