The stars in their courses

“The stars in their courses” is the phrase Ish repeats as he confronts a future shaped by forces beyond individual choice. Sitting on the University Library steps and grinding a granite chip to powder, he turns the expression away from literal astrology and toward the changing conditions—social, material, and planetary—that will determine whether the Tribe can sustain civilization.

The Expression in Context

The phrase arises during Ish’s reflection on the gap between generations. Though only in his forties, he belongs to the older group, separated from the youngest by a long stretch of years and an even greater distance in culture and tradition. As he pounds the granite smaller, he considers how much a person shapes surrounding circumstances and how much those circumstances shape the person, framing the question through Napoleon and the age associated with him.

That question leads him to Joey. Even if Joey had lived, Ish thinks, the conditions that made Jack, Roger, and Ralph would probably have affected him too; one child could not counter the force of those conditions. With Joey dead, Ish regards the future’s direction as all but certain, while allowing for unforeseeable accidents. The phrase marks this uneasy movement from grief over one child to a judgment about the forces governing a whole generation.

Astrology and Circumstance

Ish explicitly denies believing in astrology, but the stars still matter to his reasoning. Their shifting shows him that the solar system is changing and that the Earth itself is becoming more or less habitable for human beings. At a deeper level, he allows, astrology may be right as a symbol: changes in the sky can stand for the “grinding wheels of circumstance” that turn beyond human command. His repeated exclamation, “The stars in their courses!”, gives that recognition a refrain-like force, even as he asks what a small human being can do against it.

The image therefore holds two scales together. The stars suggest a changing physical world; the circumstances surrounding Joey and the younger generation suggest social forces. Neither is simply a backdrop to human action. Ish’s reflection joins them in a single problem: individual lives unfold within conditions they may influence, but cannot master.

The Future the Phrase Foresees

The refrain accompanies Ish’s bleak forecast for the Tribe. He concludes that it will not restore civilization because it does not want to do so. For a time, scavenging will continue: people will open cans and use ammunition and matches left from the past, living happily enough in an uncreative dependence on stored supplies. As the population grows, those supplies will diminish, though cattle may postpone an immediate catastrophe.

Ish then sees that food alone cannot secure the transition to a lasting society. Rifle ammunition will run out, matches will be used up, and gunpowder will deteriorate with time. Within three or four generations, the survivors might lose civilization without acquiring the basic skills needed for a stable life; Ish even considers the possibility that humanity may fail to survive the transition. In this context, “The stars in their courses” names not a guaranteed astrological fate but the convergence of historical, material, and environmental pressures that makes the Tribe’s future appear nearly settled.