That's a somewhat shortened quote from the opening segment of this radio drama, loosely based on Jack London's book The Scarlet Plague. Great production, great voice talents, and a great theme somehow come together to tell a fairly mediocre story here. If you are a fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, this is well worth a listen. It is quite horrifying, up to a point. But the ending feels abrupt and contrived.
Escape #209
The Scarlet Plague
The Scarlet Plague
8 Apr 1954
Barney Phillips, Eleanor Tanin, George Walsh (announcer), Jack London (author), John Dehner, John Larch, Leith Stevens (composer, conductor), Les Crutchfield (writer), Norman Macdonnell (producer, director), Parley Baer, Sam Edwards, Vic Perrin, Virginia Gregg.
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| Cover of the 1st edition |
I liked this one - definitely very similar to The Earth Abides from a previous post, but the ending of this one is more shakingly bleak, which seems fitting. Is it true to the original story?
ReplyDeleteBut I love the episode up to that point.
ReplyDeleteThere are several answers to that question.
ReplyDeleteRegarding what they believed in the 50s - any time before the sexual revolution of the 60s is often portrayed rather naively in the media today, so for my generation the shoe seems to fit, even if they wouldn't really have believed that.
Regarding what people believe in general, there are museums being set up today devoted to Intelligent Design that counter the misinformation spread about the theory of evolution, so it seems people believe all kinds of things, even now.
Regarding the importance of whether people believed such things or not, I believe I can paraphrase an old joke about two construction workers talking about a doomsday event:
SULLY: Hey, Moose. If the world was about to end, what you you do?
MOOSE: That's easy - I'd make it with anything that still moved. What would you do?
SULLY: Stand v e r y still....