Welcome to the End of the World: Apocalyptic Literature

“Over at Boing Boing Cory Doctorow authored a post titled “Post-Apocalypse without the militias: The Outquisition,” in which he ponders the near-exclusively militaristic nature of traditional post-apocalyptic literature and movies:

“I noticed that while there’s a whole ton of stories — and people who emulate them — about heavily armed survivalists bravely holding off the twilight of civilization after the Big One, there are damned few stories about super-networked post-apocalyptic Peace Corps who respond to the Great Fall by figuring out how to put it all back together.”

The comments section following the post grew into a really good discussion about the kinds of skills that would actually be useful in a post-collapse society.

This got me to thinking about my own apocalyptic book stash here at Octopus HQ. I’ve got a lot of them. See, I’ve always been a big fan of pop culture manifestations of the apocalypse in all of its forms, from movies about swarms of flesh-eating zombies to Cold War-era fearfests like “The Day After.”

I can’t say that my interest in this genre is entirely healthy; probably a good part of it is rooted in genuine fear of what might happen in the event of society’s collapse. Still, I approach apocalyptic ephemera with the delight of the true connoisseur, cheerfully purchasing vintage Civil Defense manuals and other oddities for my collection.

Let’s take a look at just a few, shall we?

“The Breaking of Northwall” by Paul O. Williams. Book One of the Pelbar Cycle. I learned about these books while reading a now-forgotten science fiction anthology years ago. I had forgotten all about it until I ran across the title during one of my regular book trawls.

One thousand years after a devastating and chaotic series of nuclear exchanges, all that is left of the United States of America are scattered, warring tribes and small city-states. One of the latter is Pelbar—proud, civilized, and intolerant of change and new ideas. Rebels and troublemakers are sentenced to a year of exile at the massive midwestern fortress of Northwall, defending Pelbar against the fierce Shumai and Sentani tribes. Restless and brilliant Jestak is a visionary who has seen and learned too much in his distant travels to be content with life in Pelbarigan. During his exile at Northwall, he makes contact with Pelbar’s age-old enemies and risks all to rescue his beloved Tia from nomads armed with long-lost weapons from before the atomic holocaust. Jestak’s daring quest for love brings profound changes to his world.

“Earth Abides” by George R. Stewart. This is a classic of the genre, and one of the older ones, having been published in 1949. Keith Phipps of The Onion’s AV Club did a pretty good overview of the book. Check it out here.

A disease of unparalleled destructive force has sprung up almost simultaneously in every corner of the globe, all but destroying the human race. One survivor, strangely immune to the effects of the epidemic, ventures forward to experience a world without man. What he ultimately discovers will prove far more astonishing than anything he’d either dreaded or hoped for.

“Heiro’s Journey” by Sterling E. Lanier. I think I learned about this when I was playing TSR’s post-apocalyptic fantasy game “Gamma World,” and if you read the back cover of the book you’ll see that it was obviously more than just a minor influence.

Per Hiero Desteen was a priest, a telepath — and a highly trained killer. Together with his great riding moose and the young bear who was his friend, he was on an extraordinary mission. For this was five thousand years after the holocaust known as The Death. Now the evil Brotherhood of the Unclean was waging all-out war against the few remnants of normal humanity, determined to wipe out all traces of its emerging civilization. Hiero’s task was to bring back a lost secret of the ancients that might save the humans. But his path lay through the very heart of the territory ruled by the Unclean and their hordes of mutated, intelligent, savage beast followers. And the Unclean were waiting for him!

Yeah, you read that correctly. A riding moose and a buddy who’s a bear. Check out the cover!
Yes, bask in its awesomeness and know that no matter how long you live and what you accomplish you’ll never know the joy of a riding moose. And a bear companion. Well, at least you get antibiotics, running water and electricity. Not a bad trade.

“A Canticle for Leibowitz” by Walter M. Miller, Jr. This is pretty much a standard, and you’ve got to go and get this now if you don’t have it. It’s like – a rule or something. For reals.

Walter M. Miller’s acclaimed SF classic A Canticle for Leibowitz opens with the accidental excavation of a holy artifact: a creased, brittle memo scrawled by the hand of the blessed Saint Leibowitz, that reads: “Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels–bring home for Emma.” To the Brothers of Saint Leibowitz, this sacred shopping list penned by an obscure, 20th-century engineer is a symbol of hope from the distant past, from before the Simplification, the fiery atomic holocaust that plunged the earth into darkness and ignorance. As 1984 cautioned against Stalinism, so 1959’s A Canticle for Leibowitz warns of the threat and implications of nuclear annihilation. Following a cloister of monks in their Utah abbey over some six or seven hundred years, the funny but bleak Canticle tackles the sociological and religious implications of the cyclical rise and fall of civilization, questioning whether humanity can hope for more than repeating its own history. Divided into three sections–Fiat Homo (Let There Be Man), Fiat Lux (Let There Be Light), and Fiat Voluntas Tua (Thy Will Be Done)–Canticle is steeped in Catholicism and Latin, exploring the fascinating, seemingly capricious process of how and why a person is canonized.

“Wastelands” edited by John Joseph Adams. This is pretty much the fiction anthology I’ve always looked for and never could find. It’s perfect, lots of great stuff, and I can’t praise Adams and Night Shade Press enough for bringing it to book shelves.

Famine, Death, War, and Pestilence: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the harbingers of Armageddon – these are our guides through the Wastelands… From the Book of Revelations to The Road Warrior; from A Canticle for Leibowitz to The Road, storytellers have long imagined the end of the world, weaving tales of catastrophe, chaos, and calamity. Gathering together the best post-apocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today’s most renowned authors of speculative fiction, including George R.R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Orson Scott Card, Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Octavia E. Butler, and Stephen King, Wastelands explores the scientific, psychological, and philosophical questions of what it means to remain human in the wake of Armageddon.

“A Field Guide to the Apocalypse” by Meghann Marco. This is a light-hearted romp through all of the standard post-apocalyptic tropes, with lots of useful advice on surviving zombie uprisings, robot rebellions, nuclear war, plagues, you name it.

Strangely enough, Meghann is now the associate editor of one of my favorite websites, The Consumerist.

“A World Beyond Healing” by Nicholas Wade. This is a serious, sober read that examines the potential after-effects of a nuclear war, from climate change to starvation and massive die-out. Bad stuff. The kind of stuff that gave me nightmares when I was a kid.

Since this book is completely out of print, check out a vintage review here.

“War Day” by Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka. This is written like a post-apocaplyptic version of Studs Terkel’s “The Good War,” with the authors taking the part of reporters touring the countryside in the aftermath of a nuclear war. It’s kind of nonfiction, but like most of Streiber’s stuff, you should probably take that designation with a grain of salt.

Check out the Wikipedia entry here.

“Apocalypse Pretty Soon” by Alex Heard. This a great book about apocalyptic movements in America, and Heard, a journalist, takes great pains to not actually make fun of the people that he’s speaking with, from Christian fundamentalists to militia-men and all points in between. Definitely worth a read.

Well, there’s a lot more that I have in my collection, but this is what I could grab right off. I’d love to know about your favorite post-apocalyptic literature, both fiction and non-fiction. Let me know in the comments below!