Station Eleven: What a damnable tease…

 


Never have I wanted to read a book inside a book so badly. I ask IDW or Dark Horse comics to actively consider a two part graphic novel series. One for core Station Eleven plot, and ine for the story in the story… ready, set… FIGHT!

Some back story on this novel by Emily St. John Mandel- Kirsten survived the swine flu variant ‘Georgia Flu’. This illness rocked humanity from a global peak population right back to barebones single digit percentages. She lives in a world where she watched her loved ones die painfully, airplanes tumble from the sky, and technology fail it’s creators in all manner. Mankind is back to hand milling grain and early feudal social structures.

Kirsten is part of the Travelling Symphony, bringing entertainment to small communities in exchange for trade. Their motto, stolen from Startrek Voyager ‘Survival is insufficient’. This motto begins to be more relevant/difficult as the author continues to insert baddies and plot twists. The novel is full of deep but palatable and accessible introspection on what is lost when the end arrives. It is eye opening and disconcerting in ways that The Stand could never be.

So what is the book inside the book? It is the namesake ‘Station Eleven’. Kirsten, pre-flu, is gifted an unfinished comic book series by the exwife of an acquaintance. The spiderweb of links humanity creates amongst itself brings this comic central to the plot. It is filled with beautiful text and art, creative science fiction and morality.. And will never be completed… I saw that some fan art was made.. it just twisted the knife.

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