Blog Journal for Station Eleven

 “WHAT WAS LOST IN THE COLLAPSE: almost everything, almost everyone, but there is still such beauty.”  (page 57)

This section opens Chapter 11, right before the Traveling Symphony presents A Midsummer Night's Dream. It encapsulates the main idea of the book, which is that hope endures even in the face of unspeakable suffering and loss. In addition to providing venues for individuals to rejoice, grieve, and escape the misery of their circumstances, the Traveling Symphony seeks to remind people of the beauty that still exists in the world.

“In the lobby, the people gathered at the bar clinked their glasses together. ‘To Arthur,’ they said. They drank for a few more minutes and then went their separate ways in the storm. Of all of them there at the bar that night, the bartender was the one who survived the longest." (page 15)

This text beautifully conveys the transience of relationships forged over drinks, the frailty of life, and the quiet fortitude of the bartender—a survivor in a world that has altered forever.