Art And Simplistic Beauty In Station Eleven By Emily St. John Mandel

Station Eleven is a science fiction novel written by Emily St. John Mandel. The book is about a society that crumbles to pieces after being struck with the Georgian Flu. The book has a non linear timeline as it jumps from the past, present, and future. The reader follows many individual characters in their walks of life. In Station Eleven the characters undergo traumatic events, some of the characters find themselves clinging on to the past and some characters try to forget the past.

In the novel, Station Eleven, the Traveling Symphony has the motto “Survival is Insufficient” written across the side of their lead caravan. “Survival is Insufficient” can mean that one is not only looking out for oneself in order to survive death, but one is doing so while holding onto their humanity.

Attention Getter: Art can be used to express our innermost feelings and to convey ideas about anything such as society, economics, education, religion, and politics.

Music is a form of art that has the ability to connect people from all over the world. When the pandemic hit the world, in Station Eleven, everyone scattered. “On Day Four the food from the Mexican restaurant ran out…they lit their first bonfire on the tarmac, burning newspaper…Someone had raided the Skymiles Lounge,” page 243, Mandel shows how people began living to the point of survival. The Traveling Symphony is a group of individuals who not only worked together to survive, but they also continued to do what they love, “Kristen stood in the state of suspension…a sense of having flown very high…A man in the front row had tears in his eyes,” page 59, and they spread that passion. “Survival is insufficient,” is their motto, but it is also their way of life. This phrase is who they are.

Station Eleven is Emily St. John Mandel’s fourth novel which is audacious and dark glittering as it is set in the eerie days of the collapse of civilization. The story begins with the death of a famous actor, Arthur Leander after a fatal heart attack onstage while performing the role of King Lear. One actor Jeevan tries to pump the 51-year-old Arthur’s chest, but he is dead. Before the people can absorb this shock tragedy strikes in vast scale as flu infects the world’s population killing most of the people within weeks. Jeevan is walking home during the night when the flu begins to spread, and he and his brother barricade themselves inside an apartment as they watch cars clogging on the highways, life disintegrating round themselves and gunshots ringing out. The novel tells a story of a Hollywood star who would be the savior. A roving cluster of actors roams in the great lakes region, and they risk their lives and everything else to save humanity and for the art.

According to Milton Glaser art is the "most important instrument for survival".When viewing art if you focus on the art you can see its true meaning and not what you thought was there. This is what makes it an instrument for survival because it makes us more aware of our surroundings. It also keeps us more alert of what is going on around us.

Throughout the book Station Eleven by Emily St.John Mandel, the theme of memory, death, and literature are constant. The characters of the story are heavily involved with literature, from actors, to painters. Almost every character mentioned within the story is involved with some kind of art. Kirsten treasuring her Dr. Eleven comic books, August with his scavenged poetry, Arthur and the entire Traveling Symphony with their preserved performances, and Miranda with her life's work, Dr. Eleven. And, throughout the post-apocalyptic setting of the narrative, characters of the story are attempting to grab fragments of art to paint a picture of what the world was once was before, or use then as an escape tool from the depressing post apocalyptic setting, or even used as a guide to how to live one’s life. Thus, literature is an essential object to have as it provides people with a sense of morality, a coping method for depression, and a truth that transcends historical facts.

It is in human nature to aspire, to dream, or to wake up everyday with a goal, life is about much more than just ‘getting by’. A successful civilization needs much more than just food and shelter, people need art, music, and motivation. The award winning novel written by Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven, goes by the motto “survival is insufficient”. The Traveling Symphony in this novel abides by this motto. The Georgia Flu becomes an epidemic and wipes out majority of civilization. To the Traveling Symphony, “life is insufficient”, means life with basic survival means is not enough. Throughout the novel, people strive to find the desire to find meaning in their life.

Creating art is one of the single defining factors that set humans apart from animal species. Through art, humans are able to express their innermost ideas and feelings, without having the difficulty of trying to find the correct words to accurately describe their thought processes. Works of art can help us to understand the people who have come before us. This is evidenced by the knowledge humans have discovered of prehistoric men and their symbolic cave paintings. The expression, style, and meaning vary and archaeologists put in much effort to uncover these works.

When most people think about art, the first thing to come to mind would usually be paintings that are hung up in a museum. Unless you really understand the value of art you may not believe me when I say the value of art is essential to the well being of free individuals. This idea can be supported by Bell Hooks story named “ Art On My Mind”.

The most important trait in defining art is its beauty. As complex as the term “art” can be, the term “beauty” is nearly just as complicated. In order to understand art more clearly it is important to understand beauty. “We label an object beautiful because it promotes an internal harmony or ‘free play’ of our mental faculties; we call something ‘beautiful’ when it elicits this pleasure.” (Freeland 8). As defined above, beauty is not a direct message. It is something that subconsciously allows man to feel good and pleasurable. There is “an internal harmony” when we observe something beautiful that allows us to take away a deeper understanding of a work of art regardless of it being “nice looking” or “ugly”.

     Art, in each and every form that it comes in, shows us who we are. Our

In “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger, an English art critic, argues that images are important for the present-day by saying, “No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are more precise and richer literature” (10). John Berger allowed others to see the true meaning behind certain art pieces in “Ways of Seeing”. Images and art show what people experienced in the past allowing others to see for themselves rather than be told how an event occurred. There are two images that represent the above claim, Arnold Eagle and David Robbins’ photo of a little boy in New York City, and Dorothea Lange’s image of a migratory family from Texas; both were taken during the Great Depression.

Good art allows me to flee the realms of reality. In my mind's limitless consciousness, I can escape the mundanity of everyday life. It opens a door in my head to a world only limited by my imagination. I am no more a slave to gravity, chained down on the earth when I am reading. I can be a bird and soar high above the clouds, or be a fish and swim deep down in the darkest depths of the ocean. I am there, I am that person, and everything else around me regardless of what it is, fades away. Sometimes these people are the one's I'd like to be but sometimes I encounter nefarious characters I wholly condemn. I am able to feel the emotions that the artist intends for me to feel. However, it is not merely reading or listening, but understanding

Art is crucial to human evolution because it is both a medium of expression that allows humans to evolve and is also key evidence of human evolution. The development and evolution of the human conscious has a direct correlation to the art created from each time period and has allowed researchers to interpret it, using it as a gateway into early human life. Art acts as a window into the minds and lifestyles of our ancestors. It has influenced the development, evolution, and the process of natural selection through culture.