Randy Lindsay
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Apocalypse Panel - Why we write doom

3/26/2014

6 Comments

 
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It’s been a month since the Apocalypse Panel started and the world is still here. Oh well, who knows what could happen during the next thirty days? And if the answers to our first question are any indication then we could be facing horrible destruction from a rogue planet, the outbreak of a long-frozen virus, collapse of the dollar, or World-War III. Maybe even a scenario where the passing of a large planetary mass cracks open a glacier, releasing a dormant virus that creates a murderous rage in people, that then results in a war and causes the collapse of all economies. 
             
Yeah, that is probably taking it a bit too far. Let’s just move on to this month’s question for the panel.

What draws you to write apocalyptic stories? 
 
             
For me, it has been a lifelong interest in the genre. My favorite book is Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny. I read it when I was ten. I’ve read it five more times since then and I don’t generally read books more than once. 
             
What is it that I like about that book? Giant, mutant Gila Monsters. Murderous biker gangs roaming the countryside. And making a trek across the ruined landscape of
America in armored all-terrain vehicles. That’s what I call entertainment. 
              
However, all of those are just the trappings of the genre. At the heart of almost all the post-apocalyptic stories that I’ve read is the desire to put things back together. It is the never-give-up attitude of human heroes as they fix our broken society that makes those stories special.   
             
My reason for writing The Gathering was that I saw the potential for great calamity in our future and wanted to write a novel that gives people hope. If disaster strikes the
United  States, I want people who have read my story to be able to say to themselves, “If the Williams family can make it through this, then so can my family.”
             
That won’t be the case if I write another apocalypse story I might use the genre as a canvas to explore death. Death of individual. Death of culture. Death of society. Even the death of mankind. More likely I’d use it as a backdrop for creation of crazy mutant creatures, bizarre political sects, and patchwork machines built from the remnants found in ruined cities. Beautiful stuff.       
     
What about the rest of the panel? What draws them to write about an 
apocalypse? Next week I will have links to all of their posts and a few comments
of my own about what they had to offer. Let’s just hope the world hasn’t ended
before then. 


 

6 Comments
Anthony E. Larson link
3/26/2014 08:15:21 am

What drives me? A thirst for knowledge. Understanding the past (which is where my research is based) helps me sort out the present and know the future. Pretty simple.

Reply
Randy Lindsay link
3/27/2014 03:57:50 am

Sort of a "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" position? Or is it that looking at the past is a key to understanding what might come to pass?

Reply
Anthony E. Larson link
3/27/2014 05:22:21 am

Actually, a little of both, Randy. That's why having a corrected view of the past is so important.

Tim Malone link
3/26/2014 04:39:20 pm

I am driven by a desire to share knowledge and my perceptions of human nature in desperate or catastrophic situations. It brings out the best and the worst in people. Science Fiction or more precisely, disaster fiction is based on ideas that have truth in them. From HG Wells War of the Worlds to 2012 The Movie, we are intrigued by the idea of the end of the world or at least of great destructions before the end of the world. We put just enough science in there that readers are willing to suspend disbelief long enough to be entertained. And while we seek to entertain, we teach. My personal desire is to share scriptural evidence of the last days, end-times or of the apocalypse (the unveiling) through entertaining stores and believable characters. I write to connect with my readers in an imaginary world that all too soon could become catastrophic reality.

Reply
Randy Lindsay link
3/27/2014 04:03:45 am

Sounds very much like the reason I wrote The Gathering. In fact, I think you could be my press agent with great comments like that. Thanks.

Reply
Daron D. Fraley link
3/27/2014 01:11:51 pm

I love apocalyptic stories because of the symbolic themes they can employ. I don't surprise myself at all by recognizing that Isaiah and The Revelation of St. John are two of my favorite books of scripture. Gotta love the symbols!

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    The Apocalypse

    Here are some of my recommendations for books dealing with the end of the world. 

    Damnation Alley
      by Roger Zelazny

    Alas Babylon
      by Pat Frank

    I Am Legend
      by Richard Matheson

    Folk of the Fringe
      by Orson Scott Card

    The Postman
      by David Brin

    Daybreak 2250 A. D.
      by Andre Norton  

    Hiero’s Journey
      by Sterling E. Lanier

    The White Mountains
      by John Christopher

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