Books of the Apocalypse
I just posted a review of Apocalypse Law by John Grit on the Good Reads website. you can find it here. It's a small novel of the post-apocalypse (PA) genre that I received as a birthday present, my wife knowing of my affinity for such stories. You'll see I didn't think much of it--poorly written with too much military worship. Still, it was instructive as an example of a poorly written novel and a base to judge my own post-apocalypse story as I work on it.
Probably, PA works have mostly been bad novels, though there are exceptions. The most notable being Cormac McCarthy's The Road. More good stuff has probably been done in film. The Book of Eli was really good. The Planet of the Apes (the original film) inspired me many years ago. The Mad Max films were good. The Omega Man was not a great film, but it contained themes and images that are basic to this genre. Escape From New York was a film I enjoyed that became a cult classic. And there were others but these are a core sampling of the kinds of stories that influenced my thinking on apocalyptic storytelling.
And maybe because my life has spanned the timeframe of the delusioned security coming out of the 1950's, through the social upheavals of the 1960's and 1970's, to the smug complacency of the 1980's, to the current gradual awakening to civilization's frailties, that I'm drawn to stories of collapse and humanity's restart.
I've done much reading over the past two decades on the implications of peak oil, overpopulation, economic collapse, societal collapse, and climate change. The future for humankind looks grim to me, but I also tend to look for hope in dire situations. Humans have survived climate change before. They've even survived civilization collapse, but not without much suffering. What's coming is a collapse of Biblical proportions because fossil fuel based technology took us to such a high level, and the forces of capitalism have become equally corrupt. It will be a long fall.
So my novel, Dentville, will be set in what I believe is a likely scenario. It is a world where climate has altered from the present to the point that a new ice age has come. Human population is greatly reduced and doesn't extend too far from the equator. The former US is habitable only in the former southern and southwestern states. People have been forced back to a simpler, agrarian life. Even so, images of former glory remain, and there are forces working to return to that imagined glory, as well as forces that oppose them.
Whatever actually happens, it will be difficult. There will be suffering. I believe people will be forced to live at a simpler level, because there will be no alternative. They will be forced, because they are too comfortable with the way things are, to honestly look ahead and work for a collapse with a soft landing.
I believe humanity has already committed to a hard way. May God go with us.
Probably, PA works have mostly been bad novels, though there are exceptions. The most notable being Cormac McCarthy's The Road. More good stuff has probably been done in film. The Book of Eli was really good. The Planet of the Apes (the original film) inspired me many years ago. The Mad Max films were good. The Omega Man was not a great film, but it contained themes and images that are basic to this genre. Escape From New York was a film I enjoyed that became a cult classic. And there were others but these are a core sampling of the kinds of stories that influenced my thinking on apocalyptic storytelling.
And maybe because my life has spanned the timeframe of the delusioned security coming out of the 1950's, through the social upheavals of the 1960's and 1970's, to the smug complacency of the 1980's, to the current gradual awakening to civilization's frailties, that I'm drawn to stories of collapse and humanity's restart.
I've done much reading over the past two decades on the implications of peak oil, overpopulation, economic collapse, societal collapse, and climate change. The future for humankind looks grim to me, but I also tend to look for hope in dire situations. Humans have survived climate change before. They've even survived civilization collapse, but not without much suffering. What's coming is a collapse of Biblical proportions because fossil fuel based technology took us to such a high level, and the forces of capitalism have become equally corrupt. It will be a long fall.
So my novel, Dentville, will be set in what I believe is a likely scenario. It is a world where climate has altered from the present to the point that a new ice age has come. Human population is greatly reduced and doesn't extend too far from the equator. The former US is habitable only in the former southern and southwestern states. People have been forced back to a simpler, agrarian life. Even so, images of former glory remain, and there are forces working to return to that imagined glory, as well as forces that oppose them.
Whatever actually happens, it will be difficult. There will be suffering. I believe people will be forced to live at a simpler level, because there will be no alternative. They will be forced, because they are too comfortable with the way things are, to honestly look ahead and work for a collapse with a soft landing.
I believe humanity has already committed to a hard way. May God go with us.
No comments have been added yet.
