http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Chion/Colin%20McEnroe%20Show%2004-11-2012.mp3
Part of the genius of Cormac McCarthy's The Road is that he never spells out exactly what wiped out almost every one and everything. For the duration of the book, we accompany a man and his son as they try, as itinerants, to survive. At least once they come upon somebody else's disaster shelter and, for a brief tie, they live there and feast on what has been stored.
It's a moment of irony and paradox. The people who planned so well, who made this nice sanctuary never got to use it. The disaster moved faster than that. And even for the man and the boy, the shelter is no permanent solution. And what's up, above ground, doesn't look so great either. And that's one of the puzzles of the underground survival shelter. Sooner or later, you have to climb back out. So just having a bunker isn't enough. You've got to get to it. It has to stay intact. And there has to be a world to rejoin.
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