6. Alas, Babylon

By Pat Frank

There's a Montrealer who has a sidewalk sale about once or twice a year in the Plateau -- at 4096 Coloniale to be precise. I assumed he lives in that building, but Olman told me he just uses that space to store his finds.  It had just occurred to me to ask Olman about this mysterious collector/scavenger, but he didn't even know if he lives in the Plateau as he doesn't reveal much of his personal life in his blog and FB page.

I'm a professional scavenger making a living selling curbside garbage. This blog details my finds and sales. It also acts as an archive for things beautiful and historic that would otherwise have been destroyed.

Apparently, the yard sales are a way for him (I think his name is Martin) to move smaller stuff that he's amassed during the spring as he sells the larger or more valuable items privately via his site or DMs. From what I've perused from his blog, he finds quite a bit of silver. You'd think it's mostly old silverware that no one uses anymore, but sometimes he finds nice jewelry, even gold!  Once he found an 18k gold necklace weighing in at 28 grams. With the high price of gold these days, that'd be worth $2500-2800, which is a month's rent, and then some.

Anyway, I brought up Martin the Scavenger because it was at one of his sidewalk sales where I acquired this nearly pristine 1976 paperback of Alas, Babylon (1959) for just 2 bucks.  I also got a vintage glass ring holder for my daughter (also for $2).  They seem to go for $15-40 on sites like Etsy and ebay.

I've been aware that Alas, Babylon is a pioneering PA classic, though I'm late to the game in reading it.  Olman and Mt Benson had read it back when we were all active on the now defunct Ramblekraft and the 50-Book blogging club.  Enough time has passed since Olman had read it that he confused the premise of Alas, Babylon with another PA classic, Earth Abides.  Since Olman and Mt Benson had already summed up the novel nicely, I'll go on another tangent.

 

I think it's fitting I found my copy of Alas, Babylon at a scavenger sale.  I imagine if the Troubles came, Martin would still be scavenging away, but for survival as well as a livelihood. In the real world, I picture the kind of (lazy, thoughtless) people who would throw out valuable yet no-longer-wanted things instead of donating them as a mindful way of supporting a circular economy.  Martin the Scavenger would scope out homes for sale knowing that people in the midst of selling often need to get rid of things in a hurry (either their own possessions or those of their loved ones who had passed on), and often they don't have (or make) the time to drop off donation items at a thrift store or charity organization.  The old adage "One man's trash is another man's treasure" really applies here.

The value of things are not only relative, they are suddenly upended after a catastrophic event like The Day in Alas, Babylon.  The idea of a nuclear apocalypse was so inconceivable for the average person that it was impossible to properly prepare for such an event. The protagonist, Randolph "Randy" Bragg, was was privy to a coded message sent via telegram from his older brother, Colonel Mark Bragg, a U.S. intelligence officer.  The brothers had established that "Alas, Babylon" would signify that a Russian attack was imminent as the biblical phrase was often used by a local preacher for his fire and brimstone sermons.  

 

Even with the warning, Randy had less than 2 days warning to prepare, not only for himself but for Mark's wife and two kids, who were arriving from Omaha later that night.  Randy just had time to take out a large amount of cash from the bank to buy a shit load of food and supplies.  As a steak lover, he had purchased a lot of expensive meat to store in the freezer, not thinking that electricity would soon fail if bombs hit key targets. His sister-in-law Helen had to think fast and salt all the meat before they start to turn, but Mark had to go barter a bag of salt because they didn't have enough to preserve all that meat.  The Bragg's then invited their neighbours for a BBQ to use the remainder of the thawed meat.

Money immediately became worthless as people soon resorted to bartering as a way to acquire the things they need, and everyone needed something because you'd have needed weeks, if not months, to properly prepare for such a disaster.  Disaster wasn't even the right word, as it was more like the end of civilization as everyone knew it.  Once power was out permanently, appliances also became worthless. Some people, like Rita and her brother Pete, had hoarded fancy TVs and appliances, thinking that once things "returned to normal", they could sell them for a killing, not yet realizing they were stuck with a new abnormal.

The people who were most self-sufficient and practical were the Henrys, the African-American family living next door to the Bragg family home.  They have "poor folk" skills, ie. hunting, fishing, farming, etc. In short, the ability to live off the land, unlike the privileged white folk who can only use money to buy groceries and pay for the manual labour and domestic services that people like The Henrys provide.  Most importantly, the Henrys metaphorically have liquid gold underneath their property, an underground artesian well that provides an uncontaminated water supply, which they end up sharing with their neighbours. I find it interesting that the Henrys play such a crucial role in the survival of all the white characters yet they aren't even mentioned in the Wikipedia plot summary!

Coffee and gas also became super valuable commodities.  Gas was valued, not just for transport, but for recharging batteries needed to power Admiral Sam Hazzard's shortwave radio, which was the only source of news from the outside world. Months later, when reserves became low and people were sweating out salt from their pores, salt became the most prized item until a natural source was discovered.  

In his foreword, author Pat Frank wanted to realistically portray what life would be like if people survived a nuclear attack.  Even though the small town of Fort Repose was in a contaminated zone, the town was ideally situated in a way that did not receive much harmful fallout.  Thankfully, the novel didn't dwell too much on radiation poisoning, as I got enough of that from the 1984 British film, Threads. The few characters that suffered from radiation had stolen loot from a jewelry shop, unaware they've been hoarding radioactive bling in their own homes.

Author Pat Frank also embued many progressive values into his novel, particularly in the positive portrayal of African-American characters and the inclusion of strong female characters in leadership roles, despite being a product of the 1950s with some dated, traditional gender roles. This review takes a deeper look at how Alas, Babylon was ahead of its time yet also a product of its times.