5 Thrifty Lessons From Post-Apocalyptic Novel "The Road"
I'm in the middle of reading The Road, and couldn't help draw 5 lessons about frugality from Cormac McCarthy's tale of a father and son scrapping out their survival in the middle of post-Apocalyptic America.
1. Use what you do have creatively
You have no shoes. Yet, you have a suit jacket, a box cutter, and the lining in the suit jacket. Combine them and you have serviceable foot coverings. Similarly, a metal pipe fitted with a length of chain makes an excellent truncheon.
2. Search through the discards
Even if that can in the corner looks empty, tap it with your foot. There might be some useable gas in it!
3. Don't quit
Just when you're on the edge of total failure is when you might come across the storehouse of apples and fresh water.
4. When you come across a windfall, use it wisely
Fill back up on what you need, but don't wallow in it and let it delay you from your journey.
5. Hold on to your morals
Just because you're hungry doesn't mean it's right to eat the flesh of other humans.
In what unlikely sources have you found inspiration for more frugal living?
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Comments:
That is a great book, highly recommended.
The Road is the epitome of The Great American Novel. It is a masterpiece.
great book, can't wait for the movie.
funny stuff
Tell me more about this book!
My obese neighbors might be a good replacement for Kobe Beef after the apocalypse?
Probably Jherico or my mom's old frugal habits due to growing up on a farm during the depression.
And when does the movie for "The Giver" come out? Come on, Hollywood!
Babies provide a cheap alternative to turkey at Christmas.
While true, have you tried the Turbaben? A chicken stuffed inside a baby stuffed inside a turkey. 3 delicious flavors in one!
Talking Heads: Life during wartime taught me to prioritize when times are tough.
"I got some groceries, some peanut butter
to last a couple of days, but I
ain't got no speakers, ain't got not headphones,
ain't got no records to play."
Sometimes you have to dump most of what you own so you can survive.
Charity begins at home. Don't give what you can't afford to give. But, if you have something you can share, do so.
When you're in a post-apocalyptic world and you think things can't get any bleaker, you're probably right, so cheer up.
Great book. Better book than No Country For Old Men. Not sure if the movie can top that adaptation though.
Everything I know about life after the apocalypse I learned from Kevin Kostner.
You guys are so wrong.
Everybody loves babies.
With teriyaki sauce.
#5...yea...skin it and think 'really big chicken'...no worries!
Just before "Y2K" was supposed to destroy civilization, I was asked by many of my neighbors if they should stockpile food and water as I was the local high-tech wizard, and was supposed to know all about the situation. I told them "Yes, you should!"
They asked me what specific items I was stockpiling, and I answered "Just guns and ammo".
They asked me why I wasn't stockpiling any food and water for myself, and I said "You will have the food and water, and I will have guns and ammo."
They blanched. I laughed.
Oops... misspelled Costner. Now I won't get my mail!
So I've tried reading The Road 3 different times now and can't get past page 28 (or there abouts). Any reason to try reading it a fourth time?
Eddie Izzard has taught me that since human taste of chicken, that chicken must taste of humans. So chicken = baby flavor.
Oh great. Now I'll be thinking about this the next time I say to my infant "ooo you're so cute... I'm going to eat you up"
@superc: Think about how awesome it will be to get to the part with all the humans locked in the basement.
This article is making me cry like I wept when I read "The Road." At least I'm not on an aircraft, weeping next to two very puzzled seatmates.
@Parapraxis: @cronomorph: LOL
Apocalypse coming? Surround yourself with babies and puppies and you'll turn out alright. (see Meg's book)
Eat food. Not to much. Mostly babies.
That book taught me to 1) find myself a cellar and a good lock, 2) start canning everything, and 3) learn to fix supermarket carts. You just never know.
6. Wait for Oprah.
7. Don't go in the basement!
@Gann: YES!
Literary crowd at the consumerist today. Pollan and McCarthy. Who's next? I'm waiting for Atwood quotes.
Confession time: I'm an atheist, but I read fundamentalist Christian housewife blogs for thrifty ideas. Heh.
Actually, human tastes like pork. Not chicken.
Actually human tastes like pork. Not chicken.
1. Use what you do have creatively
"And God said to Abraham, 'you will kill your firstborn son'"
How about that literary one?
Grr... I was a little quick on that one. I would have added "No condoms? No problem! Just grab some Saran Wrap!"
@jfischer: You miserable bastard sinner, you made me laugh my head off at work. Of course, I have both the food and the guns. And the solar panels, and the water purifiers, and the camping supplies, and the oxygen absorbers, and the medical kits, and the useful low-tech trade, and the country property, and....
@speedwell: I'm not exactly athiest (see tiny purple icon) but I probably read some of those same blogs, my husband thinks I'm slowly loosing it :)
Dune taught me to let someone else check out the prisoners; your Mentat is expendable. And how to drink my own body excretions.
Book sucked, sorry, hated it.
Best book I've read in years.
#6 Save time by avoiding typing all of those apostrophes
#7 Dont spend your time reading or writing a novel about a subject thats been done just as well before - by everyone from Richard Matheson to George Miller to Stephen King - unless you have something new to add other than literary pretentiousness
#8 Dont bother punctuating your conversations or identifying the speakers - we readers love a good puzzle in our reading and bow down to your unconventional use of the English language even when it painfully intrudes upon your story and distracts us
#9 The way to make universal philosophical points is to leave everything vague - dont name your characters, dont explain what happened, dont be realistic about ecology or sociology. That works much better than creating real characters that readers can identify with and care about
In case you can't tell, I really wasn't that impressed by the book. I wrote a full review on my blog (if thats ok to link to here):
@CMPalmer: something tells me you wear cardigans with elbow patches and spends his/her time mocking people at the borders checkout for buying "simpleton books."
Stocking up on antibiotics and medical supplies when you have a chance is always a good idea.
And save your last bullets for yourself and your family. Remember to shoot them first.
(That's a fantastic book, cmpalmer's dislike aside. I've read many post-apocalyptic novels of various sorts, and McCarthy has made them all obsolete.)
Lower your electric bill by unplugging your fridge and dismembering your animal protein a limb at a time?
I have nothing against Stephen King, but damn, I'd say The Road kicks the crap out of any book he's written that is similar in theme. I can't believe the comparison is even being made.
just got it on amazon -- can't wait to start. TONIGHT!
@nikkomorocco: Actually, it's right the opposite. I enjoyed the book a bit, but I have no patience for pretentious "lit-fic" novels. I thought McCarthy's prose was poetic at times, but the story, what little there was, was subsumed by the "Look at me! Look what a pretentious writer I am! Marvel at my use of words and unconventional structure and punctuation!" All the while, he's telling a story that's been told many times before in much more intriguing and insightful ways.
In my opinion, the mark of an excellent writer is someone who can make you disappear into a story and still make you feel, learn, think, and experience difference "lives" and points of view. Much modern fiction seems to be more concerned with dazzling the literati while writing books and stories about nothing. Even that may be defensible in the school of thought that fiction should represent "true life" and abandon common literary patterns and cliches, but if that was McCarthy's intent, why write about such as cliche as the collapse of civilization and human despair in a post-apocalyptic wasteland? Nihilism and hopelessness isn't that profound in such a fantastic setting.
My comments above were intended sarcastically, as was the tone of my review for the most part.
I have no problem with experimental prose if it serves its own purpose. I even admire some of Joyce's work. For example, if it were obvious that the book's narrator actually existed in the world being described and that was a reason for the way it was written, as in Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker, then it would be OK. In The Road, it was merely distracting and annoying.
But.. the flesh of humans is so tasty!
And babies.. mmm.. tender babies.