I have found two sources thus far that allude to the fact that we actually may feel on some deep level that we want the world to end. Time Magazine Arts published an article by Lev Grossman titled "Apocalypse New" in its Thursday January 17, 2008 issue. This article discusses literature such as The Last Man by Mary Shelley and T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men, and movies like Cloverfield, and I am Legend. Grossman points out some underlying reasons for the popularity of this genre. One reason for end of time prophesies is that we are able to use these as tools to process fear. Mary Shelley had lost three children, a husband, and a very good friend when she wrote her apocalyptic book, and death and fear are strong catalysts for our imaginations. Godzilla, according to Grossman, was used to give imagery to the fear many Japanese felt after the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima. The Cloverfield monster is to have played a similar role for New Yorkers after the September 11th attacks. I have to ask then, is the reaction the same in all tragedies? Or is it only when the death and destruction we face is at the hands of other men?
Another article that I found was published by The New York Times on October 9, 1994. “The World; A Passion to Know the End Is Nigh” is written by Gustav Niebuhr who begins by saying, “There is something in the human psyche that simply wants to know about the end. When will it come?” The world’s time is abundant, while our time on it is relatively short. If we are living in the last days of humanity, it would seem to make us feel important explains Niebuhr. Are we so narcissistic that we wish our own demise if only we may feel more important? I can’t think that the general population feels like this.
Sources linking historical events to our desire to know when the world will end are surprisingly scarce. While I continue to explore and research I would like to leave you with this quote from Wallace Stevens which I found in Stephen D. O'Leary's Book Apocalypse: A Theory of Millennial Rhetoric—“The imagination stands always at the end of an era.”
Sources:
Gustav Niebuhr, “The World; A Passion to Know the End Is Nigh” The New York Times 9, October, 1994
Lev Grossman, "Apocalypse New" Time Magazine Arts,. 17, January, 2008
Great sources! Be sure to add more questions (in response to these sources) to keep the purpose exploratory. What do you wonder after reading these articles? What puzzles you about the issue/topic still, or about what these authors have said? Also, how do these two sources help you answer any of your initial questions from the first post?
ReplyDeleteI would like to start off by saying, I'm intrigued by your topic. It is something I have often wondered myself. I agree with you and your sources that it eases our minds to think we have a for certain date that the world will end. I know I as many of my friend and I'm sure many other people on this earth have numerous questions that will never be answered. I think in the more recent years people have become more and more inqusitive about our world and how it came to be and what lies beyond it. Since we have no way of answering these questions ourselves, I think we try to control what we can about it, some by giving a date that we will cease to exist. It's kind of scary to not have answers to your questions, and especially such major questions, ya know? I wish you the best of luck with your research, and will pop back in to see what you've found.
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