Apocalypse Literature

'The Death of Grass' really is worth looking out, as it seems to have been a major influence on stuff like 'Survivors' and 'Threads'. It's really tooth and nail stuff, with people who were civilised quickly falling into roles made necessary by the need to survive. In the 'Death of Grass' the main character becomes ruthless, but justifies that by focusing on the need to protect his family. He accidentaly comes to lead the party, and finds that this requires certain qualities of fear and authority, but is aware that to make sure they survive he must become less than civilized and less than moral, all the time being aware of thise process happening. It deals very well with the quick alteration from civilization to survival of the fittest, and the ways in which individuals react to that. It's a really bleak, black little novel, which is why I put it at the other end of the scale to Wyndham, who seems to suggest that any disaster can be faced off with a scone and a cup of tea. Also, Wyndham comes to a horrid conclusion at the end of 'Day of the Triffids' which seems more promoted by his views than by the reality of the story, that the only way to guarantee the survival of humanity in the face of disaster is have a small coterie of technocratic fascists who act for everyone else.

Yes, the last chapter of I Am Legend is great. I've recently been looking for this kind of book, but it seems to be so out of vogue these days. This book on Amazon has a release date of Oct 2003 but it seems difficult to get hold of. It's called Subtropic and it's by Michael River, the blurb says: The giant ants first sighted in the 50s movie Them! later turn out to have counterparts amoung the termites of the Australian outback... the termites find a home under the streets of London. Thom Furness enlists to fight them. But when the termites are joined by human sympathises, the war takes an unforseen turn...

Also, maybe check out, Their Heads are Anonymous. Alisdair Gentry. It's set in a theme park which is invaded by aliens. The aliens set about rounding everyone up and killing them. It is up to a man in a rabbit suit to try to fight them. It's apocalypse on a small scale.

Forget the fiction. It's happening now. Read Michael Moore's "Dude, Where's My Country?"

Death of Grass sounds good, a bit like Soylent Green. I see they have second hand copies on abebooks.com. In terms of the breakdown of English society, you can't get much more apocalyptic than Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban. It's set in Kent centuries after a nuclear war. The scraps of history that remain have been mangled into myth, and no-one really knows what's going on, least of all Riddley, who is barely more than a child. It's written in a future form of English which looks hard to get into, but after the first few pages you are not only reading it fluently, but starting to think like it too. And that has the effect of sucking you further into the whole nightmare. Bloody brilliant. [%sig%]

I love the apocalyptic motif but I haven't read nearly enough novels on the subject. Julian Barnes wrote a novel (England My England, I Think) which tells not so much of cataclysm but of catastrophic decline - England has become the new Albania - the poorest country in Europe, it's main product cheese and it's railways steam-powered - a depopulated agricultural country living at subsistence level. Has anyone ever read 'The World Jones Made' by Philip Dick? It tells (I think) of a post-apocalyptic messiah figure. And then, of course, there is 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' Ballard is of course a master at this, starting with the Drowned World and on through his tales of a new English Civil War, sleeping sicknesses which beset the population, holiday camps which serve as prisons for the newly unemployed and men who crash their cars on traffic islands, and are never rescued. Compelling and chilling stuff!

The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton. His first and best book?

I don't venture onto the serious forums much as you know, but this thread caught my eye and I can't resist contributing. About 10-12 years ago there was a civil defence exercise conducted in East Anglia and documented in a radio programme on Rad 4, I think. I can't remember what it was called now but it was an eye-opener. The radio people were just observers and recordists, not being allowed to intrude in the proceedings at all. There are command posts all over the country, and have been since the cold war. Senior police officers are in charge of them in the case of Armageddon. They have lists, (that are constantly updated) of those allowed into the command posts which are survival cells. Anybody approaching these posts foraging for food or looking for shelter will be shot without warning. The people on the lists are such as doctors, top civil servants, scientists etc. Everybody else will have to fend for themselves. In the excercise a man (played by a soldier I believe) accompanied by a woman and a child were approaching the post and being monitored, the senior officer in charge gave orders to shoot them if they came within 100yds. I know they weren't 'really' shot but the programme was an authentic construction of what would 'really' happen in the aftermath of a nuclear war. This was stressed at length in the preamble to the programme. This programme was terrifying.

My godfather used to be on a list for one of those bunker thingys... he was a health and safety executive. he retired, and was promptly taken off the list. The bunker in question is now a residential property up for sale for about £50,000...

It's because of things like this that I have no respect for, among others the royal ponces. The top ponce always talks to the nation as though we are a crowd of stupid idiots that are happy to indulge in fore-lock tugging at every oppoprtunity. She has the audacity to refer to us as 'her subjects', well I for one ain't her anything, apart from first in line to get rid of the whole sad lot of them. Our prime ministers, of all persuasions, always tell us they represent 'all of us'! Yeah right, and my dick's a bloater, as we say in Essex. In the event of Armageddon I doubt there is a single person on this site that would qualify for a place in a survival cell. (Oh, maybe Larph will be included so he can organise the entertainment though.) As Spike Milligan would say, Arma geddon out of here.

On a sub-topic, I did start wondering the other day 'in the event of a nuclear war/disaster, do I have any useful skills with which to rebuild society?' - I don't know anything about farming, or breadmaking, or medicine, or carpentry - hardly anybody these days has skills that would actually be useful in that situation. I think actually loads of us on the site would qualify for a spot in a bunker, the more appropriate question is whether we should. The bunker criteria focuses far too much on the need for government and bureacracy and not nearly enough on could someone build a windmill and use it to make flour. Can I recommend Jose Saramago's "Blindness" which speculates about a condition of white blindness that infects everyone who comes into contact with a sufferer. The government throw the first batch into a lunatic asylum and the book is about how they manage and how low human beings can go, yet how their spirit can still be preserved in the most ordinary people. Very unnerving, yet uplifting book. You only need to have a power cut for a couple of hours to realise that terrorists destroying twenty or so power stations (not generally the best guarded targets in the world) would bring the modern world to the brink of collapse.

According to the film 'Threads', survivors able to work would be made to do so in exchange for food (about 1000 calories). Of course if you can't work, you only get 500. So most of us would be pretty much forced by circumstance to become agricultural labourers.

If you like this stuff then there is a great British film called '28 days later'. A virus called rage is let loose on the population by animal rights campaigners and the populace turn on each other. The scenes of deserted London are outstanding. Get to see it if you get a chance.

This should have been on the last entry. I meant to say that I liked the day of the Triffids a lot. I sort of equated the ending in my own head with technology. That is - it will take over the world and be all powerfull - as long as it doesn't get damp...

The John Christopher one sounds interesting - I'll look out for it. There is a book by Richard Matheson called 'I am Legend'. In it, a guy called Robert Neville is the last man alive on Earth. Everyone else has been turned into vampires. The story is about his stuggle, loneliness, despair, and also about how a new society develops based on a vampire culture. Believe it or not it raises issues of what we consider normaility. Matheson also wrote 'The Shrinking Man'. A fine book and a brilliant film too.

Looks like The Death of Grass is out of print. Will have to try library.

Matheson is amazing! Both the books you mention represent some of the best existential apocalypse stories ever. The jewel in the crown of 'I am Legend' is the last chapter, which I sadly can't discuss as it would ruin the book for anyone who hasn't read it, as I'm sure you'll agree Drew. I've had a long standing ambition to write a book similar to 'The Incredible Shrinking Man', where a protagonist finds that the world 'fits' them less and less and they find trial and tribulation in the least obvious places, places that others find normal.