Biological weapons, a totalitarian regime in America, an invasion of zombies - there are an infinite number of fictional causes of the end of the world - and only one real one.
The idea of the apocalypse - the real end of the world - has long haunted humanity. Is it because the end of life on Earth is so difficult to imagine and comprehend, or, on the contrary, it seems that it is so close? Personally, I love the horror feeling of being immersed in another world so close to the real that the path leading to its destruction seems eerily familiar. I am always interested in the authors' personal research on the theme of the apocalypse, a work where a certain problem maturing in our society is aggravated.
Movies and TV shows about the end of the world keep me in suspense, when I watch them, my heart pounds. "the walking Dead"Where living people scare more with their terrible deeds than dead people,"War of the Worlds Z" and "28 days later"Occupy a special place in my soul. In turn, the apocalypse in literature fascinates not with its ability to highlight in detail the piercing eerie details of the End, but rather by the opportunity to consider it as a metaphor. And I guess we're all curious about the big apocalypse because so many of us are going through the little ends of the world.
Here is a collection of literary apocalypses that will shock you with great ends, both small and disastrous. Also take a look at article 10 Sad Facts About Earth's Future.
1. "The Stand" by Stephen King
My apocalyptic first love. A grandiose story about the great battle of good and evil in America, ravaged by a superflu epidemic. From different perspectives, the reader is invited to observe the long-term collapse of humanity and the entire planet. I still have a terrible picture before my eyes: Radiation-struck Scavenger drags a nuclear warhead across the desert. You might be interested in article 12 of Stephen King's scariest books.
2. “100 Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses” by Lucy Corin (not published in Russian)
In this collection of short stories, the apocalypse is a personal phenomenon, it comes in different, sometimes unusual, guises: infanticide, post-traumatic stress disorder, menstruation, or a dinner party. The author's syllable is poetic, sometimes restrained, and always skillful. Some of the ends of the world described in the book cover you like an emotion or a dream, others capture you with their closeness to reality.
3. "The Children of Men" Phyllis Dorothy James
And in England everything is not glory to God. This novel about mass sterility, a ruined state, the exploitation of immigrants and war is a dystopia that speaks to the future of Britain. James chose 1995 "the year of Omega"When the disintegration began. Could she be mistaken for a couple of decades?
4. "Tenth of December" by George Saunders
If you like the series "Black mirror", This book is for you. Saunders' idea of how today's shortsightedness in technology can lead to tomorrow's tragicomic inhumanity is both amusing and unsettling. Be careful with these stories: the combination of the everyday horror of the future and human vulnerability can hurt to the heart.
5. “What Becomes Us” by Mickey Perks (not published in Russian)
The apocalypses of the past haunt the present in this superb novel. The ghost of Mary Rowlandson, a white colonist captured by the Indians during the war of King Philip, seems to have possessed Ivy, a pregnant teacher hiding from her cruel husband. But not only ghosts appear to Evie - her entire environment is closely connected with this acute historical moment.
6. “Zazen” by Vanessa Veselka (not published in Russian)
In a war-drunk America on the brink of collapse among the counterculture, we meet Della, a vegan cafe employee who reports bomb threats over the phone in her spare time. When bombs do go off in the places she names, the situation becomes even more confusing and dire. This novel in the spirit of Philippe Dick unfolds among the subcultures familiar to many, in an all too recognizable setting.
7. "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
The work is considered a classic of feminism and is currently becoming more and more popular (largely due to the change of government in the United States). In the future, in totalitarian America, women lost their independence and are used as reproductive slaves. These memories of terrible tipping points (one of which happened when women's bank cards suddenly stopped working) are chilling.
8. “Gutted” by Justin Chin (not published in Russian)
The poet Justin Chin, who died in 2015 from complications caused by AIDS, explores the personal apocalypse of the loss of a parent, the poet's father, in his writings. Chin also keeps in mind that living with HIV can itself be the end of the world, endured every day.
9. "Zone One" by Colson Whitehead (not published in Russian)
New York is recovering from a zombie invasion; Mark Spitz (name borrowed from Olympic swimming champion) works "cleaner": Cleans the city from the remains of zombies and their victims. The surviving generation is trying to cope with attacks of RPA (Post-Apocalypse Survivor Disorder); from the memories of the heroes, we understand what a decline the culture of society is experiencing after the invasion. Fascinating and humorous.
10. “The Sixth Extinction” by Elizabeth Colbert (not published in Russian)
Elizabeth Colbert, an environmental journalist, has long sounded the alarm about environmental disaster. In this popular science bestseller, she details the natural history of the planet's extinction. So people continue to do with their big house - they build, destroy (possibly irreversibly). Unlike the works listed above, the fear generated by this book cannot be disposed of as far-fetched.
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If our TOP was not enough for you, then here are a few more books, united by one idea about the end of the world (by the way, some of them were even used in films).
