The post is a couple of days late this week. Did that make you wonder if
the Apocalypse had started? Probably not, but maybe next time you should.
Okay, on to this month’s question.
Other than your own stories which is the best apocalypse movie or novel out there?
Angie Lofthouse, who I had the pleasure of meeting at LDStorymakers last month, listed the best novel of an apocalyptic nature as Folk of the Fringe, by Orson Scott Card. If it wasn’t also one of my favorite stories on this genre I might wonder if it had anything to do with Card being the keynote speaker at the conference.
The truth is that Card put together a wonderful story of hope as normal people have to face catastrophic aftermath of a nuclear and biological war. I happen to have an autographed hardback of it that is the prize of my book collection. So, good job Angie.
the Apocalypse had started? Probably not, but maybe next time you should.
Okay, on to this month’s question.
Other than your own stories which is the best apocalypse movie or novel out there?
Angie Lofthouse, who I had the pleasure of meeting at LDStorymakers last month, listed the best novel of an apocalyptic nature as Folk of the Fringe, by Orson Scott Card. If it wasn’t also one of my favorite stories on this genre I might wonder if it had anything to do with Card being the keynote speaker at the conference.
The truth is that Card put together a wonderful story of hope as normal people have to face catastrophic aftermath of a nuclear and biological war. I happen to have an autographed hardback of it that is the prize of my book collection. So, good job Angie.
Margot Hovley sent me this response:
This is a really hard question for me!
Instead of trying to pick an overall best, I'd like to mention three works I read as a child that really influenced me. The first has come to be known as The Tripods, a trilogy by John Christopher. The second I'll name is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engel, and the lst The Giver by Lois Lowry.
I'm not calling these out as the best ever--or that they are even examples of apocalyptic stories--just that I happened to read these particular books while a young
girl--by chance--or good luck--or ? These books made me think a lot about how I would react if caught in an apocalyptic situation--about how I hoped I'd react.
Reading these while young sparked my imagination and got me thinking about what might happen in our future. Since I lived very close to a nuclear facility, growing up during the Cold War, I spent a lot of time worrying about a possible apocalypse.
It seemed like it weighed heavy on everyone's mind. Between the drills at school and the frantic gathering of food storage in my Mormon household, I felt pretty much on
edge.
I was fascinated by the history behind the War of the Worlds radio program and thought it fascinating that it caused such an uproar as people assumed it was portraying a real occurrence. I thought it so interesting to see how people would
react in a situation like that.
Now, when I read stories that are attempting to describe post-apocalyptic settings, I find myself being overly critical, perhaps. I watched the TV series Revolution with a lot of enthusiasm at first, but finally gave up on it, as the violence really wore on me. And books like Divergent, while wildly popular with others, hit an off note for me because I couldn't picture government evolving into something like what's described there. As much practice as I've had with suspending reality (after all, I love Star Trek, etc.), I
just couldn't get past the unbelievability of that political setup. Obviously I'm a minority on that.
Wow! I didn’t even know anyone else knew about the Tripod series by John Christopher. Good choice. I loved it as a kid. I am reading it to my children now. Written for youth, it an apocalyptic tale of alien invasion set many years after Earth has been conquered by a strange race of three-armed, three-legged aliens.
A really great response from Margot. I had the chance to meet Margot for the first time at the LDStorymakers conference. On her website she blogged about teaching classes at the conference. While not the end of the world, it is an interesting read none-the-less.
Unfortunately, the rest of the panel were MIA this month. In Wayne’s case I hope that is not because an ancient virus has been let loose in South Africa. But since there hasn’t been any news about such an event in the media we’re probably safe.
Or are we?
This is a really hard question for me!
Instead of trying to pick an overall best, I'd like to mention three works I read as a child that really influenced me. The first has come to be known as The Tripods, a trilogy by John Christopher. The second I'll name is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engel, and the lst The Giver by Lois Lowry.
I'm not calling these out as the best ever--or that they are even examples of apocalyptic stories--just that I happened to read these particular books while a young
girl--by chance--or good luck--or ? These books made me think a lot about how I would react if caught in an apocalyptic situation--about how I hoped I'd react.
Reading these while young sparked my imagination and got me thinking about what might happen in our future. Since I lived very close to a nuclear facility, growing up during the Cold War, I spent a lot of time worrying about a possible apocalypse.
It seemed like it weighed heavy on everyone's mind. Between the drills at school and the frantic gathering of food storage in my Mormon household, I felt pretty much on
edge.
I was fascinated by the history behind the War of the Worlds radio program and thought it fascinating that it caused such an uproar as people assumed it was portraying a real occurrence. I thought it so interesting to see how people would
react in a situation like that.
Now, when I read stories that are attempting to describe post-apocalyptic settings, I find myself being overly critical, perhaps. I watched the TV series Revolution with a lot of enthusiasm at first, but finally gave up on it, as the violence really wore on me. And books like Divergent, while wildly popular with others, hit an off note for me because I couldn't picture government evolving into something like what's described there. As much practice as I've had with suspending reality (after all, I love Star Trek, etc.), I
just couldn't get past the unbelievability of that political setup. Obviously I'm a minority on that.
Wow! I didn’t even know anyone else knew about the Tripod series by John Christopher. Good choice. I loved it as a kid. I am reading it to my children now. Written for youth, it an apocalyptic tale of alien invasion set many years after Earth has been conquered by a strange race of three-armed, three-legged aliens.
A really great response from Margot. I had the chance to meet Margot for the first time at the LDStorymakers conference. On her website she blogged about teaching classes at the conference. While not the end of the world, it is an interesting read none-the-less.
Unfortunately, the rest of the panel were MIA this month. In Wayne’s case I hope that is not because an ancient virus has been let loose in South Africa. But since there hasn’t been any news about such an event in the media we’re probably safe.
Or are we?
RSS Feed
