Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor
To this day, I disagree with my professor about this being an apocalyptic novel. I mean, I understand that the apocalypse is a "revealing of the truth." And a whole lot of truths are revealed in this novel. But it's mostly about two crazy guys. One is in search of something more and the other is running away from religion. Hazel, the one running away from religion, seems to be doing the opposite by becoming a street preacher for his Church without Christ. And Enoch, the one searching for something more, is tying to calm his "wise blood." Yeah, there is a whole lot of crazy going on in this novel, but nothing that I would call "apocalyptic."
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
This book was, by far, my least favorite of the semester. It was murderous to read. Don't get me wrong, Conrad is a beautiful writer. However, his eloquence does not make up for his outstanding boredom. This book is about a man who tells his friends about the time he worked for a company in Africa. I don't even remember what the plot was. All I remember is it dragging and lagging for hours. I'm sure some regard this book as a classic. I, alternatively, am very willing to burn every single copy in existence.
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter Miller
Finally! The first "actual" apocalypse. This book was released when the fear of nuclear war was at its peak. Can you guess what it's about? Yes! Nuclear bombs that destroyed most of humanity and forced people to rebuild society. But all these men do is repeat the mistakes of their predecessors. Well, that is a major theme of the book: History repeats itself. There is also a major struggle between the religious monks and the secular politicians. Can you figure out how it ends? It really is THAT obvious.
World War Z, Max Brooks
I'm going to be completely honest: I was not excited to read this book. It was really long and about zombies. Zombies. In a literature course. Seemed a little lax for me. But once I got over it, and realized that this course was like nothing I have ever experienced, I fell in love with the book. Not in a wow-this-book-is-written-so-beautifully kind of way. But more like a Yeah!-kill-the-zombies! kind of way. The book reads like a movie/video game. You get a little back story about how the zombies originated in a small village in China (spoiler!) and then it dives into how zombies started eating people. It was so entertaining to read. I became a member of the zombie-loving subculture for the week and a half for this book!
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
This is, by far, the most depressing book I have ever read. Ever. And it's grey. The whole thing. We only see color like 3 times. Everything else is burned and covered in ash. But the story follows a man and his son (seemingly two of the last people on Earth) on their voyage to "the South" where they hope to find refuge. We never really find out why most people died and everything is dead around them, but we can assume it was some sort of nuclear weapon or meteor. My least favorite thing about is book is that there are no chapters. I appreciate the stylistic approach (structure mirrors content and all that), but when your professor says "Read to page 100," it's a little frustrated to figure out how many pages that is on an ebook. However, despite that one downfall, the book is good. Not great, in my opinion. But it's definitely not a waste of time.
Children of Men, PD James
I wish I could introduce this book with a rumbling drumroll. Why? Because this one was my favorite apocalypse, by far. It was set in Great Britain, so everything was calm and poised. There was no murdering savages or cannibalistic zombies. People were going to go extinct because men could no longer get women pregnant. James created the quietest apocalypse I've ever heard of. I would have no problem being a part of this plot. I can't have babies, so when I die, my name dies along with it. No problem at all. Keepin mind, there is almost no action in this book. So, it is pretty slow and dry. But that's how I like my books (Heart of Darkness being a huge exception).
Do any of these books seem interesting to you? I'm more than willing to provide additional feedback if anyone should ask, so feel free!
It is interesting how incredibly often we find this topic appearing in modern fiction. It appears to be an obsession of ours. I wonder why that is. Almost all new media coming out features images of police in riot gear, and future societies where humanity has been destroyed. The future is always presented as a highly controlled mind warfare or some form of apocolapse.
ReplyDeleteWe as a humanity share a consciousness. Something within us is awakening. I wonder what it is...
Personally, I think that we like to think about what scares us the most. Most apocalyptic narratives fit the fear of the time. Humans are always thinking about what would happen if we keep living the way we do. Ultimately, I think we fear our own extinction. The only thing that changes is the medium.
ReplyDeleteFear is a powerful motivator. I think that death is the ultimate fear. But we don't really fear death. We don't know what death is. We fear the unknown. We fear change whose outcome we cannot predict.
ReplyDeleteMany claim that the end of the world is upon us. I look a the world and see nothing but fear, judgment, hatred, loss, remorse and greed. To me the end of all of that is only a good thing. I personally look forward to the end of the world, for to me it means that things are changing. And change could only be a good thing, considering where we are starting.
Interesting. I disagree about not knowing what death is. We definitely know what it is. But you're right about not really fearing it. However, everything you listed was negative. And, on a large scale, it is safe to say that there is a lot of negativity in the world. But some of the novels I mentioned focus on a pretty small scale (The Road and Children of Men). And on a small scale, there is more likely to be hope and compassion, which is an overarching theme in apocalyptic narratives. But I don't think the world is ending. We still have a good couple hundred years left in us.
ReplyDeleteYou know what death is? That is pretty spectacular. Please, share with me. For I do not know what death will be like.
ReplyDeleteI listed only negative things as being the things I see around me when I look at our world. Each of those negative expressions has an opposite. The opposite is what an apocalypse will bring. Hence the end of everything we know. If we have nothing but fear, judgment, hatred, loss, remorse and greed, then an apopcalyse will surely bring hope, compassion, passion, a spirit of receiving, joy and generosity.
And I disagree about having a couple of hundred years left. The Age of Aquarius happened on Nov, 11th, 2011. I would imagine the world has already ended. Now we just need to decide what we want our new one to look like.
Enter the Alternate Economy.
Thank you for the sarcasm.
ReplyDeleteBiologically speaking, death is what happens when bodily functions stop. It is permanent. And everything that lives must die.
You are also right about the apocalypse. By definition, it is a revealing of truth. But truth is objective. So, we don't get to choose what happens in the event of an apocalypse. We can choose to cause it and we can work to prevent it, but we do not have control over it.
And I don't think the world has already ended. Personally, what I view as an apocalypse is very limited. Unless most of the human race is dead, it isn't an apocalypse. You can choose to disagree, which you do.
The question remains: what, if anything, would change, given an apocalyptic event?
I love all of your points, and I only use sarcasm as a form of rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteI do, however, disagree...
When I say death is the ultimate fear, I mean we fear the experience of death, and also we fear what it would be like to be dead. We may understand the physical component if death, but we have absolutely no idea what the conscious compnent to death is. As conscious beings we fear what we do not know. And losing our consciousness is what we fear the most. It is all we have!
When I say the world has ended, I am being a little silly. I do not imagine this apocalypse to be over. I think it might have started, however. How it ends is up to us, as you said.
Now, to answer your question. If the apocalypse is a revealing of truth, then I imagine everything will change. Truth is the most illusive thing on our planet. We are lied to by the media, politicians, pharmaceutical companies, religious leaders, biased educators, pretty much everybody! I am hard pressed to think of an institution that has not been in some scandal involving horrible lies.
ReplyDeleteThe apocalypse equals change and change equates the truth. The truth of our planet is that the Idea of Love is best expressed through Balanced Emotions. There is no other truth. Once we see this we will know that love is good, love is easy, love is beautiful, love is coming, love is given freely and love is everyone's. Now we ourselves are love, incarnate. We no longer fear death, or change, because we know that nothing in this universe is permanent. If you can name one thing that either starts or stops in our Universe, I will agree with you that life does. Things change forms and move around and break apart and reconstitute. But nothing has ever begun or ended in our Universe. Except of course for the Universe itself, and even there it appears to be cyclical.
The apocalypse implies a new awareness. It implies living with the truth instead of constantly fighting against it. That is why I say the world has ended. Because the conscious shift has started. How do I know this. Because I am shifting. To a new mode. I am tired of lying. Tired of secrets. Tired of greed. Tired of judgment. Tired of remorse. Tired of hatred. Tired of loss. Tired of fear.
I am ready for the truth. I am ready for change. I embrace the coming apocalypse, because for me it is over. I am love, so I know eventually the world will join me.
I invite you to join me. I know you are following my blog. I would love it if you would comment on some of my ideas. I am a bit of a philosopher, as you may have guessed, but my writings are well researched.
I like the way you think about things. I'll definitely check your blog out. Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to our next conversation on my blog.