essay apo-fiction 1051180

7/31/2019 Essay Apo-Fiction 1051180

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Gert van Driel

1051180

Dr. Evert Jan van Leeuwen

Imagining the End: the Anglo-American Apocalyptic Imagination

18 March 2012

Apocalyptic Fiction: Divine Inspiration and Humanist Interpretation

perspectives on The Book of Revelations, The Road, The Drowned World and On The Beach

The last thirty to forty years have seen a growing concern for natural disasters and the

changing ecology of the world, or, until recently, the total annihilation of the living world as a

result of a nuclear war. The interest in prophecies or stories about the end of the world has

increased significantly, and with it the use of apocalyptic language in Anglo-American culture

and literature.

The main purpose of this paper is to explore intertextuality in Apocalyptic Fiction and its

origins, in which a human-centric shift of literary perspectives is taken into consideration.

This shift might be described as a movement from a Theocentric Apocalyptic tradition to

possible end-of-the-world scenarios brought about by more mundane or scientific principles

of cause and effect. This does not entail that the interest in The Ending has disappeared over

the last centuries. On the contrary, but the actual moment of blood and anguish has more or

less moved to the background. Furthermore, images and situations portrayed in stories about

the End of Days show an outcome quite different from the way Christianity predicts it, which

may be because its authors developed their plots as a contemporary reflection on the world

around them, dealing with issues such as climate change, the Cold War, weapons of mass

destruction or overpopulation. Furthermore, the original sins are still there, but now from a

more humanist perspective.

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To establish the extend of this research paper including the before-mentioned sociological

shift and examples of intertextuality, the essay discusses and refers to three novels: On The

Beach, The Drowned Worldand The Road. The motivation for the choice of these books lies

in the exploration of three stages in human psychology between the apocalyptic event and the

actual end (of humanity) itself. Respectively, these stages can be described as denial,

adaptation to new circumstances, and acceptance of the situation of being one of the last

humans alive. The research into these stages coalesce with the evidence found in the novels

referring to recognisable signs and themes ofThe Revelations of St. John from the King James

Version of the Bible.

The end-of-the-world themes in Anglo-American fiction and cinema are strongly linked to

symbols and metaphors derived from Western Christian ecclesiastical canons and traditions.

Whether they include the search for a New Eden, the arrival of intelligent beings from another

planet, or the dead rising from the grave, and, most significant of all, the end of time, they are

all firmly rooted in this Judeo-Christian legacy. Most contemporary authors of apocalyptic

fiction, whether they are aware of this or not, use much older plot lines or images that are far

more ancient than modern science or sociology could predict or describe. In 2011, the King

James Bible turned 400-years old, which still means four centuries of influence on English

literature. The distinguished images and symbolism affected writers and artists since their

arrival. Its allusions crop up in many works of art, from DantesDivine Comedy to movies

such as The Book of Eli. Inspiring both literary and pop culture, it is still producing imagesthat are displayed in contemporary art, such as music album covers or modern art

galleries.George Bernard Shaw described it as [a] curious record of the visions of a drugaddict (Kirsh 7), while in D.H. Lawrence praised it[...] for giving us hints of the

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magnificent cosmos and putting us into momentary contact (79) in his last bookApocalypse

and the Writings on Revelation.

The Book of Revelations could be interpreted as a series of collected visions, predicting the

end of time, experienced by the author through, as George Bernard Shaw put it, a state of

trance. The book includes descriptions of cataclysmic events the world will fall victim to,

including the return of the Messiah and a final battle between good and evil, called

Armageddon. Even thoughRevelations is a collection of supernatural imagery and

symbolism, the prophecies can be interpreted and read into many traumatic events in all of

history. On its own account, the Book is a collection produced in a time of human

enlightenment, but also confusion, mixed with an ancient tradition of Jewish apocalyptic

literature. Evidence of this ancient tradition can be found in the texts of the Old Testament.

These texts contain many apocalyptic parts as can be found in the Books of Zechariah,

Ezekiel or Daniel. A few scrolls, the Apocryphal books, were never even officially included in

the Bible. They were written in the time of the Jewish Revolt against the Roman occupation

in 70 AD. The scrolls contain parts of this Jewish-Christian apocalyptic tradition as well.

Despite these other prophetic texts,Revelations is considered to be the most important of all

apocalyptic books, but the origins of the book are veiled in mystery. Bible scholars are still in

doubt whether the author was John of Patmos or John the Apostle, raising the question

whether the visions therein are connected to Jesus Christ or an allegorical interpretation of the

disputes between Christians and Romans circa 100 AD, making it an historical allegory of

political and religious events. Jonathan Kirsh, inA History of the End of the World, explains:

For pious Jews and patriotic Jews alike, then, the apocalyptic writings were the literature of

resistance[...] (44). Also, Kirsh urges the reader to understand, that Revelations, as if

representing a demonstration of strength from the persecuted Christian religion, describes

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how the Christian God would outact the ancient Roman gods, when it came to spiritual

revenge and eternal retribution.

An interpretation of a historic event of that period finds an example in the destruction of the

Second Temple of Jerusalem by the Roman army, causing a massive uprising among the Jews,

and was consequently turned into a apocalyptic sign. These kinds of signs are the common

features of interpreted forebodings of The End, or the onset of a set of cataclysmic events

predicted by the traditional Jewish prophets and early-Christian mediums. Contemporary

authors tap into the same well of images and symbols to describe traumatic events and

apocalyptic sentiments. By doing so, the inspired motivation and intentions of their writings

might not be all that different from writers of the ancient scriptures and prophecies.

Despite the similarities, the description of the (post-)apocalyptic world inRevelations is not

entirely specific in terms of setting and characterisation, as opposed to contemporary novels

and their portrayal of a dystopian future.Revelations does not describe its scenery in great

detail, as everything is told through symbolism, which is open to interpretation. Nor does its

characters become identifiable, because a main character is absent due to the nature of the

narrative. Despite this, Johns vision of the final battle between Good and Evil gives a

monstrous account of the annihilation of everyone and everything, a destructive combination

of incidents out of which only the chosen few will survive and be welcomed into the New

Jerusalem.Nevertheless, the lack of specifics is made good with detailed descriptions ofsymbols and exact numbers. For example, the number of survivors of the final holocaust is

predicted to be 144,000 people. This may have seemed much in the sparsely populated

Biblical times, but compared to todays population, which is estimated to be around 7billion,it is like a drop in the ocean of the worlds population.

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Revelations also specifies the measure of horror that will become us and including the degree

of suffering. Despite all this, heart of the matter is thatRevelations is an allegory about

spiritual revenge and eternal retribution. By what means this revenge and retribution is

obtained, is interpreted by Hal Lindsey in There's a New World Coming, in which he has

made an inventory of all abominations and symbols fromRevelations. His book creates an

understanding of all of it. Most notable of all the images, with respect to this research essay,

are disasters like the earthquake which will rearrange the landmasses of the earth and will

block out the sun for ages. He also focuses on the objects falling from the sky. For example, a

star named Wormwood, which poisons all the waters of the earth. In discussing On The Beach

or The Road, a reference could be made to this example. Other images that might be

significant are the Four Horsemen in regard to war, famine and death, or the Destruction of

Babylon, relating to the destruction of the superpowers or other nations of the world.

Novels of the related genre depict the arduous ordeals of people trying to survive their hostile

world. These people often try to reclaim their humanity after cataclysmic events such as a

nuclear war, a global pandemic, an asteroid attack or a natural disaster.The reader isengrossed into a story where things were all right at first; then a disaster happens, either

caused by human misconduct or an outside disaster. Consequently, the disaster leads to a

general condition of dehumanised life, violence and death. InRevelations, to a certain extent,

these incidents and occurrences are described as well.

One of the reasons for its enduring appeal is that John establishes that a object falling from

the sky diseases, earthquakes or floods might cause the end of the world might. The dualism

of his vision is not simply about Good versus Evil, but about how the fragile balance of life

on earth can be disrupted. John has been right on the money for two thousand years, asadvances in scientific knowledge have corroborated the possibility (even eventuality) of his

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various scenarios rather than debunking them.Apocalyptic writers who followed the trail heblazed have also been able to bask in the glow of his prescience, especially after August 1945,

when the atomic bomb gave Wormwood a tangible form. The difference with the events of

Revelations lie in the ordeals and tests that signify forlorn torments or spiritual battles, after

which all will be well again for the faithful few: no stories of hardship and survival after the

apocalypse, but heaven on earth.

Concluding that The Book of Revelations is a collection of symbolic visions describing a

future predicted with a religious purpose and through divine inspiration, post-apocalyptic

contemporary narratives describe a future imagined through the limited understanding of

humankind and its natural environment (Wagar xiv). By this - not meaning to play down the

competence of the concerned authors - Wagar describes how, for example, historians are

unable to do research with conclusive results, because the research is based on raw evidence

documented or found in the past. Writing about the future is only constructed on the

foundations of the past and present, and [t]he number of perspectives and variables is too

vast, and our knowledge too imperfect, to make possible anything like scientific prediction of

the future. As Christians believe The Book of Revelations predicts the end of times, and see

the message as a desired future, readers and authors of (post-)apocalyptic fiction are aware of

the posed uncertainty of the future depicted in their novels.

The possibility of a godless world and absence of religion in the future, is particularly evident

when The Roads main character dreams of taking care of his sickly wife, after waking up

alone in the dark, realising there is no other dream nor other waking world and there is no

other tale to tell (McCarthy 32). This quote can be interpreted as a statement on the finiteness

of life on earth. After an apocalyptic event, life could be over and humankind might live their

last moments on this planet. And how religion loses its significance, because [on] this road

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there are no godspoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the

world. Query: How does the never to be differ from what never was? (McCarthy 32).

Religious men are gone, having taken with them the moral or spiritual world, and the present

is the only thing of importance to the people left alive. The past has not given a better future

nor has it taught how to survive the post-apocalyptic world. People who trust upon a better

future as predicted in the past drift on false hopes, as well as the people who still hope to

change the current situation. There is no evidence of a resurrected Messiah or heavenly

kingdom on earth. The world has become such a bleak environment that all hope for salvation

is lost, and all sense of time and perspective has disappeared. The Roads post-apocalyptic

world is in sharp contrast with the outcome of the apocalypse inRevelations.

As The Book of Revelations is a prophetic outline of what Christians believe will happen

during the End of Days, there is one aspect it does not reveal, namely its timing. Plagues,

seven-headed beasts, locusts, and other supernatural creatures are the portrayed images, and it

is filled with ancient mystical references, creating the suggestion that, when properly encoded,

it might unveil its underlying secrets. The word apocalypse finds its origins in a greek word

meaning lifting the veil, but the timing is not unveiled. As Elana Gomel says, What is

particularly striking about the apocalyptic plot is the way it separates time and space by

linking the former to the horror of the Tribulations and the latter to the perfection and

quietude of the millennium (Postmodern SF, 122). This is probably what gives the reader

that familiar sense of urgency, linking both uncertainty and possibility. This provides a

dramatic vehicle for a story of an author of Apocalyptic Fiction using its images or ideas. And

throughout history, people thought that the Apocalypse could happen at any given time, like

first-century Gnostics, who already predicted the imminent arrival of Gods kingdom.

Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this

book (The Revelation to John 22:7).

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Besides timing, there is another characteristic theme in apocalyptic writings, namely that of

purpose or destiny. Since the times of the early Churches, the end of the world has been

attributed to Gods purpose, but there has been a major shift considering this Christian dogma.

In an idiomatic sense, the interpretation of the word Apocalypse was considered to be

referring to a cataclysmic event by Gods doing, which would destroy all humanity, except for

a certain amount of devout Christians. The word was used for the Last Judgement.

Apocalypse gained its modern sense of end times by the forces of nature or God. Its

connotation has shifted to the explanation of a disaster so great that it will probably destroy

most of mankind. It is still the end of the world, maybe not by divine execution, but because

of mankinds own doing or a natural course of events.

These natural events, but also ecological disasters, are not necessarily of an apocalyptic

nature, but form the basis for many stories of mass extinction and devastation on a global

scale. Of course, The Arc of Noah is one the most famous biblical stories, but there are many

flood legends - which it in itself is not a possible disaster predicted inRevelations - from all

over the world. There are many descriptions of the remarkable event. Some of these have

come from Greek historians, some from the Babylonian records; others from the cuneiform

tablets, and still others from the mythology and traditions of different nations (The Story of

the Deluge, 1905). There is also some scientific proof, that in the history of mankind large-

scale floods such as this have taken place. Reports on these events describe that mass

extinction would follow such events, and that life on earth underwent a slow recovery after it.

In The Drowned Worldby J. G. Ballard, extreme solar activity has changed the

electromagnetic field of the planet, causing the layers of the upper atmosphere, protecting us

from the damaging rays of the sun, to vanish and the average temperatures to rise. The novel

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describes what of the present world has survived this event and humans deal with their

permanently changed environment.

The bulk of the city had long since vanished, and only the steel-supported

buildings of the central commercial and financial areas had survived the

encroaching flood waters. The brick houses and single-storey factories of the

suburbs had disappeared completely below the drifting tides of silt. Where these

broke surface giant forests reared up into the burning dull-green sky, smothering

the former wheatfields of temperate Europe and North America. (The Drowned

World19)

The Drowned Worldreaches beyond descriptions of a changed environment and the ruins of

human civilisation. It describes through a semi-scientific approach how humans undergo

physical and mental changes due to the increased heat and radiation, which brings about this

accelerated rate of mutation in animal and vegetable life. It implicitly refers toRevelations

with recognisable themes of rebirth and new beginnings, aided with images of nature taking

over, a garden of Eden (e.a. Greenland as a safe zone), infectious diseases and humans

divided between the enlightened and the degenerate, but also the population of Earth being

reduced to but a few hundred by the rise of the oceans.

A reference toRevelations might be found in the idea that a New Earth is supposed to appear

for humans, when at the start of chapter 21 it proclaims that in his final vision John [...] saw

a new heaven and a new earth. When this Kingdom of God has opened, suitable for only a

chosen few, the mundane and worldly relationships are supposed to have less importance.

However, in Ballards novel it is not a selection based on peoples faith and loyalty to the One

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True God, but a natural selection. People finally retreat into a animalistic state, as their bodies

are overtaken by a cellular devolutionary development and become void of a will to survive.

Ballard goes one step further in imagining a future world with melting icecaps, the heat of the

sun and the flooded cities. Humans are hardly able to survive. No transcendence to higher

form or any stroll down the Kingdom of Heaven is waiting for the remaining people on earth.

Moreover, the development of the planet reverts to its prehistoric conditions, as if time itself

is reversing in a physical regression of the complete planet.

Just as psychoanalysis reconstructs the original traumatic situation in order to

release the repressed material, so we are now being plunged back into the

archaeopsychic past, uncovering the ancient taboos and drives that have been

dormant for epochs. (The Drowned World44)

Plant forms, animals and, most of all, humans and their consciousness show signs of

devolution, as our 'lizard brain' escapes from its subduction to the higher-brain parts and

functions. The term lizard brain is a popular way of describing the innermost part of the

human brain. This lizard brain has been evolving for over millions of years, and is considered

to be similar in power and structure to the total brain capacity of a lizard.

[The] growing isolation and self-containment, exhibited by the other members of the

unit [...] reminded Kerans of the slackening metabolism and biological withdrawal of all

animal forms about to undergo a major metamorphosis. Sometimes he wondered what

zone of transit he himself was entering, sure that his own withdrawal was symptomatic

not of a dormant schizophrenia, but of a careful preparation for a radically new

environment, with its own internal landscape and logic [...] (Ballard14)

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People become more inward-looking, less communicative and lose their social skills all

together. Their obsession is only the heat and the wilderness. Humans slowly begin to emulate

a lizards behaviour, similarly to when it is sunbathing, they embark on a journey south to

warmer regions. Ballards character Kerans heads to the south, which is towards the heat of

the sun, like a lemming driven by a strong biological urge, to throw themselves of the face of

a cliff. In this future there is no evidence of a higher goal of transcendence or delivery by a

divine being, but a retreat into an animalistic state of a long-gone prehistoric past.

Besides devastating ecological events, the obliteration of humankind by our own doing came

in hands reach halfway the 20th century. Of course, people have always felt that the end is

nye, and that some events at hand could be a forewarning of the End Times. In many notable

moments in history, where people might have felt their world was ending, the shift from

destiny to human intervention is evident. Nancy Gibbs wrote an article in Time Magazine,

in which she gives some examples of major upheavals.

Masses of people became convinced the end was nigh when Rome was sacked in

410, when the Black Death wiped out one-third of the population of 14th century

Europe, when the tectonic shudders of the Lisbon earthquake in 1755 caused

church bells to ring as far away as England, and certainly after 1945, when for the

first time human beings harnessed the power to bring about their total destruction,

not an act of God, but an act of mankind. ("Apocalypse Now" 2002)

It might be presumed that the first apocalyptic novel is The Last Man by Mary Shelley, which

was published in 1826. But when World War II had just ended with the destruction of

Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the first use of an atom bomb, it introduced another perspective

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for the apocalyptic novel. For the first time in peoples lives a life-obliterating catastrophe on

a global scale became a plausible scenario, and the push of a button could literally mean the

end of the world. Generations of authors were to grow up with this new oppressive

perspective of the future, which must have influenced criticism and creativity. For example,

nuclear winter, or the threat of it, has provided the backdrop for some great apocalyptic novels

such as Nevil Shutes On The Beach.

The atrocious end of the Second World War also set the stage for a new conflict. The Cold

War began as tensions escalated between the former Second World War allies of the east and

west when the Russians detonated their own nuclear device in 1949. From this year to 1957,

many conflicts could have escalated and threaten world peace and safety. Historically most

significant were the Korean War and the anti-communist sentiments in the United States,

epitomised by the McCarthy trials. Nevil Shute was one of many who believed these conflicts

could lead to a apocalyptic nuclear conflict between the superpower countries of the world.

Of course, as we have the benefit of hindsight, it should be noted that the inaccuracy in

Shute's nuclear proliferation scenario is one of overestimation. By 1962, when the war in the

novel takes place, the USA, UK, USSR and France were the only nations labelled nuclear

power. In contrast, the characters in On the Beach do not blame the major powers for the

start of their nuclear apocalypse, but the "Irresponsibles," the small and unstable countries

such as Albania or Egypt. Today's readers can see self-aggrandising dictators like Bashar

Assad of Syria playing the role of "Irresponsible." The threat of a nuclear war between the

superpowers has abated, but there are still, however, great concerns over nuclear proliferation.

Here, Shute may yet prove to be prophetic.

Considering the represented signs of culture, customs and zeitgeist in On The Beach, makes it

recognisably a Fifties novel. In the story, Melbourne is portrayed as the last living city on the

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planet, while a cloud of radioactive fallout from a recent nuclear war is slowly covering the

rest of the Earth. In Shutes novel, several of the characters are struggling to deal with the

nearing end of human civilisation, sometimes even denying it is nearing at all. Examples of

this can be found in the characters of the wife of an Australian naval officer, still planting

vegetables she knows she will never eat, or the American naval officer, who believes his wife

and child are still alive. Almost all characters have a level of knowledge of what is coming,

but avoid thoughts about the oncoming apocalypse.

Nevertheless, if any writer of the late 20th or early 21st century would have used climate

change as a motive for a similar plot, the development of the story could be fairly similar.

Climate change denial is about all we know of Global Warming, and then pushing that

knowledge out of our day-to-day consciousness in order to be able to get on with our lives as

we are used to. The plot Shutes novel is largely dependent on that same attitude.

According to a press release by the Intergovernmental Panel on climate change in 2007

declared that greenhouse gases are rising rapidly to levels higher than existed in the last

650,000 years and burning fossil fuels is the main cause of it. Even a rise half its size is likely

to turn over the balance of earths climate, resulting in disasters like droughts or coastal cities

flooded by rising sea levels. According to a New York Times article in 2009, [j]ust 51

percent of adults questioned said they believed carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases

would cause the Earth's average temperature to increase (Gronewold and Marshall), proving

evidence of an unconscious urge to turn a blind eye on pollution and the Greenhouse Effect,

even though the press and media serve the public consciousness well by providing enough

information on the subject and its dramatic consequences. Recent and classic movies such as

Dr. Strangeloveor: How I Learned to Worrying and Love the Bomb and The World After

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Tomorrow do not require a considerable stretch of imagination to see the human factor in the

destruction of this planet.

To conclude on this topic, another example can be found immediately after the destruction of

Hamburg during World War II. These traumatic events were also pushed out of the public

consciousness and therefore can be described as a form of mass denial. Sebald describes in

On The Natural History of Destruction the peoples condition as follows:

Instead, and with remarkable speed, social life, that other natural phenomenon,

revived. Peoples ability to forget what they do not want to know, to overlook

what is before their eyes, was seldom put to the test better than in Germany at that

time. The population decided - out of sheer panic at first - to carry on as if nothing

had happened. (Sebald 41)

Surprising as it may seem, there is no evidence of mass hysteria during this horrific moment

of destruction. Instead, a mass denial of a major disaster that must have resembled the [...]

war in the sky (King James, Rev.12:7). Despite all this, the denial of the cause and effects of

traumatic, irreversible and world-changing events could be regarded as means of self-

preservation, as it is a tried and trusted method of preserving what is thought of as healthy

human reason (Sebald 42), which demonstrates that denial could be regarded as a form of

adaption to changed circumstances.

The Book of Revelations leaves enough room for interpretation for any event that has a strong

resemblance to one of the Biblical signs announcing the end of days. The authors of

Apocalyptic Fiction explore these signs and themes in their stories, in doing so utilising the

fear for the End of Times and the identifiable frailty of the human condition under dire

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circumstances. In On The Beach, Nevil Shute explores this side of the human psyche and

demonstrates the human ability to deny the end-time signs in order to be able live ones life to

the utmost, whereas Ballard portrays a form of psychological adaptation in The Drowned

World. Ballards world has already passed the foreboding signs and the moment of change.

Hardly any denial of the change is possible. What is possible, is for the human mind to adapt

itself to the new environment, and have its consciousness switch to another mode more

suitable to the new living conditions.

A central theme, certainly for Ballard, is how the human consciousness adapts to an ever-

changing world. Six years before Ballard wrote The Drowned World, he became convinced,

after being inspired considerably by one of the first pop-art exhibitions ever, that writing

science fiction was far closer to reality (Ballard,Miracles of Life 189) than the modernist or

realist novel. This Is Tomorrow, as the pop-art exhibition was called, made him realise that

science fiction was a visionary engine that created a new future with every revolution [...]

propelled by an exotic literary fuel as rich and dangerous as anything that drove the

surrealists (189). Psychological space, what I termed inner space, was where science

fiction should be heading (192). By saying so, probably unveiling his quest for a

psychological or scientific truth, rather than a religious veracity in his writing.

This psychological and scientific interest is more evident in his later published work The

Atrocity Exhibition (1970), a collection of short texts that deal with the impact surroundings

have on the human psyche.The narrative in all texts follows a man obsessed with the

unconscious effects of urban culture, technology and contemporary events such as the landing

on the moon and the Vietnam war. Ballard seems mainly interested in portraying the main

character as he embraces these events, and the related struggle between his hallucinations and

reason.A similar struggle takes place in The Drowned World, but on a more psycho-biological

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level. In both novels Ballard seems to be making a point of omitting religious provenance and

references.Only a limited mix of Biblical metaphors might sometimes be recognised, such as

the creation of a new world and, as a result, a stereotype of Adam and Eve.Evolutionary

metaphors are more evident in the presence of diversity of reptiles and an image of a

primordial ocean.Using this setting, Ballard explores human nature more from an

evolutionary perspective, rather than a religious prospect.Nevertheless, by continually using

the before-mentioned symbols and images, the reader experiences a kind of oppressiveness

and tediousness. This is due to the fact that Ballard sets his characters off on a journey that is

not only the embracing of life but also the experience of an innate desire for a scorching death

beyond which there can be no future and salvation. The Homo Sapiens might not be the race

or species that will find its heaven on earth inthis drowned world.

The world ofThe Roadexists beyond the point of prophesies, changing environments or

exploring developments in the human psyche. The Roadportrays it after its transformation,

therefore the starving grey world in McCarthys novelis one of bleak destiny and desperate

melancholy. McCarthy's main characters have nothing but the instinctual parent-child bond

we share with all other mammals. Everything else has been stripped away. Humankind is once

again thrown back to the basic skills of survival against a barren background, devoid of any

form of culture and nature. At this point in his apocalyptic vision, the writer drops all social

and cultural layers that help develop the human trades, particularly those that separate us from

the animal kingdom.

Of all three examined novels in this essay, The Roadcomes closest to a recognisable setting in

Revelations. Describing an identifiable post-apocalyptic world after all prophesies have come

true, after Armageddon, the moment when [...] there came a great voice out of the temple of

heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done (King James,Rev. 16:17).Revelations also

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portrays a time when the world is void of anything recognisable. Where it once was a green

and fertile earth full of landmarks, animals, plants and humans, now glutinous, grey ash

immerses the landscape and the air. Grocery stores have been emptied; most houses have been

abandoned [...] and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee;

and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; And the light of a candle

shall shine no more at all in thee [...] (King James,Rev. 18:22-23).

The environment has changed beyond recognition, as plant life has been annihilated. [T]he

earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there

should be time no longer (King James,Rev. 10:6). There are no fishes are left in the sea and

hardly any land animals walk the earth. Furthermore, as it is consistently cold, there is only

the occasional snow but no rain. The falling snow collects the floating ash in the air and falls

to the earth as smoky flakes.

And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas,

alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason

of her costliness! For in one hour is she made desolate. (King James,Rev. 18:19)

The disaster that has caused this dreary setting is not named, though there are hints of

explosions, depicted inRevelations by [...] thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great

earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so

great (King James,Rev. 16:18). Whatever has been the cause, all cities have been destroyed.

[T]he cities of the nations fell: and [...] there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is

fallen, is fallen, that great city (King James, Rev 14:9-16:8). The United States could be

regarded the great city that has been destroyed here.

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Almost all people in this story are traveling from one place to another, but their direction is

never clear. Whereas the main characters goal is to make it to the south, much the same as in

The Drowned World, but now the goal is not given any apparent motivation. The south might

represent warmth and the sea might be a source of food, but neither warmth nor food are

found when the father and son reach the coast at the end of their journey. The shoreline is just

as cold and barren as the rest of the landscape during their voyage on foot. The environmental

background remains bitterly cold and of an irredeemable emptiness, except for the highways

and the interstates the father and son travel on for most of the time.

Even though the road as a general symbol suggests a possible destination, survival seems to

be the only objective in The Road. The absence of a future manifests itself through all

descriptions of the setting and many conversations. The destruction of everything

recognisable of the contemporary world also extends to plant life and all animals. On many

occasions, the man's figure of speech is alluding to the boy. For example, the boy is unfamiliar

with the phrase "as the crow flies", therefore the boy asks: "Because crows don't have to

follow roads?" (McCarthy 166). Besides obviously lacking a cultural education, the boy

consistently displays ignorance of animal life, suggesting that the disaster wiped out most

living creatures before he was born. The boy clearly lacks the familiarity with living creatures

other than human beings, proving the effect of absence of nature and its effect on cultural

development. The absence of a cultural and natural basis for symbolismdissolves the

relevance for religion to a great extent; therefore, it could therefore be argued that atheists are

the prophets of the new world order described in The Road. As the father in the novel says,

There is no God and we are his prophets (McCarthy 181).

Compared to The Road, the interpretation ofThe Book of Revelation relies heavily on its

symbolism, which is imagery based on fantasy rather than reality. The use of this language

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has always shaped human civilisation, but at a certain point, imagery used for this form

communication might disappear or become incomprehensible. The reason why it will

disappear depends on the authors vision of the post-apocalyptic world, which in his view

could have changed beyond recognition. In The Road, the ways of the world need to be

regarded accordingly. The old-world images are absent in McCarthys future, as a result,

language and symbolism from before the event have lost their relevance. Furthermore, as

McCarthy might have studied research on the aftermath of mutual assured destruction

events, or watched the abundance of Discovery Channel documentaries about radiation

poisoning, social collapse and agricultural devastation, he was able to set the grim

background for his ill-fated survivors on an ominous journey after such the apocalyptic event.

The Roaddescribes a world without any of the post-apocalyptic signs, symbols and

resurrections. It is truly a world after the apocalypse.

In Apocalyptic Fiction, dragons and wrathful angels are clearly absent, but famine and death

are not. Furthermore, hardly any of the signs and themes are directly transferrable from

Revelations. Just the general mood and reference show evidence of an ancient tradition of

stories about the end of the world. A strong humanist overtone is present through exploring

the human psyche, finding evidence in situations that have occurred or might still occur in the

modern history of mankind. Despite this, both modern fiction of the apocalyptic genre and the

ancient texts ofRevelations mount to strong thematic origins, containing descriptions of

surroundings where people need - or refuse - to psychologically adapt and survive in their

changing world. Nevertheless, the indicated origins are not as easily recognised in the ancient

texts ofRevelations as they are in modern fiction. As explained before, the interpretation of

this bookrelies heavily on its images and symbols.

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These symbols are not drawn from contemporary culture and literature, but from the

language, experience, and culture of the ancient world. The objects and symbolism portrayed

in modern Apocalyptic Fiction are derived fromcontemporary events, scientific developmentsand political views. As opposed to the psychological and scientific convictions of the modern

world of the last two centuries,Revelations is based on the Biblical symbols and themes of

the Ancient East 2,000 years ago. Weird multi-headed creatures or fairy-tale dragons, but also

images of lions with wings and human heads. The use of these images was the common ways

of writing of the time. It purposely presents a world that does not exist, except as a means of

communication for the prophets of the ancient world, as it does for modern writers and

readers, and their language and subjects in modern apocalyptic writings.

The question remains, whether apocalyptic fiction is an interpretation of religious tradition

and its apocalyptic plots, or is it an incarnation of apocalyptic visions based on a more recent

world views of science and humanism. To the opinion of one of Ballards narrators

[religions] emerged too early in human evolution-they set up symbols that people took

literally, and they're as dead as a line of totem poles. Religions should have come later, when

the human race begins to near its end' (Ballard, Cocaine Nights 51). Maybe that is the reason,

in The Drowned World, Ballard tries to forward his pseudo-scientific ideas about a possible

fate of the world. He uses the scientific explanations at his own will by joining the two ideas

of the Greenhouse Effect and a form of biological regression. He does show that Kerans and

the rest world are heading for an unavoidable fate through the aforementioned examples from

The Drowned Worldin this essay. Therefore, at the end of the novel, when most plot lines are

tied together, neither science nor technology is the winner in The Drowned World, and an

opening for scientific speculation is given, but even more so for religion.

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While giving his son the last piece of advice on finding the good guys (McCarthy 298) and

being prepared to avoid evil in the world, they have the following conversation:

You have to carry the fire.

I don't know how to.

Yes you do.

Is it real? The fire?

Yes it is.

Where is it? I dont know where it is.

Yes you do. It's inside you. It was always there. I can see it. (McCarthy 298)

Asfire is a common symbol of hope and endurance, it also is a Christian one. In the Bible,

Jesus is described as the light of the world, but it also represents the Holy Spirit. In protecting

the boy, he tries hard to ensure his sons survival, passing the fire to the next generation, and

he is not one who has to worry about everything. His son undermines this remark by saying,

Yes I am, he said. I am the one." (McCarthy 277)Faithfully and with conviction, the man

tries to protect his son. Carrying the fire inside of him perhaps the boy feels somehow

responsible for carrying on the fire his father has given him. Maybe there is a saviour at the

end of the world, strong enough to survive. In any case, the boy is a first generation remainder

of the old world. If the boy is destined to have a purpose in this sense, there is a religious

undertone towards the end of the story.

The suggestion of the boy being a messianic character seems to imply the resilience of

sympathy as a human trait which perhaps could make this world worthwhile after all, maybe

even in a religious sense. Along the road, the boy has a tendency to help the lost and the

weary, making hardly any distinction between their initial intentions, good or bad. Unlike his

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father, who represents the old-world generation, he believes they should be left unharmed and

unpunished; even if it means putting their own survival at risk. The optimistic truth is that

people like the boy have always carried the fire.The present world, however, is not as easily

depicted as the reality ofThe Road.In the modern Western World, the need for killing othersto ensure survival is obviously not the main concern, but maybe the human race needs

guidance and direction to ensure its existence.

Human survival is more likely to be dependent on the way modern science is able to evade an

ecological catharsis of mankind. With impending climatic en ecological changes in todays

world, humankind is already faced with the fragility of its existence. Maybe the human

species is already living on borrowed time, but the people of the world share a collective

responsibility for the impending tragedy that might befall the entire planet. This notion incites

a feeling melancholy and a sense of regret that human species has had its chance. Time is

running out.

"But no wind does blow down right into the Southern Hemisphere from the Northern

Hemisphere. If it did we'd all be dead right now.

I wish we were," she said bitterly. "It's like waiting to be hung."

"Maybe it is. Or maybe it's a period of grace." (Shute 40)

Although On The Beach never clearly refers to religious ideas, at least one character, Moira,

begins to go church. Something she has not done for a very long time. Now she still has some

time left to repent, and use this period of grace. A similar response can be observed in times

of desperation and confusion, when people tend to look for religious or moral guidance. This

guidance is readily accessible through spiritual institutions such as churches or mosques, but

also religious texts or apocalyptic fiction.

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The discussed novels of (post-)apocalyptic fiction all share their inspiration in fear and

confusion, combined with recoverable elements ofRevelations, but also in scientific progress

or contemporary enlightenment. This development of disconfirmation of the apocalypse might

again lead to new stories about the future and The End, but people will always be drawn to

these stories or beliefs, adding them to their waiting game. Desperate times inspire artists and

writers to draw original tales of fantasy and horror. Nevertheless, these stories could all be

regarded as warnings, allegories or prophesies of a possible outcome, if people, governments

or scientists refuse to change their ways. All related texts may also unambiguously be

regarded as symbolic impressions or dissertations of the era they were written in, similar to

The Book of Revelations of St. John the Divine.

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