A Canticle for Leibowitz - Benjamin and Rachel

[[deleted user]]

A wanderer is seen in all three books - with Benjamin and the Abbott's conversation holding a center stage role in Fiat Lux ... He's portrayed differently in all three books but hold and important role throughout. What are your thoughts on Benjamin? First of all, is he the Wandering Jew and is he the same person throughout?

Personally, I like to see him as the Wandering Jew and Rachel as the Messiah. Having the Second Coming coincide with the Second Great Deluge just makes the story complete. But how does that narrative fit into your view of the book?

[stormhawk]

Rachel, as the child not born of woman, by the stories of the people spontaneously generated from the flesh, could well be the Christ of the Atomic age ... but that makes me wonder, if that's the impression Miller wants us to have, why didn't he have Benjamin recognize her? Or is that action to broadly drawn for the story?

[Donna]

I definitely see Benjamin as the Wandering Jew looking for the Messiah. I have always been a bit confused at the ending. It does seem as if Rachel is supposed to be the Messiah but as Stormhawk said, why didn't Benjamin recognize her? There were several times in the third part where Benjamin is looking at people and then saying "It's not him". Maybe he didn't recognize her because she was female, or the second head threw him off.;)

Has anybody read Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman? I just saw this. Overall, it has pretty bad reviews here on Goodreads but some people liked it.

[stormhawk]

Or perhaps it's because Rachel wasn't awakened until the Second Atomic War (or Second Coming?)

I bought Saint Liebowitz and the Wildhorse Woman when it came out, but I don't think I managed to read it, at least I don't remember it.

[[deleted user]]

I did the same thing. I bought as a hardbound - I think even first edition - but I haven't read it yet.

[Donna]

So I'm getting a head start on Hyperion because I'm listening to it as an audio book and that always takes me a couple of weeks. How interesting that there is a Wandering Jew character carrying around his infant daughter named Rachel.

[stormhawk]

I recently read Hyperion, and I didn't notice that at all!

A check of several baby name sites tells me that "Rachel" carries the meaning of ewe or female sheep, which, if she is the second coming (or first from Benjamin's viewpoint) fits ... the new Lamb.

[Eric]

Hyperion's also got a coincidence with the Poet as well.

For me, Benjamin not recognizing Rachel for what we see her to be matches a feeling I've heard many times: those searching for the second coming are so pre-disposed to rejecting candidates, that we wouldn't see him for what he is when he finally does come.

Loved the book. Growing up Catholic in a family that preferred the pre-Vatican II church certainly didn't hurt.