MARCH 2010 LIBRARY COLUMN
By: Mona Clark
As we begin the second decade of a new century, only two years away from the fabled year 2012, I am reminded of the Y2K panic leading up to the year 2000. Very little came of Y2K and hopefully 2012 will pass us by just as uneventfully. However, doomsday stories and prophecies have been the inspiration for authors since the dawn of the written word. As with all genres, some doomsday books are better than others, but I would like to highlight a few of my favourites.
Authors and prophets have come up with all sorts of scenarios that might bring about the end of mankind, but one of the most common is the viral pandemic. Perhaps killer viruses wield more believability since plagues are a proven reality of human history, but many well-known novels have been based on this possibility. The Stand, one of Stephen King's first and perhaps best novels begins when a human engineered virus accidentally escapes from a disease control centre laboratory. The book chronicles the quick spread of the virus throughout the world, and the struggles of the precious few survivors who break into factions of good and evil with the devil's side in possession of a nuclear weapon. Prior to The Stand, Michael Crichton kept readers on the edge of their seats with The Andromeda Strain where this time the deadly virus comes not from a laboratory but from outer space where it hitches a ride on a satellite that crashes to earth. An equally thrilling but slightly less-plausible read is Richard Matheson's I Am Legend in which one lone survivor does battle with a population that has been turned into blood-thirsty, flesh-eating zombies. Frank Herbert, well-known author of the Dune series published The White Plague in 1982, well before the threat of bio-terrorism became a wide-spread concern. Driven by his need for revenge after his family is killed by an IRA bomb, molecular biologist John O'Neill directs his plague at certain countries who have politically and socially offended him. The interesting twist of O'Neill's engineered virus is that it kills only women, thereby causing the die-out of certain cultures because they can no longer reproduce.
Extraterrestrials are also commonly-used threats against human civilization in popular fiction. One of the first and most outstanding books of this theme was H. G. Well's ground-breaking masterpiece The War Of The Worlds. Nearly a century before UFO sightings and alien encounters became a staple of popular culture, this terrifying novel detailed the devastation of England by a highly-mechanized superior race of Martian invaders. In an interesting twist of fate, the invaders are eventually defeated by the earthly bacteria to which they have no immunity. Since The War Of The Worlds, mankind has been attacked by aliens in countless works of fiction. Running a close second to the H. G. Well's classic is John Wyndham's The Day Of The Triffids in which the alien threat comes in the form of flesh-eating plants that arrive from outer space during a meteor shower.
Much of the appeal of post-apocalyptic novels is the opportunity for survivors to rebuild human societies in more ideal forms. The near-obliteration of humanity in these novels is often treated as a cleansing of the world, a chance to start anew, and often the cause for warring human factions to unite in a struggle against a common enemy. In this aspect, these books go far deeper than the intense doomsday events they depict. There is often an underlying uplifting spiritual message of rebirth and renewal.
Not all doomsday books are found in popular fiction. The subject is equally focused upon in non-fiction. Most notable are the multiple volumes that deal with the predictions of Nostradamus. Interpretations of his prophecies have been credited with foreseeing the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the death of lady Diana, Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war among numerous others. There is considerable contention that the writings of Nostradamus are so cryptic and all-encompassing that they cannot possibly be taken as accurate predictions of events but this is up to the individual reader to decide. Modern psychics like Sylvia Browne, Edgar Cayce and James Van Praagh have also written books about their predictions for the future. For those of you who would like some insight into what the earth will be like after we are gone, an excellent read is Alan Weisman's The World Without Us. Rather than speculating about what might bring about the demise of mankind, Weisman uses scientific facts to illustrate how long it will take for nature to reclaim the earth and eradicate all evidence of human existence once we are no longer around to maintain things. It is a humbling read, but also somewhat comforting in the possibility that over time, the negative impact of humans will disappear along with our impressive feats of engineering.
Let's not forget that the future still holds many wonderful things, including great books from your favourite authors. Janet Evanovich, David Baldacci, Michael Connelly, Stieg Larssen, Henning Mankell, Ian McKewan, and dozens of other best-selling authors who will publish new works in 2010. If you'd like to know about upcoming books by your favourite authors, just ask us at the circulation desk, call us or send us an e-mail via the link on our website. We look forward to sharing more great books with you in 2010.
