End of Times
Jan. 20th, 2007 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kokopelleI finished reading the Dean Koonz book "The Taking". The book was a typical Koonz topic compilation of UFOs, God/Lucifer and cleansing/resetting of the earth. At the end of the story only children and caretaking adults were left on earth. Everyone else was taken away to be judged - good or bad - by the UFOs.
Several years ago I read another book that was about a comet's tail passing by the earth. The dead were resurrected into skeleton form. The living fought back, but each that fell become one of the skeletons. Eventually, lead by Abraham Lincoln, the skeletons searched down and killed all living people except for a man and a woman. The comet's tail left the earth and the skeletons collapsed. The earth was left to be repopulated by the survivors. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a reference to this book on the internet.
The thing that these two books had in common is that they were both of a sub-genre of "end of times". The sub-genre deals with the resetting of the world. From the grasp of almost total depopulation comes a restoring of balance/purity. The larger 'end of times' genre is both a fictional and spiritual phenomenon. On the fictional end of the spectrum is the zombie book/film. Man's chemical/medical neglect creates zombies who repopulate the earth. Typically there are no "winning" survivors in these scenarios. Another example is the monster movies about creatures created by man's delving into the nuclear realm. Again, the supremacy of man is endangered by his "creations". On the spiritual side of the spectrum are the American Indian prophecies of the earth's upheaval and cleansing. In these prophecies the few remaining people are left to remake the world.
Let's assume that the books and prophecies connect with a human archetype/thought. The archetype speaks to an understanding that bulk of humankind must be removed from the Earth so a place of harmony/balance can be achieved. Perhaps our sins must be accounted for, the earth is merely "throwing us off" as in the Indian prophecies, or humankinds’s time is simply over.
Here's my question. Is this archetypical thought an acknowledgement that we are to be held to a global accounting in which only a few will remain? Do we embrace these archetypes with a combination of fear and acceptance? Are there other examples of this sub-genre? Your thoughts please!
Several years ago I read another book that was about a comet's tail passing by the earth. The dead were resurrected into skeleton form. The living fought back, but each that fell become one of the skeletons. Eventually, lead by Abraham Lincoln, the skeletons searched down and killed all living people except for a man and a woman. The comet's tail left the earth and the skeletons collapsed. The earth was left to be repopulated by the survivors. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a reference to this book on the internet.
The thing that these two books had in common is that they were both of a sub-genre of "end of times". The sub-genre deals with the resetting of the world. From the grasp of almost total depopulation comes a restoring of balance/purity. The larger 'end of times' genre is both a fictional and spiritual phenomenon. On the fictional end of the spectrum is the zombie book/film. Man's chemical/medical neglect creates zombies who repopulate the earth. Typically there are no "winning" survivors in these scenarios. Another example is the monster movies about creatures created by man's delving into the nuclear realm. Again, the supremacy of man is endangered by his "creations". On the spiritual side of the spectrum are the American Indian prophecies of the earth's upheaval and cleansing. In these prophecies the few remaining people are left to remake the world.
Let's assume that the books and prophecies connect with a human archetype/thought. The archetype speaks to an understanding that bulk of humankind must be removed from the Earth so a place of harmony/balance can be achieved. Perhaps our sins must be accounted for, the earth is merely "throwing us off" as in the Indian prophecies, or humankinds’s time is simply over.
Here's my question. Is this archetypical thought an acknowledgement that we are to be held to a global accounting in which only a few will remain? Do we embrace these archetypes with a combination of fear and acceptance? Are there other examples of this sub-genre? Your thoughts please!
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-22 01:47 pm (UTC)One part religious fanaticism (I have to give one point to the Koran, which at least allows for rivals to submit to Muslim rule--the Bible says that some people just can't be tamed and advocates genocide), desire to crush all those who don't believe...
And one part desire for a prophet or a messiah. Most modern post-apoc fiction is a call for a Jesus or Moses to save the world. Read The Postman, watch Mad Max and its sequels. Hell, The Day the Earth Stood Still could be seen as a religious analogue.
A lot of post-apocalyptic fic is a product of a bewildered time and constitutes a call for someone greater to come and take us all away into a new world of reason, rule, and responsibility.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-22 02:23 pm (UTC)The thing I find both fascinating and disturbing is the number of Americans who fully believe in the Rapture story. This includes our current President. The disturbing thing is that this belief can and does affect both domestic and foreign policy. The really really disturbing thing is the degree that "everyone" turns a blind eye to this reality. It is the religious elephant in the middle of the political room. (he says with a paranoid tone)