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My husband and I just finished reading "The Road." Very interesting, suspenseful and compelling book, although I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. Anyway, my question is: Do you think the doomsday scenario painted in the book is even possible? It is hard for me to imagine any disaster that would seemingly wipe all animal, insect and acquatic life off the face of the Earth. Even if there was a massive nuclear war, couldn't some animal life, at least insects still survive? When the comet or asteroid or whatever it was hit Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs and introduced an ice age (did I get that right?) it didn't completely destroy all life. Surely a very few plants and animals could survive in the cold and sunless conditions described.
What was your assumption about the apocolyptic "event"--nuclear, asteroid or something else? It seems that if it was nuclear, then radiation sickness would be a factor, but that's never mentioned.
Perhaps I am reading too much into this; the author Cormac McCarthy obviously wanted us to focus on the present events and the relationship between the boy and the man, not the questions I'm presenting.
Cormac McCarthy has stated that he imagined the disaster being caused by a comet impact. The problem is that the flashbacks in the book indicate that the disaster came as a surprise. But comets, and certainly comets large enough to create many years of nuclear winter, are big things and the world is filled with tens of thousands of astronmers, both professional and amateur, who scan the skies constantly looking for comets. Things like this are sited when they are still tens or hundreds of millions of miles (and weeks or months) from crossing Earth's orbit. The idea that the first indication the characters in the book have of such a large object being on an impact course for Earth is the impact itself just doesn't square with modern reality.
Along the lines of your last paragraph, this inconsistency doesn't concern me. It is a minor scientific quibble, and only results because of the author's statement beyond the book. When I read it, I like many others assumed to situation to be the result of a nuclear conflict.
I'll admit I haven't read the book, but I watched a movie and was disappointed.
I knew nothing about the movie or the book and went to see the movie only because Vigo Mortinssen was in it, and I like the actor and never seen any bad movies with him in. Well, "The Road" was the first.
As far as how realistic the scenario was, I also assumed (like others) that this was our "bright" future after some kind of nuclear disaster. However, I don't think anything this radical needs to happen to set our spoiled society off.
I can see many people fall apart with something like a power being out for a few days.
Spoiler alert! If you are planning to read a book or see a movie, you probably want to skip the rest of my post
What looked very unrealistic to me was a character of a child who grew up in this cruel new world. His character is made weak and, frankly, stupid. Anyone who lived through any hard times would have to adapt and develop a better sense of at least a general awareness, not to mention some useful skills. So, in my opinion, the kid was unrealistically ill adapted.
Read ONE SECOND AFTER to get an idea about just how vulnerable we are to an Electromagnetic Pulse Weapon. I think the last name of the author is Forschner. IN my opinion of all of the apocalyptic event books I have read this one is probably the most realistic. Truly scary stuff.
Read ONE SECOND AFTER to get an idea about just how vulnerable we are to an Electromagnetic Pulse Weapon. I think the last name of the author is Forschner. IN my opinion of all of the apocalyptic event books I have read this one is probably the most realistic. Truly scary stuff.
Good information voyageur. Thanks for posting it. However the book ONE SECOND AFTER really explains what it would be like in the first year after an event like this takes place in a populated area. Because of the book I have made a few preparations just in case.
GL2
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