New MRBC The Postman by David Brin (Discussion)

[JSWolf]

Here we are for the New MRBC's first discussion.

We are discussing The Postman by David Brin.

will we miss government?

"Lying still, Gordon felt a sad poignancy—something like homesickness. The jeep, the symbolic, faithful letter carrier, the flag patch...they recalled comfort, innocence, cooperation, an easy life that allowed millions of men and women to relax, to smile or argue as they chose, to be tolerant with one another—and to hope to be better people with the passage of time."—The Postman

This is the story of a lie that became the most powerful kind of truth.

Gordon was a survivor — a wanderer who traded tales for food and shelter in the dark and savage aftermath of a devastating bio-war.

Fate touches him one chill winter's day when he borrows the jacket of a long-dead postal worker to protect himself from the cold. The old, worn uniform still has power as a symbol of hope, and with it Gordon begins to weave his greatest tale, of a nation on the road to recovery.

The Postman is the dramatically moving saga of a man who rekindled the spirit of America through the power of a dream. This best-selling and award-winning novel (NOMINEE: 1986 Nebula and Hugo Awards; WINNER: Locus and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards for best novel; "Best" from the American Library Association) is widely considered the most universally "accessible" Brin novel, for those who don't normally read SF.

[Pajamaman]

It's a great book by a great author. Maybe his single best work. A post apocalypse story with a good vs evil happy ending. It's about the civilization vs barbarism. I wonder to what extent it compares to King's Stand. I haven't read the latter because, like lot of King's stuff, it's so damn long. In contrast, The Postman is not short, but not overlong, and never meanders off down odd plot lines or spend too long on needless detail. Did Costner do a movie version? I might try it.

[curtw]

The second half is kind of a let-down, story wise. More science-fictiony, but less cohesive.

I consider myself fortunate to have a signed first edition (it was the "new" Brin book on the shelves when I brought my copy of Startide Rising to an Ann Arbor bookstore's author appearance).

[gmw]

It's almost two decades since I last read this, but I remember it well enough, which is probably a positive review in itself. I thought it was good, although not so good as to have tempted me back for a re-read since then. I found it to be a quintessentially American story, and fairly typical of the American post-apocalyptic genre. Well written with an interesting premise but unsurprising.

It is literally and figuratively much smaller than some of its epic brethren: The Stand, Lucifer's Hammer, Swan Song etc. Those large books are written as epics and stand very well that way (if you like that sort of thing) whereas The Postman deliberately kept itself quite small scale and I think it works well for the story it told. It was never going to challenge something like The Stand in my estimation, if only because Brin's characters never quite manage to seem so real as King's.

[Mims]

It seems that for some this was a re-read, for me it was an opportunity to try a new author that some how I had never been aware of. The book info compared it to Alas Babylon which is an old favorite of mine so I expected to enjoy it. While I did enjoy reading it, the last half of the book fell sorta flat for me.

This past year I have felt like I was ‘time warping’ and everyday was Blursday the ?nth of whatever. Realizing the book was written in 1985, I easily time warped to take a look at my age, family status, career, employment and tech use and tech exposure prior to this post apocalyptic era to see how I might have fared personally. Also what would life in this timeline be like for my Xer children and mid/late Millennial grandkids. As we are scattered along the east coast from MA to FL, it didn’t take me long to decide that it would be more entertaining to pretend we had all moved to the west coast before the catastrophe struck.

The feminist thread did get me thinking about how things were in the late 80’s when the author was writing. Reminded me of a song that was a country/pop crossover and sometimes described as an anthem for middle aged women, ‘80’s Ladies’. Which lead me to find out that the singer/songwriter K.T. Oslin died in Dec 2020 of COVID, which lead me to discover that Helen Ready, another feminist icon, died in Sep 2020.
Her big hit in the late 70’s was “I Am Woman”. Not to be confused with Peggy Lee’s “I’m a Woman" which was the inspiration for the Enjoli commercia ls of the late 70s - early 80s…mixed feelings among feminist on these.

TLDR
I liked the book. Enjoyed the read would. Will tag it my library as post apocalyptic not sci-fi.

[JSWolf]

The problem with The Postman for me is the augments. That just seemed to come out of nowhere.

What I did like was how Gordon became the postman and his journey to how that happened. Gordon started off with a lie.But that lie brought people together. He wanted out and a place to stay. But eventually, he just kept at it and it united people places.

Overall, it's a good story with a good outcome. The world is a mess and it needed someone to unite.

[Paperbackstash]

Starting it soon, I'm a bit late.
I have a vacation next week where I'm leaving Monday and returning Friday (going out of town to spend time with relatives at St. Augustine, FL) - I will get some reading done then on downtime, but won't have much internet access since will just bring phone and will be kept busy. I will pop back up in between reading besides that week.