Station Eleven

Book by Emily St. JohnMandel

Series Produced by HBO

"Because survival is insufficient," a message from Star Trek that is spray-painted on the lead wagon of a post-apocalyptic traveling Shakespeare troupe. Station Eleven is not about pandemics. It is about family, community, art, and loss.

It is not the typical post-apocalyptic story; there are no zombies or mutants to fight. Just regular people who survived a deadly swine-flu pandemic that wiped out 99% of the world's population.

Set in the Great Lakes region, it follows survivors from just before the outbreak to twenty years after. Novelist St. John Mandel manages to weave the characters' stories at a pace that reveals who they are beneath the crisis and above the loss.

The HBO series proves to be an adept and satisfying adaptation of the book. Taking some of the sharper, more despairing edges off the book, the series brings characters to points where they could go dark or violent but don't. They are just regular people, struggling to find safety, community, and humanity.

When does memory represent loss, and when does it inspire hope? Some survivors want to hold on to the past, memorializing their previous lives. During the fall, one group found themselves in a place with a semi-sustainable infrastructure. It allows them to maintain a pre-pandemic version of society. Their leader lived in the past before the fall and now hangs on to useless technology and electronics to create the Museum of Civilization.

On the other hand, the Traveling Symphony eschews the idea of a barricaded safe space. The theater troupe brings Shakespeare to settlements on a loop they traverse each year. The plays are not just providing entertainment. They are stories of humanity. It is art and creativity that the Symphony values from the past.

Two characters, Kirsten and Tyler, share a connection through a graphic novel, Station Eleven. Each received a copy of the rare manuscript right before the fall. The kids respond differently to the story, one finding strength, the other prophecy. Both treasure the books in the new world.

Review by Lane Gwinn | THE TIMES