After the End of the World - In Literature, Movies and Elsewhere

Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched. It’s the end of the world as we know it.

~ It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine), R.E.M.

It's a pretty tall order to end the world. Nuclear bombs, meteors, plagues, environmental collapse — chances are, someone will survive. And even if you do manage to wipe out humanity, well, what's the point of that? Are you going to write about rocks and animals? It was good for Rachel Carson, but it makes for lousy fiction.

The fun lies in ending the world as we know it, exploring the vicissitudes of life after the Big One. I know, you're asking, increduously, This is fun? Of course it is, and you know it. You wouldn't be at this site otherwise. People have been depicting cataclysmic disaster and its aftermath since The Odyssey, and others have been scooping it right up. Yes, it's a bit like gawking at a pileup on the Interstate, but it's also something more.

The beauty of the post-apocalyptic subgenre of science-fiction lies in the ability of the writer to strip characters of the restraints and comforts of civilization and to examine what remains. It differs fundamentally from the "castaway" novel; there is rarely the idea, however remote, that salvation is possible. The world has been destroyed and the absense of society informs the characters' actions.

Not surprisingly, the results are often ugly. In William Golding's Lord of the Flies order breaks down among the boys on the island as they realize that rescue will probably never come. As they lose hope, they pursue the beast. The hunt is internal.

At the other end of the spectrum, some novels belie a resiliency of the spirit -- either in the form of physical rebuilding or a simple trust in the present. Despite brutal conditions, the title character of Riddley Walker ??? the puzzles left to his world and

A compendium of novels and film skim any examination of the soul and concentrate on riots, radiation, battles for food and water, or maybe a meglomaniac trying to rule what's left of the world. These stories are dispatched with humor (Tank Girl), speed (Damnation Alley) or eloquence, in their utter lack of eloquence (2020 Texas Gladiators). Films of the latter category can be a lot of fun if you turn the sound down and provide your on dailogue.

Here post-apocalyptic survery here at ITR, doesn't discrimate. You'll find stories by borderline fascists (Lucifer's Hammer) as well as environmentalists (Earth Abides). There's the high-budget stuff (Armageddon, Reign of Fire) and the laughably shoestring (Equalizer 2000).

What it is

I. Quintessential post-apocalyptic fiction:

II. Variations on a theme:

III. What it isn't:

a. Disaster novels
b. Fantasy
c. Religious fiction
d. Dystopian novels
e. Works issued by vanity or near-vanity publishers

05/05/2007 - 12:03