By the Waters of Babylon

"By the Waters of Babylon" is a post-apocalyptic short story by Stephen Vincent Benét first published July 31, 1937, in The Saturday Evening Post as "The Place of the Gods". [The term "post-apocalyptic" paraphrases Izzo. [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=354]
Date of publication is from [http://www.philsp.com/homeville/anth/s18.htm BENÉT, STEPHEN VINCENT in Miscellaneous Story Anthologies]
Benét changed the title when selecting works for "Thirteen O'Clock". (Fenton, 1958)] It was republished in 1943 in "The Pocket Book of Science Fiction", [ [http://www.iblist.com/book47757.htm Book Information: Pocket he is a very weird mann.]

John tells the tale of his exploration of the forbidden "Place of the Gods" in a world that has nearly forgotten the existence of 20th century civilization. John is the son of a priest of a tribe of hunters, heirs to a global catastrophe, whose curiosity takes him on a journey of discovery and search for truth about his civilized ancestors.

Plot summary

Set in a future following the destruction of industrial civilization, the story is narrated by a young man [Wagar, p. 163, who also calls him a "young savage" (p. 25). Macdonald, p. 267-268, which also calls him a "young brave". In the play adaptation, he appears as a young man and, in a non-speaking part, as a boy. (Duffield, 1971)] named John who is the son of a priest. The priests of John’s people are inquisitive "scientists" associated with the divine. They are the only ones who can handle metal collected from the homes (called the "Dead Places") of long-dead people whom they believe to be gods. The plot follows John’s self-assigned mission to get to the Place of the Gods. His father allows him to go.

John journeys through the forest for eight days, and crosses the river Ou-dis-sun. Once John gets to the Place of the Gods, he feels the energy and magic there. He sees a statue of a "god" — in point of fact, a human — that says "ASHING" on its base. He also sees a building marked "UBTREAS". After being chased by dogs and sleeping in someone's apartment, John sees a dead god. Upon viewing the visage, he has an epiphany that the gods were simply humans whose power overwhelmed good judgment. After John returns to his tribe, he speaks of the places "newyork" and "Biltmore". His father tells him not to, for sometimes too much truth is a bad thing, that it must be told little by little. The story ends with John stating his conviction that, once he becomes the head priest, "We must build again."

References made

* "The Great Burning" refers to the day an atomic bomb was detonated in New York City.Macdonald, p. 267-268.]
* The "great river" "Ou-dis-sun" is the Hudson River.Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. [Source is Izzo, who also notes that Benét wrote other stories and poems in response to the threat of Fascism in the 1930s.]

The title quotes Psalm 137. The psalm tells of the Israelites's great sorrow over the destruction of their Temple in Jerusalem and their enslavement in the land of Babylon.

UBTREAS could be a part of "Subtreasury Building" and ASHING could be part of "Washington."

ee also

* List of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction

Notes

References

*cite journal |quotes= |last=Benét |first=Stephen Vincent |authorlink=Stephen Vincent Benét |coauthors=Henry C. Pitz (illus.) |date=July 31, 1937 |month= |title=THE PLACE OF THE GODS |journal=Saturday Evening Post |volume=210 |issue=5 |pages=10–11, 59–60 (4p) |id= |url= |accessdate=
*cite book |last=Benét |first=Stephen Vincent |authorlink= |coauthors= |others= |title=Thirteen O'Clock: Stories of Several Worlds |year=c1937 repr. 1971 |publisher=Ayer Co Pub |location= |isbn=0836937937
*cite book |last=Duffield |first=Brainerd |authorlink= |coauthors=Stephen Vincent Benét |others= |title=Stephen Vincent Benet's By the waters of Babylon; a play in one act |year=1971 |publisher=Dramatic Pub. Co. |location=Chicago |isbn= [http://worldcat.org/oclc/1448012 (WorldCat)] [http://books.google.com/books?id=0M-l0bgBqsQC (preview)]
*cite book |last=Fenton |first=Charles A. |authorlink= |coauthors= |others= |title=Stephen Vincent Benet: The Life and Times of an American Man of Letters, 1898-1943 |year=1958 repr. 1978 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Conn. |isbn=0313202001
*cite web |url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=354 |title=Stephen Vincent Benét (1898-1943) |accessdate=2007-06-20 |last=Izzo |first=David Garrett |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |year= |month= |format= |work=The Literary Encyclopedia |publisher= |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ( [http://www.davidgarrettizzo.com/ about the author] )
*Macdonald, Andrew, Gina Macdonald, and MaryAnn Sheridan. (2000). "Shape-shifting: images of Native Americans in recent popular fiction". Contributions to the study of popular culture, no. 71. Westport, Conn, Greenwood Press. ISBN 031330842X.
*cite book |last=Wagar |first=W. Warren |authorlink=W. Warren Wagar |coauthors= |others= |title=Terminal Visions: The Literature of Last Things |year=1982 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=0253358477