American Apocalypses

January 9, 2007 8:11 AM

I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
posted by felix betachat (43 comments total)

These links inspire me to say with a newfound clarity, "This will not end well."
posted by hermitosis at 8:17 AM on January 9, 2007

As Palahniuk has written, "Every generation wants to be the last."
posted by Bromius at 8:19 AM on January 9, 2007 [2 favorites]

These links inspire me to say with a newfound clarity, "This will not end well."

Indeed. But of course, these links all seem to hint that the world will not end well. Especially the one that goes to a NY Times log in page.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:23 AM on January 9, 2007

these links all seem to hint that the world will not end well
Has that ever really been in question?
posted by IronLizard at 8:34 AM on January 9, 2007

...and I feel fine...
posted by gwint at 8:36 AM on January 9, 2007

funnily enough I was just reading Revelation this morning
posted by matteo at 8:41 AM on January 9, 2007

You say post-Apocalypse like it was a bad thing.

It doesn't have to be that way.
posted by Mike D at 8:43 AM on January 9, 2007

Perhaps there's something in seeing the familiar get blown to bits, but as a Brit my favourite apocolyptic dystopias are Threads, which blows The Day After out of the water imnpho, and the oh-so recent, oh-so amazing Children of Men.
posted by vbfg at 8:46 AM on January 9, 2007

Has that ever really been in question?

Well, pre-atomic era, the question of the world ending didn't have, shall we say, the same urgency. But I'm sure whatever's behind that NY Times log-in page must somehow explain all.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:49 AM on January 9, 2007

Previously. (well, sorta)
posted by mkb at 8:50 AM on January 9, 2007

Best nuke movie EVAR. (Outside of Dr. Strangelove, of course...)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:51 AM on January 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

This eschaton, it vibrates?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:54 AM on January 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

and the oh-so recent, oh-so amazing Children of Men.


Funny, I found it weak and limp. Never felt like it got off the ground. Felt like the cliche about chinese food - lots of stuff on your plate but you're hungry again 10 minutes later.
posted by spicynuts at 9:07 AM on January 9, 2007

Wow. You click on the form link in the post, and you get some pathetic Javascript pop-up dissing you for deep-linking and not going through their menu. That's the lamest thing I've seen on the internet since 1998. Nice one, fast-rewind.com.
posted by Jimbob at 9:13 AM on January 9, 2007

the cockroaches in the apartment next to mine would like you to know that they find your phrase "the end of the world" to be amusingly arrogant and pretentious
posted by pyramid termite at 9:16 AM on January 9, 2007

Dude, you need to move.
posted by chrismear at 9:19 AM on January 9, 2007

Red Dawn is hardly an end-of the-world movie. The Russkies invaded, the football team took care of it, problem solved.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:25 AM on January 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wolverines!
posted by Roger Dodger at 9:44 AM on January 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

I must also say that I was entranced by Failsafe - the book - when I was a sixth grader. It was awesome.
posted by Roger Dodger at 9:45 AM on January 9, 2007

"Children of Men."

Wait, I though women had children. Maybe I'm not chubby, just pregnant!
posted by davy at 9:49 AM on January 9, 2007

boom
posted by danb at 9:50 AM on January 9, 2007

matteo : funnily enough I was just reading Revelation this morning

You know what is really odd? I was too. Seriously. But I was just trying to see how accurate a joke from Discworld was.
posted by quin at 9:52 AM on January 9, 2007

I was halfway covering my face with my hands all the way through Children of Men. That movie scared the ever-loving bejeezus outta me.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 10:04 AM on January 9, 2007

Perhaps there's something in seeing the familiar get blown to bits, but as a Brit my favourite apocolyptic dystopias are Threads, which blows The Day After out of the water imnpho....

Good god, vbfg, I'm going to have nightmares just from that Wikipedia synopsis.
posted by availablelight at 10:11 AM on January 9, 2007

MeTa
posted by Skygazer at 10:19 AM on January 9, 2007

Children of Men was trash compared to the book... per usual
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 10:33 AM on January 9, 2007

They're dead, Jim.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:37 AM on January 9, 2007

A few more post-apocalyptic avenues ponder:

Earth Abides, 12 Monkeys, 28 Days Later, Fiskadoro, Planet of the Apes, Logan's Run
posted by TBoneMcCool at 10:56 AM on January 9, 2007

I just read Philip K. Dick's postbomb novel, Dr. Bloodmoney (which is now published without its old subtitle, "Or, how we got along after the bomb"). It's well worth reading, reminds me quite a bit of The Man in the High Castle in its depiction of more or less decent people muddling along in a horrible historical period. Has requisite PKD surrealities (evolved animals, psychic powers) that make the book less believable, but make for some of the best writing in the book. What's surprising is how hopeful and optimistic it is. It's about rebuilding, and not about rebuilding just to blow ourselves up again.
posted by barjo at 11:06 AM on January 9, 2007

My favorite site for general post-apoc fiction is still Empty World.
posted by jiawen at 11:22 AM on January 9, 2007

I've already mentioned Warday and Testament in the thread from the other week, so I'll just point out the ultimate end-of-the-world scenario: In one episode of Cosmos where Carl Sagan explains about the life and death of stars, there's a sequence where he talks about what'll happen when all the Sun's hydrogen has finished fusing into helium: "Five billion years from now, there will be a last perfect day on Earth."
posted by pax digita at 11:43 AM on January 9, 2007

I think the attraction is that end-of-the-world setting focuses our attention on what we thinks is really important in life - love, social relationships, etc. and also establishes a Great Objective for the survivors concentrate their efforts, whether it's rebuilding or simply surviving.

The reality of course, is that you'd never know. If only a small group survive, what is the outcome if they are mostly schizophrenics, or sociopaths, or simply lazy people?
posted by Pastabagel at 11:43 AM on January 9, 2007

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:58 AM on January 9, 2007

You all must be very young. Soon, you'll understand that your own personal apocalypse is approaching -- the personal death that will obliterate the world (as far as you're concerned) more completely than any all-out nuclear conflict, pandemic, or cosmic catastrophe. You, who are the center of your universe, will be just as dead if you die in your sleep in your own bed, as you will be if you die in planet wide conflagration. Don't worry about the fate of the world, worry about the fate of your soul.
posted by Faze at 12:04 PM on January 9, 2007

That was the way my night ended, too, DevilsAdvocate.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:05 PM on January 9, 2007

A Canticle for Leibowitz is my favorite, although I'm also enchanted by Sean McMullen's post apocalyptic Australia. This post is great, felix. Also, now I can worry about my soul too for double bonus extra goodness.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:46 PM on January 9, 2007

Amen for Canticle for Leibowitz. I just read it this fall after hearing about it for many years. It's strange for the same reason Faze dissagrees with: you, the reader, take the form of humanity. As monks live and die, as people thrive and murder and dispair, you identify with the greater humanity. In part, it's an apocolypse because it isn't personal; the world they live in does not revolve around themselves. They lay in wait, and beacuse of it, it evokes a strong sense of humanity and dispair.

Another book that has like effects but different means to do it is On The Beach.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 1:21 PM on January 9, 2007

I really loved On the Beach. Oh, and that form link nuked my firefox, beware.
posted by moonbird at 5:13 PM on January 9, 2007

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

- Robert Frost
posted by vronsky at 6:21 PM on January 9, 2007

it's been good times lately for post-apocalyptic fiction :P

i think the road, children of men (and little children :) and apocalypso (a nice companion to the new world, i think) are all worthy entries into the canon!

maybe until the end of the world and weekend too? altho they're not american...

oh and i was just thinking that an inconvenient truth might classify as pre-apocalyptic, if that can be considered a genre!
posted by kliuless at 9:17 PM on January 9, 2007

availablelight: I didn't realise but there's a Threads inspired thread here. The FPP includes a link to the film on Google Video. Popcorn with a bitter aftertaste required.
posted by vbfg at 11:48 PM on January 9, 2007

btw, it's worth pointing out that pretty much every British schoolkid of my generation (I'm 33) would have watched this at school. I think I would have been about 13 when I first saw it.
posted by vbfg at 11:50 PM on January 9, 2007

Atomic Bombardment of New York (and the aftermath) — art by Chesley Bonestell.
posted by cenoxo at 2:54 PM on January 10, 2007