Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven tells the story of the Traveling Symphony surviving after a pandemic nearly eliminated all human life on the planet. Mandel emphasizes the survival is insufficient and challenges the ideas of what is necessary to survival. Mandel would argue to live and survive are two different concepts, the former much easier to do with privilege and the latter a delicate balance of precarity. After reading the book and understanding some of Mandel's main themes, I can name 5 things that are necessary to live beyond the means of survival. 1. Art"What the Symphony was doing, what they were always doing, was trying to cast a spell, and costuming helped; the lives they brushed up against were work-worn and difficult, people who spent all their time engaged in the tasks of survival" (Mandel 151). Despite all that collapses in Station Eleven, Shakespeare continues to prosper centuries later with the Traveling Symphony's reliance on communicating through art. They never waver from performing Shakespeare, and it continues to please crowds. In another light, the museum exhibit that Clarke creates is also similar to displaying ordinary objects as art, portraying them as relics of the past in order to pay tribute to a world lost to a pandemic. The creative capacity of our minds is what makes us human, and this is why I believe the Traveling Symphony continues to pursue the arts, to continue creative collaboration that all humans have contributed towards. 2. Community"Some places, you pass through once and never return, because you can tell something's very wrong. Everyone's afraid, or it seems like some people have enough to eat and other people are starving, or you see a pregnant eleven-year-olds and you know the place is either lawless or in the grip of something, a cult of some time" (Mandel 114). Community is an essential tool for survival, but also for thriving with others. In the Prophet's following, his power is dangerously elevated and reveals how community can lack with an all-powerful, patriarchal leader. The Traveling Symphony as a community isn't stagnant and moves from town to town, celebrating and performing music for all to hear. Between performances they would have to collaborate to survive with basic necessities, but they were able to thrive without needing to possess weapons or even stay in one location. They also thrive because they are driven by art, and not by power-hungry motives as seen in the Prophet's community. 3. Faith"The light we carry within us is the ark that Noah and his people over the face of the terrible waters, and I submit that we were saved...not only to to bring the light, to spread the light, but to be the light. We were saved because we are the light. We are the pure" (Mandel 60). Faith plays an interesting role in the Prophet's life and his indoctrination towards his community of followers. We later discover he is Tyler, Arthur's son, who takes on some of his parent's attributes, including his mother's belief that everything happens for a reason and his father's womanizing tendencies. The Prophet weaponizes faith as a tool of power, which shows how dangerous faith as a community following can be. Faith doesn't necessarily have to fall into a religious category, though, because I would argue that the Traveling Symphony uses art in the same way as religious followers use faith to survive. 4. Education"Other towns, discussion of the past is discouraged. We went to a place once where the children didn't know the world had ever been different, although you'd think all the rusted-out automobiles and telephones would give them a clue" (Mandel 115). Education and learning is necessary to advancing society, especially in a pandemic like the one we're experiencing. While basic necessities are important, public education actually creates more opportunities for students to access food and internet resources at little to no cost. Although, in the case of Station Eleven, Clarke takes pride in the collection of artifacts he's collected from the past and is thoughtful to educate children, especially about airplanes, given the fact that most of the children born after the pandemic grew up in an airport. This place frames the context of education importance, but in the communities that Raymonde mentions in the quotation above indicate that education is not a priority, or education may be a privilege that comes after basic needs for survival. 5. Remembering"First we only want to be seen, but once we're seen, that's not enough anymore. After that, we want to be remembered" (Mandel 187). Remembering is crucial to several characters. The Traveling Symphony as a whole remembers the art of Shakespeare, paying tribute to the playwright with every performance. Clark establishes a museum in the airport dedicated to trivial items like iPhones and signatures. Both of these ideas may seem unnecessary to survival after a pandemic, but these are important to creative energies that fuel the mental capacity to survive. There's also importance to recognize in collective memory, since a large population of the post-pandemic world used to know what the "normal" world looked and felt like, so it's their job to pass on those memories through storytelling to preserve the past in any way they can.
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AuthorCreative writer + professional & technical writer. TWD enthusiast. Archives
April 2021
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