Post #18 - The End of the World as we know it

Being the odd child that I am, one of my favorite genres in literature and media is those that deal with apocalyptic events and/or post-apocalyptic scenarios. Over the years, I have come across several great works of these types, and i still cannot get over how interesting they are. I mean, there are endless possibilities when it comes to this scenario, who better than a writer or director to explore them all? They bring about a whole new chapter in human history (or future if you will). Media of this type is hugely popular, from 2012 to The Day after tomorrow. I've experienced so many of these and am going to share my few favs with you all. how about I start with some of the books I've read....

Man, this sounds like I'm writing an essay, doesn't it? Haha, oh well. I'll try to have fun with this while keeping you all interested (but if you don't want to put up with me talking about books for the next few paragraphs, you should scroll down. If it helps, just look at the pictures).

One of my all time favorite books that I have read in this genre is "Earth Abides," by George R. Stewart. The story follows the life of a boy named Isherwood (Ish) Williams. At the beginning of the story, Ish is living in a mountain cabin in California, doing research for his graduate studies, isolated from the rest of civilization. At one point, he gets bitten by a rattlesnake and is forced to remain in bed until he can recover. While in bed, Ish gets horribly ill, and fears that he is coming down with something on top of the rattlesnake poison within him. When he returns to health, he travels back to society to discover that everyone has been killed by a deadly disease that has decimated the world's population.

Ish travels across the country, searching for survivors of this terrible plague. While traveling to New York city and back, he comes across and adopts a dog that he names Princess. He meets up with several survivors that are attempting to live off the food and trash left behind in the city. As he travels, Ish realizes that staying in the city would mean certain death, as there would soon be little to no food to live off of. Realizing this, he returns to California where he meets Em, a strong woman who he falls in love with and marries.

Once he meets Em, a new section of the book begins entitled "the quick years" and describes in a few pages the next 21 years of their life, how several other survivors joined their new "colony" and how their numbers began to grow rapidly with the large numbers of children being born. At one point, Ish remarks how "each child pushes the darkness back a little further", referring to the expansion of his now tiny world. After this brief section, the middle portion of the book describes the "year 22," and all the eventful things that happen during that period of time (i will not reveal that here, you'll have to buy the book yourself, the link is given). this is then followed by another interlude entitled "the quick years."  This section marks an undetermined number of years as the colony moves forward in its life. After this, a third and final section marks the conclusion of the book, with an ending that I, myself found satisfying, yet wanting more.

There are several main topics that Stewart inserts into the story, one of these is the resulting return to nature, and how that will affect the world around them. The characters in the novel are forced to endure plagues of ants, and rats. buffalo and lions (i believe it was lions, although I cannot recall, sorry), as the natural words struggles to return itself to the way things were had humanity not existed on Earth.

The second topic that Stewart covers its the loss of technology and literature. Several times in the story, Ish remarks how much knowledge will be lost, and attempts to teach the children in the colony as much as possible. However, the children are reluctant to learn, having never experienced "school" as we know it. Ish fears that the colony will not be able to survive once the things left behind by the "Old Americans" as they are called, are gone. He fears that without guns and bullets, they will not be able to catch game, or without their supply of running water from the dam, that they will not be able to get enough water. However, as the years pass, the subsequent generations learn what they need to survive through Ish's careful guidance. As Ish was attempting to get the children to learn for school, he realized that they would not because it wasn't fun, so instead he tried to make the important things they needed to learn into games and fun activities. so, in an attempt to save his colony, he build the children some bows and arrows ( he "reinvented" them) and gave them to the children to play with. Later, the children took these bows, and adapted them to suit their less childish needs as the guns that they were using began to fail because of rust.


A third topic that Stewart covers is a reintroduction into myth and superstition into this new colony that does not understand the world around them. A child is confused by a coin with a winged lady on it (or something, I cannot remember) and asked Ish if that was what the "Old Americans" were like. The new generations believed the "Old Americans" to be almost Godlike, having built the impressive, yet imposing structures that the new generations know nothing about. Imagine living in a primitive world, but having a structure like the golden gate bridge looming out of the fog. what would you think? Ish also carries a hammer around with him, he's had it since page one of the book when he got bit by the rattlesnake, and it has never left his side since. The rest of the tribe sees Ish as their leader, and when Ish gets old, and asks one of the children to bring his hammer that was resting against the wall, the child refuses to touch it. Ish then realizes that the children have become very superstitious about this hammer, treating it as a symbol of power, and authority. in another time, Ish notices how one of his great-grandchildren explains to him how when building arrows, they fabricate the heads, out of coins. However, they only use "the red ones" for one type of animal, and the "white ones" for another.this lack of understanding about the world is very interesting, and could be where some of our very own superstitions come from.


all in all, i thought this an amazing book, and I will come back to it later, I promise.

So, for those of you that are bored with books, I am now going to talk about a T.V show (Yay!!!!). This show is called Survivors and it airs on BBC America. It takes place in Britain, and follows the story of a couple survivors of a massive plague that killed 99.9% of humanity. It's similar to Earth Abides, I know, but it's different enough and presented in a different media that it's enough to get me hooked.

The main character (and my favorite) goes by the name of Abby Grant. While the plague was happening, Abby's son was away at camp and Abby was left at home with her struggling marriage. Abby got sick with the virus and somehow managed to survive (the only one who did, sorry if that reveals too much, but it had to bed done). Once Abby recovers, she begins to search for her son Peter, because she believes he might still be alive because she survived. Throughout all of season one (in which there are only episodes :( so sad ) she is searching for Peter frantically, searching every possible lead she finds on his whereabouts, not giving up when they lead to deal ends.

Joining Abby as part of the cast is Tom Price, an ex-convict who we know little about; Dr. Anya Raczynski, a doctor that ran into Tom when he got in trouble and helped him out; Greg Preston, a solitary man that wants to go his own way; Al Sadiq and Najid Hanif, a playboy and child forced together after the plague. Each of these characters have their own backgrounds that make them unique, Anya attempts to keep her being a doctor a secret because she was devastated by the fact that she couldn't save anyone from the plague. Greg doesn't want anything to do with them and wants to start a farm on his own, Tom is constantly confronted about his past, Najid is an indian child who lost his whole family. Al, the son of a wealthy father, had been living the good life, and is finding it difficult to adjust to this new world. Abby persuades them all to stick together by telling them that they will be able to survive easier on their own. the speech she gives is really powerful, and brings out the motherly nature she holds for everyone she knows.

I believe one of the major themes this show is teaching us is "are people basically good or evil." In this new world, the survivors have to decide between what is now right and what is now wrong. Am I allowed to shoot someone if they try to steal my food? What are the new rules in this strange world? Tom is always quick to raise a gun to anyone who threatens Anya or the rest of his group. Is he doing what's right, or taking advantage of people? In a time like this, all the rules we currently possess change. what was wrong before might be right now, and vice versa.


through all media of this Genre, it is interesting to read about how the next generation is effected by whatever disaster befell mankind. One such example of this is the novel "flood," by Stephen Baxter.This novel depicts a world that is slowly flooding due to oceans under the crust breaking open, flooding the whole planet over a span of 65 years. near the end of the novel, when some of the main characters are on rafts, (I'm sorry, but I do not have the book and cannot quote it properly) the children are described to be diving down to depths and for lengths that were previously thought impossible to be done without aid. With no knowledge of the "old world," this new generation finds themselves in a world that for them has always been like this. Then have no feelings of loss at all. They have no memory of a New York City, trees, or insects. I think it's amazing how authors depict how the newest generation adapts to their world. It's truly inspirational, even if it's not real.


Well, that's about it. I hope you enjoyed my spiel, sorry it took so long. Next time i'll inform you of what I've been up too. Promise.


See you all soon,
dan

Post #5 - A Clockwork Orange

Yo! Yo! Yo!
I'm so happy my Bio exam is over. I studied a lot. First at Gordon's w/ Moe (see previous post), then I went home and studied with Dave and Alex from acoss the hall. Moe and I went to the bio exam after first studying in the cafe right before. We had a good review and I think we leaned a lot.
After the exam, which went pretty well, of course. I went home and watched Glee and Fast Forward. They were really good. I love both the shows. They're amazing, I love both of them like I do Fringe.
So after the t.V shows, Carol came over and we had lunch. It was still really cold out, but at least the snow had stopped. Carol and I chit-chatted for about 20 minutes. I had a wrap and she had a turkey sandwich on toased bread, which she claimed "totally changed the flavor of the sandwhich." That's a quote, you can ask her. After lunch, we raced eachother back to the dorm and everything. Carol beat me the first time, but I beat her the second. We've proven multiple times that the elevator is a lot slower than taking the stairs.
So now, we're watching a Clockwork Orange right now. I started the book a while ago but never got quite into it.
the movie is a bit weird. these kids just beat this old man, then we almost watched a rape scene, but those kids came in again and beat up the rapists (the almost rapists.) It was graphic. I couldn't watch.
Now they're driving in a car really fast. The effects are so bad, you can tell its fake.
Well, I'm getting really excited for the party tomight. john, one of the room mates wants me to do a job for him, and that way I dont have to pay. Back to the movie. They just invaded these people's house. They have these really cool pod chair things. They're beating up another old man and taped his wife's mouth shut. His wife is really young. She must be a trophy wife or something. oops. another rape thing. Why am I watching this? its really weird. The guy is singing "singing in the rain" while cutting up the wife's clothing and wearing a pinocchio's nose.
All these rich folks are drinking milk. and now this woman is singing "ode to joy" by someone. She has this Lady GaGa look about her b/c of her crazy eye make up.
Sorry this post is so random, but i'm having a lot of fun.
Lol, now the guy is at his house. He collects watches (or steals them) and has a snake in a drawer under his desk.
AHHHH! Explosions, cave men with rocks falling on them, and vampires just flashed across the screen. it was totally random. His mother has a purple afro, yellow high socks and red pumps. Well, it's not quite an afro, but I'd definetly say its purple. Bright purple. Yuck. That's something you dont see every day. Or any day for that matter.
the kid's name is Alex. He says 'brother' a lot, i think he's Australian. I think this is where I stopped reading, because I thought it was so weird. Indeed, it is very wierd. Wow. there's a lot of sex symbolism in this movie. There's these two girls licking lollypops. need I say more?
now there having sex. Three of them. In fast forward. It was really wierd. They kept taking their clothes off and putting them back on over and over. It was really wierd. And the music. OMG. The music, it was the song that's kind of a racing song or something. All I think about is a horse race when I hear it. You'll know it if you heard it.

so much for doing my Chem, homework. I'm not really sure if i have any. I was going to check....
Back to the movie:

One of the guys is wearing lipstick, or so Carol says. I can't tell, sorry. They're all wearing white. I should have mentioned that before. So, they were walking down by this lake (in slow motion) and Alex randomly takes out his walking stick and wacks one of his friends in the nuts. Random. He fell into the lake and then Alex cut his wrist. don't worry, they're all friends again.  Now this lady has like 30 cats. She does yoga on the middle of her floor. Ooh. she didn't fall for their trap like the other family did. The ones with the cool chairs. They pretended to be in trouble so they could get into their house.
This lady didn't fall for it, but they're going to climb in a window or something. She has sex pictures all over her house. See? told you. they came in throught the window. He's wearing that ugly nose again. she's attacking him with a composer statue (bach) and he's defending himself with this penis statue. Its weird. But there's some intense mucic. oop, the police are coming. He ran out of the house, but his friends hit him with a milk bottle. He got caught.
"this is the end of the line for me" one of the police men said (he was in another scene, it was wierd). That guy just spit on Alex. Yuck. On his face, who does that?
I think he's going to prison, but he's all dressed up is business attire. 14 years in prison. he killed that yoga lady with the penis statue he was holding. Alex's tie is too short. It looks like there in "a stockroom." Carol said that. I agree, there's boxes, shoe boxes all over the place. I love quoting people, sorry Carol. If you had a book, I would site you. don't worry. I don't plagarize.
He's in jail now, but there's a bunch of inmates, it looks like their in church. LOL. They're singing church music now. It's pretty bad. Now Alex is imagining about Jesus. Now Alex wants this treatment that claims to get him out of prison in no time at all and will be able to make them never got back or something. I dont trust Alex.... he claims to want to be good.
Ooh, there playing pomp and circumstance right now. Ahhhh.... the memories. I don''t think anyone's graduating though. Its just background music. There's this guy, he was stepping to the music, even though there shouldn't have been any music for him to hear. Hmmm....
Oh, he just got accepted into the program. He's standing on a white line on front of a desk. He can't cross it, he has to lean really far forward to sign this paper, it was kind of funny. Pomp and circumstance again. lol. Tht was durin g a scene where they signed paperwork and ripped forms in half. Random.
He's in the hospital now and is getting a needle in the butt. I'm so happy there was no nudity in this scene.
WHAT? They just strapped him to a chair (in a straight jacket) and strapped these things to his eyes so he couldn't close them and placed him in a movie theater. There's these electrodes all over his head. Um... watching a beating scene, then a rape one, he's feeling sick, and so am I. sorry Carol. LOL. oop, the screen just blacked out, oop. Screen saver. lol. They drugged him or something. They're drugging him so that he doesn't want to do bad things anymore. They'll make him feel sick and terrified. uh... they're showing old war clips now w/ wierd music. Carol would discribe this music as "curcus like? Carousel like? Opera like?" She doesn't know. And neither do I.
I''m glad that scene is over.

Oop, I think he's done the program. Let's see if he's changed....
yes. i think they did change him. They brought in this guy to make fun of him and beat him up, and he felt sick and didn't fight back. now he's licking the guys boot. He's a wus now, this is really sad. They didn't make him a better person, they just made him not want to fight. uh oh. naked girl. she's very hot. Weird though, no fro like all the others. Everyone is staring. He tried to grab her, but he cant seem to, its like he's going to be sick again....

Carol says this movie is like a prono. I have to agree with her...my first porno... awkward.
He's out of the treatment centeer and is back at home. His mother has a yellow fro now. Weird. Again. With Lady GaGa eyeshadow. He just tried to hit this guy who is living in his bedroom b/c his parents rented it out, but he couldn't and he started burping/dry heaving. lol.
Carol and I are going to have to look in wikipedia to see what's happening when the movie is over. i have no clue what's going on.
His mother just pulled tissues out of the middle of the couch. he just left his house for some reason and is now walking by a river and sees a bridge.....will he jump? zooming in on the water randomly....now the guy he beat up in the first scene has come back and acked him for something. i can't understand him or anything, but alex gave the guy what he wanted. No the guy reconises Alex. "Holy mother of God." He yelled at Alex. Now a buncho old hobos are beating him up, and he's not doing anything about it. But these policemen saved him....and they're his old friends! Fancy that. They arrested him or something, and now they're taking him somewhere in the woods. there's a lot of 'brother this' and 'brother that' going on. Ouch, they just beat him with a police bat. They submerged his head in a random metal bathtub in the woods and are beating the tub with the rod, making weird noises. He was under the water for far too long, they even didn't change scenes. but he's ok, of course. The police men left...
Scene change: enter random thunderstorm.
The first old guy is back, typing on his typewriter again. There's no pod chair in the house anymore, only someone wearing little to nothing and lifting weights. Bummer, i liked that chair.
told you this was a wierd movie. Oh, the old man is in a wheelchair now. will the old guy reconise Alex? Yes, but only because he was in the papers because of this treatment, not because of when he came in with his friends before and raped his trophy wife. LOL, old guy is suckin ghis thumb now. He has a new tpyewriter though, his old one was huge!!
The old guy is having spasms now.
He old guy just said "try the wine," didn't they say that in porates of the carribean? when the girl (whose name I forget) is on the boat with barbossa and he's feeding her and when he says "and the apple" she freezes, drops her chicken and sais "its poisoned?!" Remember? I do.
oh, we just leaned that the old guys wife died from an STD and that he uses the buff guy to carry him and his wheelchair down the stairs. I don;t understand why he would have stairs if he's in a wheelchair. surely they would install ramps.Oh, these people just came over, there are just enough chairs...
He can't listen to beightoven's ninth symphony anymore because of the treatment. I don't know why. ...He just passed out. it was a plot! The old man did something and now they're playing the ninth. He's burping and dry heaving again. The old man is smiling and being creepy. his eyes are rolling back into his head.
Alex just jumped out the window and killed himself.
Never mind.
he's in an almost full body cast; he didn't die. He's in the hospital and there's his bed and another bed beside him covered by a curtain. suddenly, the curtain flies open and the nurse runs out with her top off, the doctor behind her. i wonder what they were doing...
his mother has a purple fro again. His parents are apologising to him now. his new doctor has blue hair. Nope, it's purple. Sorry.
I seriously think that if i ever reread this, I'm going to think I was hi (high) while writing this. it's soooo weird.
Seven minutes left. not much is happening, I'm going to finish soon. Margaret wants to read this. Hi Marg!
all in all, it was a good movie. I wouldn't watch it again. I bet if you were drunk, it would make total sence or somethinng. Oh well, that's it for now.

i'll write more soon
dan

Mood: Weird -  this is the weirdest movie I've ever seen.
Location: Carl's pad - It's sweet. Pretty chill.
Thoughts: none - i've lost all powers of observation after watching this movie.