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This essay is a response to the following prompt:
‘Station Eleven questions what it means to live. Discuss’
Description
Emblazoned across the lead caravan of the travelling Symphony, the iconoclastic Star Trek dictum ’Survival Is Insufficient’ is a response to the challenge of existing in the post-apocalyptic Georgia flu age. It is a phrase that at once recognises the meaningless of living purposelessly; a perspective that Emily St. John Mandel elucidates in her futuristic novel ‘Station Eleven’. The normalisation of violence is countered by the acknowledgment of the profound aesthetic beauty of art and the deeply satisfying interactions fostered by human relationships that sustain humanity amidst the darkness of a post-apocalyptic reality. It is that which fame has made redundant that provides the juxtaposing connection between the pre, and post Georgia flu eras, revealing the nihilistic artifice of celebrity and the obsession with self-promotion and displays of public idolatry worship. A tragic portrait of the demise of a film star, Station Eleven reveals how Arthur Leander’s stardom debases and exploits the medium it seeks to honor, and in so doing, facilitates his own self-destruction. The tragedy of Leander’s death and indeed, the post-apocalyptic setting of St. John Mandel’s text, provide a provocative reflection the very nature of existence.
