Might be feasible for someone who had both the stuff and the know-how: back in WWII, butchering one's own meat was still common. But in this millenium, how many Americans have ever even seen offal, let alone considered that it might be useful? What we have in this country is the most helplessly-citified populace ever to walk the Earth; hundreds of thousands of people who couldn't cook a box of Mac'n'Cheese if the instructions weren't on the back of the box (with pictures), let alone identify the pancreas of a dead pig
Ah, good old Lucifer's Hammer (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218467.Lucifer_s_Hammer), the original big-comet-hits-Earth tale, before all those sucky movies. In all honesty, it sucks too - even back in the early 80's when I first read it, it sucked, because there's not a single character in it who's not a cardboard cut-out with a stereotype-label stuck on. It was a huge disappointment to me, because I was really into Larry Niven's Known Space stories (which utterly rock; if you've never read any, start with Ringworld (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61179.Ringworld?from_search=true)) - he doesn't exactly hide his odious neo-con personal politics in those, but at least he doesn't soapbox them the way he does in Lucifer's Hammer and other books set on Earth in the more-or-less modern era.
Therefore, I really can't recommend Lucifer's Hammer, despite that it's got some interesting ideas and was the first piece of fiction (that I know of) to deal with Life, Post-Comet in our own times. As far as actual survival skills go, it's painfully obvious that Larry Niven would not survive even a summer in the Wild alone without modern equipment, let alone a winter - not that winter in California is that big a deal, but he'd still die, because he has No Fucking Clue.
But Lucifer's Hammer isn't actually about surviving without modern amenities. It's really just a pretext for Ayn Rand-like, so-called 'Social Darwinist' wank, written for the Nerd Corps boys who know damn well that if the electricity ever goes off for good, they haven't got a single skill worth keeping them alive for. Not even manual labor or 'rough trade', because they're not very strong and not very attractive. In a lot of ways, Lucifer's Hammer reminds me of John Norman's Gor books, which appeal to a slightly different demographic of bitter white male losers who blame women and minorities for the fact that they're not the Masters of the World like they obviously should be.
Funny how it never occurs to those guys that the old white guys who ARE the Masters of the World have no intention of ever letting their tools and cannon-fodder share their power, any more than they'd invite dogs to sit at the dinner table - even their own most-trusted sheep-dogs and guard-dogs, let alone random strays, no matter how much they may wag their tails.
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Ah, good old Lucifer's Hammer (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218467.Lucifer_s_Hammer), the original big-comet-hits-Earth tale, before all those sucky movies. In all honesty, it sucks too - even back in the early 80's when I first read it, it sucked, because there's not a single character in it who's not a cardboard cut-out with a stereotype-label stuck on. It was a huge disappointment to me, because I was really into Larry Niven's Known Space stories (which utterly rock; if you've never read any, start with Ringworld (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61179.Ringworld?from_search=true)) - he doesn't exactly hide his odious neo-con personal politics in those, but at least he doesn't soapbox them the way he does in Lucifer's Hammer and other books set on Earth in the more-or-less modern era.
Therefore, I really can't recommend Lucifer's Hammer, despite that it's got some interesting ideas and was the first piece of fiction (that I know of) to deal with Life, Post-Comet in our own times. As far as actual survival skills go, it's painfully obvious that Larry Niven would not survive even a summer in the Wild alone without modern equipment, let alone a winter - not that winter in California is that big a deal, but he'd still die, because he has No Fucking Clue.
But Lucifer's Hammer isn't actually about surviving without modern amenities. It's really just a pretext for Ayn Rand-like, so-called 'Social Darwinist' wank, written for the Nerd Corps boys who know damn well that if the electricity ever goes off for good, they haven't got a single skill worth keeping them alive for. Not even manual labor or 'rough trade', because they're not very strong and not very attractive. In a lot of ways, Lucifer's Hammer reminds me of John Norman's Gor books, which appeal to a slightly different demographic of bitter white male losers who blame women and minorities for the fact that they're not the Masters of the World like they obviously should be.
Funny how it never occurs to those guys that the old white guys who ARE the Masters of the World have no intention of ever letting their tools and cannon-fodder share their power, any more than they'd invite dogs to sit at the dinner table - even their own most-trusted sheep-dogs and guard-dogs, let alone random strays, no matter how much they may wag their tails.