Comments on: What’s the Deal with Post-Apocalyptic Appeal?

By: Professor Beej

Professor Beej — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:09:16 +0000

I’ve actually never seen any of those movies, actually. Now that you’ve brought them to my attention, though, I need to make time to see them.

And I think you’re right. It’s the hope of it being a better place after the catastrophe that draws people in. Kind of like why the end of “Escape from LA” was actually positive when it should, by all rights, have been devastating.

By: Dblade

Dblade — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:56:24 +0000

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CosyCatastrophe

It’s kind of like what Tyler Durden planned to do in fight club by wiping out the credit reporting bureaus. The appeal is that it strips away all of the negative aspects of modern life and returns it to its roots in a cabin-in-the-woods type setting, but with more drama.

You see, it’s only the right kind of apocalypse people like. I don’t see you saying how much you liked “On the Beach” or “The Day After” or “Threads.” Hope seems to be the dividing line.

By: Professor Beej

Professor Beej — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:59:41 +0000

Have you ever tried to read “It”? If not, then highly suggest you give it a shot. Like “The Stand” did with you, it really made me uncomfortable in the middle of the day. I had to read it for grad school this past December, and I found that even listening to it on audiobook would get a little intense, even if I was doing something else to split my attention.

By: Debbie Ferm

Debbie Ferm — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:44:57 +0000

I loved this post, and I completely agree, there is something that draws people to the topic of the apocalypse, including me.

I read “The Stand” (Eek, it bugs me that I can’t underline that) years ago and I often read it on the bus to and from work. It was the only book that ever freaked me out so much in the MIDDLE OF THE DAY, on a bus full of people, that I actually had to put it away for awhile. I was totally engrossed in that book. Loved it!

Great post, good for conversations.

Debbie Ferm

By: Professor Beej

Professor Beej — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:31:27 +0000

I think his style has its own place. I’m not a huge fan of it, as I think it’s visually jarring and distracting from the narrative. I understand why he uses the “gimmicks” in his writing, though. Eventually, the reader stops even noticing when there is supposed to be dialogue, for instance, and just accepts the words and gets a feel for them and who they should come from, but it is honestly a lot of work for a fairly weak effect.

I appreciate him trying it, and I think it really works in The Road (the only of his novels I’ve actually read), but I think if more authors who try to be so “literary” would concentrate more on the narrative and content than attempting to do something new with form, the whole would be so much more fulfilling.

By: Chris (Game by Night)

Chris (Game by Night) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:25:47 +0000

Wonderful article, as always Beej. Since you brought it up though, as an English professor, how do you feel about Cormac McCarthy’s writing style? I found The Road to be fairly jarring at first. I initially wondered if he didn’t write in such a barren manner to reflect the nature of the scenario he was portraying; however, he does the same thing in No Country For Old Men. The college student in me grumbles a bit at the artistic liberty of it. If I tried to write like that, I’d probably get a failing mark, heh. Not to say it doesn’t work for his stories, just to be clear.

I’d ask my own English professor but he’s a devout critic of anything Science Fiction.

By: Tesh

Tesh — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:32:26 +0000

A classic case of playing against type for the sake of shock value and sales. I suffered through the NJO until they killed Anakin in Star by Star. I’ve not picked up any of them since, and from the few other spoilers I’ve read (Mara killed, Darth Jacen), I’m better off.

Perhaps we should agree to never mention the New Jedi Order. Oog.
Tesh´s last blog ..Death Grip on the Reins

By: Professor Beej

Professor Beej — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:40:06 +0000

Death is very important for game narrative and gameplay mechanics. Too strict or kill off a favorite character and the developers alienate players. Too lenient and only redshirts die and the developers have a carebear land where everyone (who we see on a regular basis) is a god and lives happily ever after…except for Chewbacca, and I’ll never forgive R.A. Salvatore for that.

Unfortunately most MMOs have taken the penalty that made it mean something away. Wiping in WoW does not have nearly the same anger-inducing penalties that UO or EQ once had. I’ve never lost a week of my life to dying in WoW. I have in other MMOs.

By: Professor Beej

Professor Beej — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:36:57 +0000

I like disaster movies when I want something mindless. It’s great fun to watch CGI cities be destroyed without having to worry about those sticky moral issues that generally go along with it.

By: Professor Beej

Professor Beej — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:36:05 +0000

I like the idea of it allowing us to re-imagine living. There’s something about this kind of setting that is kind of hopeful. It’s almost like a “well, they screwed it up, but we’ll do better” feeling, I guess.