After Jersild, the deluge

“After the Flood” is the English translation of Swedish writer P C Jersild's post-apocalyptic novel “Efter floden”, published in 1982. I've read the Swedish original, but not the translation. The novel was widely read in its day, and is still in print in Sweden. Jersild, a member of the peace movement, wrote it as a protest against the threat of nuclear war.

The story is set about 40 years after a devastating nuclear war, which have left most of Europe (and perhaps the world) uninhabitable. Most of the action takes place at a fictitious island in the Baltic Sea, loosely modeled on Gotland. The island is close to “the place once called Sweden”, but the characters in the novel are Finnish, Norwegian, German or Sami (Lap). It seems all or most Swedes have been killed, perhaps in a devastating plague after the nuclear conflagration. What exactly happened immediately before and during the war is left unclear. For instance, we never learn why large portions of Sweden were flooded by a tsunami.

The few scattered survivors endure a Hobbesian “war of all against all”. Even in-group solidarity is tenuous at best. Most survivors are old and male, making (often forced) homosexuality rampant. Children are seldom born, and when they are, the babies turn out to be unviable due to birth defects. Piracy, barter, salvage and sheer cruelty are the main activities. Books are used for fuel. Only a few pockets of more advanced pre-apocalypse knowledge have survived.

The main character, Edvin, is the “clueless narrator” of the story who was born in a fallout shelter shortly after the nuclear exchange. He knows nothing about the old world. Edvin, who survives by selling homosexual favors, is abandoned on the Swedish island by pirates when his services are no longer needed. There, he meets Petsamo, a medical doctor and pessimistic house-philosopher who wants humanity to voluntarily extinguish itself. Petsamo deliberately interrupts all pregnancies that come to his attention. The island is ruled by one Roland and a group of elderly bandits. 40 years ago, they were inmates of a youth prison, but managed to escape during the flood that killed most of the island's population. Curiously, they let their sadistic warden, Henry, get away! Henry stills lives on the island in a lone hut. There is also a quasi-Catholic convent, founded after the war. Petsamo has negotiated a fragile peace between the banditti and the nuns (the latter are better at agriculture). The story ends with the islanders either dying off or being killed by Lap invaders. The previously oppressed Laps (in an ironic reversal of ethnic roles) see themselves as Übermenschen, and consider non-Laps to be literal animals. However, the Lap colony later succumbs to a deadly disease, and it is implied at the end of the story that all of humanity eventually goes extinct. The Baltic island is taken over by black rats…

It was interesting to read the other reviews of “After the Flood”. It seems everyone takes this book in his or her own way! Personally, I found it extremely unrealistic. Of course, we don't know how scattered humans would react after a nuclear apocalypse, so in that sense Jersild is just as right (or wrong) as anyone else. To me, the story would have made more sense if set 200 or 400 years after the nuclear war, when the old world is but a distant memory. None of the survivors are interested in discussing who started the war, an unlikely scenario to say the least, especially in northern Europe with its traditional anti-Russian nationalism. Instead of feeling existentialist guilt and self-doubt (as many of Jersild's characters do), militant anti-Communism or Russophobia would be more logical. My guess is that Jersild excised all politics from the novel since he wanted to keep it non-partisan, concentrating on the devastating effects a nuclear war would have regardless of who was the first to push the button. However, this was made at the price of making “After the Flood” psychologically unconvincing. Perhaps intellectuals brood over existential questions when faced with a nuclear Armageddon. Indeed, I suspect that Petsamo is Jersild's alter ego, since he – just like the author – is a medical doctor with tendencies towards Zivilisationskritik. By contrast, ordinary people will attempt to find scapegoats and deal with them accordingly, try to have as many kids as possible, and constantly dream about returning to the old world. The Lap invaders are the most realistic humans depicted in the story.

The revival of religion in the wake of a global disaster feels more convincing, but hardly the kind of guilt-ridden quasi-Christianity which is Jersild's choice for the religion of the future. Once again, the murderous pagan-nationalist neo-Laps (who worship the reindeer as holy) are more compelling. I also suspect that “After the Flood” is to some extent an attack on Christianity. Edvin is 33 years old, the age traditionally assigned to Jesus at his crucifixion. Yet, he is obviously no savior, but rather a victim. At one point, Jersild mocks one of the nuns who is waiting for an “apocalypse of the heart” (the *real* apocalypse has, of course, already taken place, with no Jesus to save anyone). The most guilt-ridden group on the island, called “the lepers”, is a bizarre cult which seems to consist of zombies! The lepers are convinced that they are somehow to blame for the nuclear war, and therefore voluntarily live a completely self-effacing life, to the point of committing mass suicide. Failed prophecies are also heckled in the book.

As a story, “After the Flood” was less exciting than I expected. Jersild's works are frequently surrealistic and absurd, but it seems he decided to write more seriously this time (the explicit sexual content is perennial in his oeuvre, however). The post-apocalyptic tale was interesting for other reasons. I think “Efter floden” may tell us more about P C Jersild's personal agendas (and personal fears) than it does about a world after the deluge…