Sean Gursky reviewed Level 7 by Mordecai Roshwald (Library of American fiction)
Review of 'Level 7' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
"Divided we live, united we die!"
Loved it. If there is a sub genre under dystopian books for Cold War era "mutual assured destruction" books then sign me up.
There are people living all around me, but I do not live with them. For me the dead are alive. The living are dead.
This book felt like a mix of The Stranger (Camus) and On the Beach (Shute), combining existentialism in the face of annihilation. With discussion on morality of war, being content with what you had and this story offered a lot for me to dive in to.
But dehumanized war, automatic war, and its inevitable result: the end of civilization.
I had a variety of emotions while reading this book and can see myself picking it up again down the road. The story may have been six decades old but it also felt eerily relevant in todays political …
"Divided we live, united we die!"
Loved it. If there is a sub genre under dystopian books for Cold War era "mutual assured destruction" books then sign me up.
There are people living all around me, but I do not live with them. For me the dead are alive. The living are dead.
This book felt like a mix of The Stranger (Camus) and On the Beach (Shute), combining existentialism in the face of annihilation. With discussion on morality of war, being content with what you had and this story offered a lot for me to dive in to.
But dehumanized war, automatic war, and its inevitable result: the end of civilization.
I had a variety of emotions while reading this book and can see myself picking it up again down the road. The story may have been six decades old but it also felt eerily relevant in todays political climate.
But killing is killing, whatever way it is done. Once you allow the death of one person, they is open for the massacre of a million.
For a small book this packs a punch and is one of the few books I've read over the years that I feel energized to write an essay about and dive in to the various aspects of the story.
I did a lot of highlights in this book and couldn't leave them behind so the rest of what I captured is below:
Our job is just to keep watch and, if and when the time comes, to do what the loudspeaker tells us.
"To complain about our lot," he said, "is as futile and senseless as to complain about death. What one cannot escape one must accept; and the less fuss, the better."
"Some people," he said, "feel imprisoned when they can't travel through space. Others can feel free in a small room, if they are able to think or write."
We do not deceive just other people; we deceive ourselves. Each of us is making a perpetual April fools of himself, the biggest one imaginable. Each tells himself lies which we pretends to believe, though he knows they are lies.
There must be a limit to mental suffering, just as there is a limit to the distance humans can dig into the earth. Seven levels down is the physical limit. How many can the spirit endure?
...being content with the physical limits of one's level is normal and admirable.
I believe that if I had been told to push a button which would execute X-117, I could not have done it. Though without thinking twice about it I pushed the buttons which executed millions!
