The Death of Grass - Jan 2023 - Book Group discussion thread

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McGoohan
McGoohan
Dec 2022
2:54pm, 28 Dec 2022
52,136 posts
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McGoohan
January 2023's book is The Death of Grass by John Christopher as chosen by BintMcSkint.

Owing to the book's title, I suppose you'll be expecting me to make some sort of marajuana/grass/drugs pun here. But I won't, I tell you, I won't. And if you don't like it, you can stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Damn!
Angus Clydesdale
Angus Clydesdale
Dec 2022
4:52pm, 28 Dec 2022
25,898 posts
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Angus Clydesdale
This is a classic. I bought it and re-read it through lockdown. :)
Badger
Badger
Dec 2022
5:03pm, 28 Dec 2022
15,889 posts
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Badger
Ooh. Been on my must read that someday list for ages.
HellsBells
HellsBells
Dec 2022
9:47pm, 28 Dec 2022
30,396 posts
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HellsBells
Fantastic book - I reread it every few years
stilldreaming
stilldreaming
Jan 2023
5:53pm, 2 Jan 2023
1,100 posts
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stilldreaming
I've got that on my bookcase. A great read and just a bit scary!
Diogenes
Diogenes
Jan 2023
1:53pm, 8 Jan 2023
75,667 posts
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Diogenes
Well, I really enjoyed that, right up to the end which I found a little unsatisfactory. I guess any ending would have its problems. The book went from confronting all difficult challenges head on to a conclusion of omission, but at least Pirrie died.
Vixx
Vixx
Jan 2023
2:04pm, 8 Jan 2023
1,791 posts
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Vixx
I have it on my bookshelf and have never read it - and yet I have read most of his books.

Will rectify that!
Peregrinator
Peregrinator
Jan 2023
10:45pm, 11 Jan 2023
1,108 posts
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Peregrinator
The death of grass

I like bananas. Very partial to them sliced up with cereal and milk for breakfast. Have been for many years: the milk is now oat-milk, and the cereal has gone from Alpen to granola with dried berries, but the banana has been a constant. Banana custard got me through mumps. From childhood I was worried about Panama disease. A fungus, spread by wind, soil machinery and infected plants, which had wiped out the species of banana prevalent up to the 1950's. Fortunately, there was an alternative banana variety (the Culman), which although smaller and less flavoursome, was not affected, and that became the variety that we now buy. Unfortunately, the Panama disease fungus has evolved, and can now infect and kill the Culman banana plant. There is no cure and no varieties resistant to this strain have been developed. It also affects plantains, which are a staple carbohydrate for many in the world. Having started in Africa, in 2019 this variant of Panama disease reached the banana growing regions in Columbia. It has been estimated that 80 per cent of global production is under threat.

Clearly bananas form a significant part of some country’s economies, not just my breakfast. So, a world without bananas would be a poorer place, although probably survivable. How about a world without grass? What TDOG sets up is a gradually tightening noose of infection. But not directly of humans. Initially a virus that only attacks rice, but then spreads to other grass-derived species, including wheat, barley etc. and the grass species of savannah and pasture. Christopher sets up a scenario of increasing tension as the implications come clear: dwindling food stocks, no feedstuffs for animals, hunger, insurrection, civil break down. I'm not sure about the genetics, but the effects are made to look reasonable: just a spike in the price of bread was a catalyst for the protests of the Arab spring in the 2007/8. If anything, the story seems to be too clean about the options and effects, and some parts of the story drop too neatly into place.

The book was published in 1956, and it is set in its time. Like commercial bananas it is a monoculture, focussing on being white and male. At times of civil strife, the rights of women and children go first: but here there is no suggestion of equality from the start. Through the story women have (unpleasant) things done to them, and men with guns do them. It is true that men are shot and a woman does shoot a man, but the general theme is that women (and most men to be fair) should decide which strong man to follow, and abandon any ideas of rights or morals, just work out how to be useful, loyal or sycophantic. Christopher really does think that the only way to survive post-apocalypse is to have a strong male leader, who will use necessity or pragmatism to justify everything up to rape, murder and child abuse. Maybe that's what would happen in the situations that he sets up, and in the world, maybe that's what does often happen. But people do sometimes stick with values such as compassion, even in extreme conditions. Giving away their last piece of bread, even as they starve.

Having said all that, the story dragged me along not unwillingly, even if it was fairly clear it was aiming for an implausible happy ending for everyone who hadn't died en-route.

Perhaps it’s not wind pollenated grass species we should be worrying about. A study suggests that the UK's flying insects have declined by 60% in 20 years. These do pollination of most flowering plants (apparently about three quarters of the crop types grown by humans require pollination by insects), pest control, food chains and a key part of ecological systems. We might in future reminisce about the days of wasps and flies. Or maybe we should just worry about global warming making the world completely uninhabitable.

ohchr.org

kew.org

somersetwildlife.org
Angus Clydesdale
Angus Clydesdale
Jan 2023
8:40am, 12 Jan 2023
26,007 posts
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Angus Clydesdale
Depressing, isn’t it?!
westmoors
westmoors
Jan 2023
11:47am, 14 Jan 2023
7,009 posts
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westmoors
Finished this last night. On the whole I found it a good read and a lot more believable than other dystopian novels I've read. Gave it an 8.

About This Thread

Maintained by McGoohan
January 2023's book is The Death of Grass by John Christopher as chosen by BintMcSkint.

Owing to the book's title, I suppose you'll be expecting me to make some sort of marajuana/grass/drugs pun here. But I won't, I tell you, I won't. And if you don't like it, you can stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Damn!

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