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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Beginning of the End

As anyone in the local area knows, it's been an unusually mild and warm year so far. In contrast with last year, we hardly had a winter this year at all, getting off easy with barely three snowstorms. Even the just-above-freezing temperatures ended abruptly last week, and it's been progressively more pleasant and green since then. Today is just the first day of spring, and it's currently 85 degrees outside. Now, this could mean a few things. Maybe it's just Midwest weather up to its old tricks again. Maybe fate is smiling upon us and giving us a lovely, sunny year full of beach volleyball and short shorts. Maybe we're starting to feel that climate change. Or maybe, just maybe, it's 2012 and the world is about to come to a fiery end and we're just sitting in a proverbial simmering pot waiting to boil alive.

This is the notion I'd like to entertain today.

Now, I know that sounds scary. Living in a post-apocalyptic world isn't something many of us have given a lot of thought to beyond storing a few bottles of water and some Twinkies in the garage “just in case.” But fear not! Even if you haven't got your running-from-zombie boots stashed under the bed for a quick getaway, just think of this as the beginning of a wonderful new world of possibilities. Once we're past the whole society-falling-apart thing, anything could happen! And, if we want a little peek into just a few of the possibilities, we need look no further than the 3rd floor of the library. We've got you covered.

Fiction
The Stand by Stephan King
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
World War Z, an Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Blood Red Road by Moira Young
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Ashes of the Earth, a Mystery of Post-Apocalyptic America by Eliot Pattinson
And of course, the overwhelmingly popular Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins!

Movies
The Road
The Book of Eli
9
28 Days Later
Children of Men
I Am Legend

And of course, there are many, many more out there. What do you picture when you think of the end of the world as we know it?

6 comments:

Joel said...

The Cubs winning the World Series again is usually involved when I imagine the end of the world. Other than that, a few movies come to mind that do involve zombies (of course, what doesn't now?), but that aren't any less awesome because of it: George Romero's Living Dead film series and Zombieland.

Tom said...

There is also the Walking Dead and 28 days later comic series.

Anonymous said...

On The Beach with Gregory Peck is a good movie about the end of the world. It is kind of depressing, so do not watch it if you are depressed.

Unknown said...

In another vein, the Fallout series of video games are very enjoyable.

Linda K. said...

I love these kind of books and movies. At our house we faithfully watch Independence Day every July 4th, and of course The Day After Tomorrow, Impact, and the Godzilla/King Kong movies - poor Tokyo, it gets demolished almost as often as NYC! Bookwise just about anything with impending doom, such as books by Stephen King - is a "fun" read for me.

Roberta said...

The Last Man graphic novels by Brian K. Vaughan are a great series too and have interesting things to say about gender and sex in a world with only a handful of males.Funny AND scary!

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