[badgoodDeb]

I know; I know -- insanely old thread. But I've never read "Canticle for Leibowitz" before, and I found it fascinating! I resonate to the deep Christian thoughts in the last section, though I'm not Catholic and don't do Popes.

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

He was the Wandering Jew, or at least one version of the Wandering Jew. According to legend, it was a shoemaker, I believe, who, when Jesus stumbled under the Cross, told him to get up and move away from his shop. Jesus told him that his own sufferings would soon be over, but that he would be cursed to walk the Earth until he returned.

I thought the Lazarus character was quite clearly Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead. He is waiting for "Someone who shouted at me once." Priest: "Shouted?" Oldster: "Come forth!"

By part 3, he clearly takes the name Lazarus, just in case we missed the point. Kids: "Auntie say, what the Lor' Jesus raise up, it stay up! Lookit him! Ya! Still huntin' for the Lor' 'ut raise him. ..."

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

Thanks WTSharpe. That is something I probably should have known (the legend). So in the story the reason the character basically is quietly dropped is Jesus never returns?

The character is present at the dinner when the spaceship crew (to leave earth) is announced. So he is still there, and still waiting. No, we never hear whether he finds the second coming that he seeks, but the point of the book is more on how man himself cannot recreate Eden. During the dark ages, we strive to improve. When things get "good" enough to be nearing Eden, the flaws are what we see most, so we get displeased, and we wreck it all again.

I was fascinated. And despite the 1960's level of electronic knowledge (witness the archaic translator machine at the start of section 3), the rest of it still seems completely relevant, imho.