The monks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz take up the mission of preserving the surviving remnants of man's scientific knowledge until the day the outside world is again ready for it. Set in a Roman Catholic monastery in the desert of the Southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the story spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself. Appealing to mainstream and genre critics and readers alike, it won the 1961 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel. Considered one of the classics of science fiction, it has never been out of print and has seen over 25 reprints and editions. Based on three short stories Miller contributed to the science fiction magazine The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction it is the only novel published by the author during his lifetime. Through this artful juxtaposition of history and projected futures, he reminds us that what's to come is not yet determined-and that, even for a nation desperate to leave the past behind, history holds ideas that can light the way to a brighter society./ Series: Leibowitz A Canticle For Leibowitz W MillerĪ Canticle for Leibowitz is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by American writer Walter M. By looking at how American frontier mythology plays out in the imagined West of the future, Katerberg offers a new approach to understanding the region's popular culture. He considers how Leslie Marmon Silko'sAlmanac of the Dead ties revitalized Native American traditions to their hopes for the future, and he uses such stories of race wars as The Turner Diaries to compare reactionary visions to progressive utopianism. Here are Douglas Coupland's postindustrial West, Callenbach's eco-utopian Pacific Northwest, and Kim Stanley Robinson's critical utopian view of Orange County. Ranging widely over science fiction subgenres-from alternative futures to cyberpunk-Katerberg takes us on a tour of utopias of all stripes, whether exclusivist, reactionary, or progressive. He suggests powerful new ways to think critically and hopefully about American history-and about politics and civic life in the present.
Katerberg revisits the frontier mythos (and iconic figures like Buffalo Bill Cody and Frederick Jackson Turner) and explores the West of future-oriented novels and films, in which the frontier is long past and American society is aging.
The frontier has long fostered America's persistent desire to leave the past behind and begin anew-a desire that has nurtured the utopian dreams of westerners from Progressives to Earth Firstlers. Combining intellectual history, literary analysis, and political philosophy, his study boldly encourages readers to reframe their understanding of both popular Western culture and American political culture. What is the future of the American West? Is it fated to shine with the benign promise of Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia? Or will it instead dissolve into postapocalyptic dust, as in Walter Miller's classic novel A Canticle for Leibowitz, or devolve into relentlessly dark and rain-soaked urban landscapes, as in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner? William Katerberg takes a new look at works of utopian, dystopian, and apocalyptic science fiction to show how narratives of the past and future powerfully shape our understanding of the present-day West.
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