Making a grown man cry
Published: Thu, 10/04/18
It isn’t often that I read a book that actually makes me cry. In fact it is very rare and probably hadn’t happened for a decade or more until last month when I re-read Nevil Shute’s 1957 novel ‘On the Beach’. If you don’t know the story then it is set in South Australia in 1962. A nuclear war has destroyed the northern hemisphere and the radiation is finding its way into the southern hemisphere, ending all life as it arrives. The characters in the story are awaiting their fate and doing their best to come to terms with their own mortality and the end of sentient life on earth. (Shute does not report on whether or not the allegedly radiation proof cockroaches will survive.) It is not a spoiler to say that no one survives the last page. I won’t go into any more detail except to say that the final scene features a young woman standing on a headland and watching a nuclear submarine heading out to sea. And if you can read that
passage without choking up then you have no soul.
I am not sure if I am recommending this book or not. Along with a Town Like Alice, On the Beach is one of the main works that Shute is remembered for. At the time of his death in 1960 he was highly regarded as one of the best English language authors of the first half of the 20th century. On the other hand, a friend of mine told me that she had to read ‘On the Beach’ in the sixth form and it put her off reading anything else by Shute for life. Which I would suggest is a shame because his books are invariably entertaining and inventive. (If you particularly want a recommended Shute reading list then just email and ask me for one.)
On the Beach is a very sad book. However, it is not inherently depressing because the various characters generally meet their fate with courage, dignity and compassion for one another. I particularly admired one minor character who discovers that his club had laid in 3000 bottles of top quality port just before the nuclear war began. When he realises how little time is left he decides that he and his friends will drink as much of the port as they possibly can before the end, near the end of the book he proudly announces that there are only 600 bottles left.
A rather good film was made from the book in 1959 with Gregory Peck and Ava Gardener, I watched on TV when I must have been not more than 11 or 12 years old. I think my parents had the book through the book club they subscribed to, wherever it came from I had read it before I was 16. Powerful stuff at an impressionable age and I still wonder what message Shute was trying to convey. There is the obvious message. Nuclear war would be bad news for all of us. Okay, tell me something I don’t already know. Perhaps the deeper point Shute was trying to make is that western civilisation has lost its sense of purpose. Without a sense of existential meaning what is the point in going on? A recurring theme in Shute’s books is that western culture has lost any sense of spiritual direction and without it we are just waiting for a, hopefully peaceful, finish of some kind.
On the beach was written over sixty years ago, at the time it seemed like a slightly over the top response to the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the immediate post war arms race. Reading the book again today it seems like a prophecy for a whole culture that has no lack of toys and distractions but no sense of direction and no confidence that it will ever find one again. Reflecting on the book didn’t make me afraid of nuclear war (yes the risk is still there but I have already lived with that threat hanging over me for 59 years, I guess I am used to it.). On one level ‘On the Beach’ makes me almost envy the characters their release from, well everything.
I hope I am not sounding depressed to trying to depress you. The reason our culture has lost its way is that we are unaware of the web that connects us to whole of the universe, past, present and future. Want to re-connect? Watch a sunrise, walk on the earth in bare feet, make contact with the trees, watch the sea ebb and flow, make friends with an animal or a small child who is not yet cynical. Read something written by someone with real wisdom, connect with family, friends and your community. The hopeful theme of Shute’s book is that his characters do discover their own sense of purpose and value in life. The sad part is that they have to realise that life is nearly over before they do it. Our lives are actually no different, none of us get out of this world alive, so what are you waiting for?
Regards
Graham
PS At midsummer next year there will be a three day camp which will give you a chance to connect with the web of life. It won’t be for everyone, but if you realise your need for connection, it might be for you. See here for details as they are at the moment and let me know if you would like to be invited. http://rr.stavcamp.org/