tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2216751897705338056.post6051139536416737021..comments2023-10-17T03:41:01.759-04:00Comments on reflexiones finales: Ashes, Ashes: A Reviewrussell1200http://www.blogger.com/profile/16258915475311426433noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2216751897705338056.post-42758281758448807492017-04-30T14:50:53.058-04:002017-04-30T14:50:53.058-04:00I read this novel in my teens when science fiction...I read this novel in my teens when science fiction was my total craze. This is the first time I read a review on 'Ashes, Ashes'. I agree with yours, but the impression Barjavel made on me is still strong. It was the most gruesome apocalypse story I had read so far. There may be an uneasy mix of realism and far fetched fantasy, the virgin myopia makes little sense, but some chapters are highly impressive. The start of the metropolis fire, the destruction of the Sacre Coeur, the 2050's fashion trend to keep the deceased family members with the offspring in the house, deep frozen and in the poses the sons and daughters were familiar with. With the ending of electric power, these corpses started to thaw...a truly horrifying scene. Then there is the stop at some government site where experiments on people were held, with very creepy results, it really freaked me out. (Both Dracula and Frankenstein never managed that!) And I also haven't forgotten the flight through the countryside and the burning woods - caused by years of European drought - and how Deschamps and his companions survive the flames. Um, wasn't there a scene where they start cannibalizing? It's years since I read it...<br />But what emphasizes the totality of the disaster ordeal is that when the group of survivors finally arrives in the South of France, they are literally naked. I've had a conservative upbringing, so I was both shocked and fascinated.<br /> <br />But even I as a young boy I was confused by the finale, when Deschamps founds his medieval community. Deschamps stopped being a heroic protagonist, and turned into a harsh patriarch of almost biblical proportions. And yes, Blanche, a superficial bimbo exploited solely for her physical assets, didn't evolve at all- no feminist insights, no spark of independence whatsoever. Just secretly mourning her glitter world and her lost fame.<br /><br />The only disaster novel that managed to push Ashes Ashes from my #1 scifi spot was Stephen King's 'The Stand'. Perhaps also not free from faults (the Finger of God? Come on), but boy, what a READ. Yet I still have a weak spot for Barjavel's book. Even if he was no J.G Ballard.<br />By the way, Ashes Ashes is a much better title than Ravage, And because the description of life in Paris prior to the apocalyps, I thought the book was written around somewhere in the Sixties, the Studio has elements of typical futurized 1960s pop culture. So I was quite surprised that the novel originates from 1943. Oldie Barjavel certainly had a rich imagination. <br />And I think it's in two ways a dystopia. I love dystopias!<br /> dedeurshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09775849527808927607noreply@blogger.com