Autorenbild.

George R. Stewart (1895–1980)

Autor von Leben ohne Ende

43+ Werke 6,256 Mitglieder 157 Rezensionen Lieblingsautor von 11 Lesern

Über den Autor

George R. Stewart (1895-1980) was a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley

Werke von George R. Stewart

Leben ohne Ende (1949) — Autor — 3,614 Exemplare
To California by Covered Wagon (1954) 450 Exemplare
Storm (1941) 290 Exemplare
Pickett's Charge (1960) 254 Exemplare
Fire (1948) 111 Exemplare
Names on the Globe (1667) 38 Exemplare
Im Schatten der goldenen Berge (1938) 12 Exemplare
American Ways of Life (1954) 11 Exemplare
Not so rich as you think (1967) 11 Exemplare
The Years of the City (1955) 11 Exemplare
Man. An Autobiography (1946) 9 Exemplare
Sheep Rock (1951) 7 Exemplare
N.A.1, LOOKING SOUTH (1957) 5 Exemplare
Doctor's oral 5 Exemplare
Your Baby Birth To 18 Months (1995) 4 Exemplare
Bret Harte: Argonaut and Exile (1979) 3 Exemplare
Good lives 2 Exemplare
This California (1965) 2 Exemplare
Ziemia trwa (2021) 1 Exemplar

Zugehörige Werke

Getagged

Wissenswertes

Mitglieder

Diskussionen

George R Stewart's Earth Abides in Post-apocalyptic Literature (Juli 2010)

Rezensionen

Published in 1941, [Storm] follows the life of a winter storm from its birth over the North Pacific until its dissipation twelve days later. The storm, privately named "Maria" by a junior meteorologist at the San Francisco office of the US Weather Bureau, is a significant enough presence in the story to qualify as a character . . . except that Stewart, even as he lovingly chronicles its growth and changing nature, is careful never to humanize it. It sweeps across the Pacific, then across Northern California, utterly indifferent to its effect on the human characters in the story.

Those human characters are, by traditional literary standards, given only slightly more development. They have character traits and motivations, both limited in number and very sparely drawn, but not personalities. Over the course of the story, we see them almost exclusively in the context of doing their jobs, and learn virtually nothing about their larger lives or inner thoughts and emotions.

All of this serves the central theme of Stewart's novel, which is the collision of natural systems (the storm) and the human systems that it touches: the weather bureau, the airlines and railroads, the power and telephone companies, the flood-control works that regulate the flow of the rivers, and the highway department charged with keeping the mountain roads over the Sierra Nevada open and passable. The drama in the story lies in the humans who operate these systems straining their minds, bodies, and spirits to the breaking point to keep them operating in spite of the storm . . . or at least to keep its disruption of them, and thus its effect on people's lives, to an absolute minimum.

Stewart's writing about atmospheric phenomena, though it occasionally tips into the self-consciously grandiose, remains surprisingly gripping, and his juggling of multiple plot lines and sets of characters is masterful. It's a thoughtful reflection on the way that fragility and resilience coexist in the technological systems that make modern life possible. It's also a look into the minds of the workers whose unseen labor (both physical and mental) keeps those systems operating.

[Storm] not an easy sell to someone you don't know well, but if anything I wrote above intrigues you, it's well worth tracking down.
… (mehr)
 
Gekennzeichnet
ABVR | 6 weitere Rezensionen | Jan 20, 2024 |
A somber portrait of a man who survives a cataclysmic plague and struggles to rebuild some semblance of civilization. Deeply affecting. Published in 1949, this is a classic work of science fiction that remains relevant today, perhaps more now than ever. A compelling read.
 
Gekennzeichnet
vverse23 | 114 weitere Rezensionen | Jan 9, 2024 |
Brian Aldiss coined the term "cozy catastrophe" about John Wyndham's work. It being an end of the world event where the character doesn't suffer enough or there's not always impending doom right at the door. In Earth Abides, the main character, Ish, is bedridden throughout the entire apocalypse. Then we follow him when he is clear-headed. No zombies. No aliens. No evil government stooges.

Ish isn't a scientist or a doctor, or a superhuman soldier; he's just a slightly more intelligent person who understands the present and the importance the future holds. Along the way he picks up a few group of survivors. The dynamic of the group is something that is interesting as we see a small society form. Within this, Ish becomes a defacto leader and the idealist - but an idealist who has reality smack into him several times, especially when it concerns other people. While you do get a semblance of others actions and reasons, we are constantly following Ish and his internal dialogue. Society is gone and all that remains are the remains.

But now children come into the mix. Society is still in struggle within their group. Ish wants to build the children to take over and remember the times before and achieve order once again. But what does order and society look like when you only have less than a dozen people who existed in the "before times".

There are some amazing juxopositions in this book as well. Ish takes a wife, Emma, names that have origin towards "Adam" and "Eve". We see the story starts out with Ish (Adam) being bitten by a snake and then he's thrust out into a world of disorder but also the Earth continues. Within this, there is small discussions of religion as in Ish is not religious and views it as a distraction from the unity needed among the group and focus on survival tasks. Then to double back, mythology springs up on things that for Ish are common place but for the children who only know the world after the Great Disaster become totems and exalted titles.

There's no big shootouts in this book. There's no stopping the mad bomber or brigand. It is a calm book but the tension and drama are beautifully done. The dealing with an outside stranger to the group and the impact of actions taken is such a high point. But there are little movements that are big deals and then there are big deals where you think the story will focus on but it settles into a more somber and carefree tone. It's amazing.

I almost come to think of apocalypse stories truly bringing questions of the purpose of life and humanity front and center and this one has done it the most by not focusing on the disaster but on the life and humanity. This would be an amazing book for a group discussion or reading group. I was tempted not to finish it as I saw the end coming and didn't want it to end - a sure sign of a good book. A definite recommendendation. Don't let it sit on your shelf. But if you do, the Earth Abides. Final Grade - A+
… (mehr)
1 abstimmen
Gekennzeichnet
agentx216 | 114 weitere Rezensionen | Aug 27, 2023 |
Cuando Isherwood Williams, un graduado en geografía, vuelve de unas vacaciones descubre que todo el mundo esta muerto, victima de un virus. Va a la deriva, observa la degradación del paisaje, plagas de insectos y roedores, y al regresar a San Francisco, encuentra a una sobreviviente y forman una pareja y tienen hijos que vuelven a la manera de vivir de los nativos americanos, completando un círculo. Ish queda como único testigo al pasado y recuerda que «los hombres van y vienen, pero la Tierra permanece». Esta hermosa meditación sobre la ecología, el pasado y la inexorabilidad del cambio, es una de las obras maestras de la ficción especulativa de todos los tiempos.… (mehr)
 
Gekennzeichnet
Natt90 | 114 weitere Rezensionen | Feb 27, 2023 |

Listen

Auszeichnungen

Dir gefällt vielleicht auch

Nahestehende Autoren

Statistikseite

Werke
43
Auch von
7
Mitglieder
6,256
Beliebtheit
#3,920
Bewertung
3.9
Rezensionen
157
ISBNs
110
Sprachen
7
Favoriten
11

Diagramme & Grafiken