Earth Abides

What does this miniseries, based upon the 1949 George R. Stewart novel of the same name, tell us about the impact of the loss of most of humanity on the natural world? How does the series and the novel make use of the fact that the main character, Isherwood Williams, is a geographer and academic, to illustrate these changes? How does it make use of this fact to craft the character, and explain his ability to survive the radical changes around him with relatively little post-traumatic injury? How does he utilize an ‘objective observer’s’ perspective to cope with his initial loneliness? How does the novel portray Ish’s gradual transition into a ‘culture hero’ in the eyes of the younger generations of his ‘tribe’? How do these later generations view the vanished civilization of ‘the Americans’? How does the Tribe’s reaction to the antagonist, Charlie, differ in the series and the novel? Which version of the story presents Ish and the leadership group with the more difficult ethical dilemma as they decide Charlie’s fate? How does Ish’s attitude toward books and libraries, and his son Joey, illustrate the fragility of what Popper calls “objective knowledge”? Why is it accurate to describe Stewart’s novel as literal “science fiction?” How does the book function as a meditation on broad themes concerning the foundations of human civilization? How does it compare to other post-apocalyptic fiction in this regard?