“Survival is not sufficient”: Station Eleven A review

Station Eleven is a prophetic book. This book was written a few years before the coronavirus took over the world, but frighteningly enough, it is very similar to the present situation. A virus called the Georgian virus spreads rapidly across the world, killing people in just a matter of hours, but the story is not about the virus. It is basically about life after the virus. The tagline of this entire novel is that survival is not sufficient. If that is the case, then this novel can be used as a survival guide for the present depressing state of the world.

The important question that the book deals with is hypothetical. What would the world look like after the devastating pandemic? Will the old ways survive, or the systems of the world endure? Will the Internet become a thing of the past? In the novel, the mobile phones, laptops, and all the gadgets become part of a museum or in another world the memories of the past.

Even the point of education would seem ridiculous to these survivors. The novel connects various characters and the journey before the pandemic and also after the pandemic. The novel’s recurring question appears to be, “How much impact can the media leave behind?”An individual's life and its legacy are examined in this work as well.

I think the basic intention of this novel is to talk about the importance of art in the post-pandemic world. In a world in which science has failed, the Internet is a bygone memory, electricity is a myth, and the only redeeming grace is art. The only way humans can make sense of the world is by practicing art. Shakespeare is an important part of the novel. The world before the pandemic or post-pandemic is connected in a subtle way to Shakespeare’s understanding of the world. (This might be because of the fact that Shakespeare was part of a pandemic era.)

The character crossroads are very well developed, and the navigation of these characters from the old world to the new is interesting. The comic Station Eleven seems to be the background story of the novel and how a fictional character can define new beginnings in a new world. The development of religion, the understanding of the new world, the hope for the future, and the natural grit of mankind are explored by the author. I would give a wonderful 4 out of 5 for this endearing novel.