Alone After Oil: James Kunstler’s <em>World Made By Hand</em>

Alone After Oil: James Kunstler’s World Made By Hand

[Brenna Heaps]

In James Kunstler’s novel World Made By Hand, we glimpse what the future might hold from the mind of the man who wrote The Long Emergency and lovingly refers to America as Clusterfuck Nation.

Through the eyes of reluctant hero Robert Earle we see how the small town of Union Grove copes with life in the new frontier – a world where there is no government to speak of, no real systems in place and the focus of each day is survival, but then there isn’t much to do aside from surviving. The town has little contact with the outside world until the New Faith Order, a religious sect, rolls into town looking for a quiet place to settle down. All seems well, but then Robert gets his first look at the world outside of Union Grove during a quick journey to retrieve a missing boat and he finds that the world without cars is silent, as well as dangerous and difficult to navigate. He returns home with news from the road only to face more trouble and a confrontation with the local villain Wayne Karp.

Even though the world as we know if has essentially come to an end and a flu epidemic wiped out a huge chunk of the population, leaving everyone else to mourn the loss of their loved ones along with the collapse of modern civilization, the novel does not paint an overly bleak picture of our possible future. Although the world will never be the same, the people of Union Grove still think it can be better and they struggle to maintain order in a world where chaos reigns. The townspeople grow their own vegetables, set up a bartering system and, led by Robert, set out to build a new society and set up a government . With similar goals in mind the New Faith Order works as a cohesive community, pooling their resources and labor to reach a common goal: a new life in the new world. In spite of their odd ways and occasional attempts to convert the townspeople, the group seems to be more focused on helping the town rebuild and prosper than on preaching their religion.

Kunstler’s future is one where those who don’t overly romanticize their lives before the oil dried up prosper and those who hold on too tightly to the past are doomed to fail. Although the book is about how human civilization learns to live in the world after oil, what Kunstler is really saying is that we should all, right now, learn to live without it because in the not to distant future we won’t have a choice. Although it may seem like a far off fate, if you read the paper or check the news you’ll see that Kunstler’s future may be our future.