Word of the Week: Benison
A positive word, that I found in two apocalyptic books
This week’s Word of the Week is benison. It is a noun meaning a blessing or a spoken expression of good wishes. It is related to the word benediction (some sources say they are synonyms). I read this word in the 1957 Novel On the Beach by Nevil Shute. This is an apocalyptic novel set in Australia in 1962 and 1963.
Normally, if I mention a book in The Word of the Week, I am recommending the book. This is a good book, but it is challenging, emotionally. There has been a nuclear World War III, all life in the northern hemisphere has been wiped out, and people in southern Australia know that the fallout is drifting to them and they only have months to live. How would you go on with your life, and what would you do, if you were in this situation? Benison appears in this paragraph:
Sitting with him perched upon a rail, watching the rosy lights reflected in the calm sea, savoring the benison of the warm evening, she asked him, “Dwight, tell me about the cruise that Swordfish made. Did you say she went to the United States?”
The Swordfish is a military submarine. In the book, subs dive down and then travel north to where the nuclear strikes were, to try and check for any life, using sensors raised above the water, while the sub stays submerged.
My Kindle pointed out to me that I had also looked up the word benison while reading another book: The End of the World: Stories of the Apocalypse, edited by Martin H. Greenberg. It is a 2010 collection of short stories, both classics and contemporary pieces. What a coincidence, that this word, meaning something positive, appeared in two apocalyptic books! Benison appears in the short story If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth… by Arthur C. Clark, which can be found in other short story collections as well. Clark wrote the story in 1951.
There in that shining crescent were all the wonders that he had never known – the hues of sunset skies, the moaning of the sea on pebbled shores, the patter of falling rain, the benison of snow.
I really enjoyed this story, and recommend it, and other Arthur C. Clark short stories. I enjoy reading apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic stories, as many people do. Why do some of us enjoy reading about terrible situations – pandemics, nuclear war, global warming, etc.? Personally, I like reading about how people survive these situations and make the best of things. And I’m curious about “What would you do if…” situations. Perhaps surprisingly, in most apocalyptic books, there is hope. The characters often recognize the benisons they have even if they’ve lost a lot.