The Postman

'Twas a good weekend for reading, and I read all of David Brin's The Postman on Sunday. This book was made into what is considered a mediocre (at best) movie by Kevin Costner (though I haven't seen it), but I understood the story behind the movie to be a good one. The story's setting is basic sci-fi -- post-nuclear America, a loner (Gordon) in need of a jacket comes across an old mail truck, complete with skeleton of a postman. He grabs the jacket from the dead man, and takes the sack with him along with a few letters to read. From there, it's only a matter of time before the enclaves he visits start believing in the entity behind the mailman, the vanished U.S. government. And Gordon, because it's convenient, continues the lie, even expands upon it, until there's no turning back. He becomes the reluctant hero, and the constant introspection he engages in makes it obvious why an action movie based on the book was a flop.

So did I like it? In truth, I didn't think much of it -- perhaps it's showing its age (20 years), but for a supposedly thought-provoking book, it seemed cliched and derivative. The bad guys were almost cartoonish, and their basic principle (the strongest should lead, with additional verbiage) was silly. It might have helped if Brin showed any sign in taking their belief seriously, but it was evident that he did not. On this issue, it came across as a morality play rather than anything that could make someone older than 13 think.

An area where he commanded some originality (at least for me) lay in the role of "active" feminism. For some unexplained reason, the communities had reverted back to more traditional gender roles. In one community, however, one woman took advantage of particularly troubled times to spread her own brand of post-apocalyptic feminism -- not that women should be equal, but that they should be the judge (and, as appropriate, executioner) of men, even their own sons, to prevent bad men from ever being in a position to seize power.

Probably the best idea carried forth was the book's defense of lying in certain circumstances. Gordon isn't the only teller of a big lie, and in the other instance, he elects to keep the lie going, because like his fictitious U.S. Government, it gives people something to believe in in (what he believes to be) an otherwise hopeless world. The concept troubles me, as it makes one wonder whether and how leaders of every government stand behind their own big lies because they believe it's for the best.

I rate it 5/10.