Apocalypse Now
"Mad Max Furiosa" is set to be released in movie theaters on Friday May 24th. Amazon Prime has seen success with its' new show "Fallout", based on the role-playing video game (much like the earlier success of HBO Max "The Last of Us"). The last 10 years has seen a resurgence of the post-apocalyptic fiction genre in books, graphic, novels, movies, and games. This genre in some ways has existed for centuries due to the number of Apocalyptic/ End Times tales that are a part of the world's mythologies and religions. One of the earliest of these was the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, followed by the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. More of these thematic elements occur within the Hindu Dharmasastra, and within the Norse Poetic Edda (specifically the first 65 stanzas).
The question of what happens after a cataclysmic event, pandemic, or apocalypse is the main theme of the post-apocalyptic genre. This has been explored in science fiction stories and novels, much of which were written after World War Two due to the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the atomic bomb. These themes were further explored in the 1980s due to the Cold War, and the very real nuclear disasters of Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986. The question of what happens to our societies and our humanity in the face of wide scale destruction has been argued, debated, and addressed whether through the creative outlets of novels and movies, but also through global politics.
Please note that this blog and next week's blog are to explore the creative outlets, not the political elements. Thank you.
Reading List
Some of the selections on this booklist also crossover into the Zombie fiction genre.
Next Week's Blog will focus on the post-apocalyptic genre Movie selections.
Fun Facts:
- "Apocalypse" is a difficult word to type. I kept wanting to type "Alpaca Lips" instead.
- Those of us who are Gen X'ers have vivid memories of "duck and cover" drills at our schools.
- I can no longer fit under my Middle School desk for a "duck and cover" drill.
- Gen X'ers can survive for days with only cold PopTarts, Easy Cheese, and Funyans for sustenance.
- Contact your nearest Gen X'er for more information. We can also provide you with a music playlist of songs about potential nuclear annihilation.
- "I'll stop the world and melt with you"-Modern English.
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