A Canticle for Leibowitz

  • Author: Walter M. Miller Jr.
  • Full Title: A Canticle for Leibowitz
  • Tags: #Inbox #books
  • Recommendation: 9/10
    • If you like sci-fi and somewhat esoteric Catholic Church references, you'll enjoy this book.
    • What I personally found striking (beyond the post-nuclear holocaust world building) was the relatability of all the religious monks and abbots he described. The abbot in act III in particular reminded me of a real person I know, in the best possible way. I was smiling reading his story arc.

Highlights

  • Like any wise ruler, Abbot Arkos did not issue orders vainly, when to disobey was possible and to enforce was not possible. It was better to look the other way than to command ineffectually. (Location 674)
  • There was a tedium of repeated days and repeated seasons; then there were aches and pains, finally Extreme Unction, and a moment of blackness at the end--or at the beginning, rather. For then the small shivering soul who had endured the tedium, endured it badly or well, would find itself in a place of light, find itself absorbed in the burning gaze of infinitely compassionate eyes as it stood before the Just One. And then the King would say: "Come," or the King would say: "Go," and only for that moment had the tedium of years existed. It would be hard to believe differently during such an age as Francis knew. (Location 1044)
  • Even the idiot which seems less gifted than a dog, or a pig, or a goat, shall, if born of woman, be called an immortal soul, thundered the magisterium, and thundered it again and again. After several such pronouncements, aimed at curbing infanticide, had issued from New Rome, the luckless misborn had come to be called the "Pope's nephews," or the "Pope's children," by some. (Location 1225)
  • The Memorabilia could not, of itself, generate a revival of ancient science or high civilization, however, for cultures were begotten by the tribes of Man, not by musty tomes; but the books could help, Dom Paulo hoped--the books could point out directions and offer hints to a newly evolving science. It had happened once before, so the Venerable Boedullus had asserted in his De Vestigiis Antecessarum Civitatum. (Location 1796)