Tevun-Krus #2 - Post-Apocalyptic

The Apocalypse: In Thought & In Type

The Apocalypse: In Thought & Type
By: @bloodsword

The Apocalypse - - it's been a topic of many pieces of literature, from religious documents to science fictional tales, from themes of despair and destruction, to visions of hope and acceptance.  The question is: is it the end of the World?  Or a New Beginning?  From a Greek word meaning to 'reveal' or 'uncover', the term apocalypse has become so much more than that in our modern culture.  And, to those of us that enjoy reading and writing speculative science fiction, it has become a wellspring of inspiration and setting.

So what does the Apocalypse mean to me as a writer?

Well, as a Christian with a healthy respect for mysticism and other religions, it certainly is a word that has meaning for both my faith and my view of the future.  It evokes visions of war, famine, pestilence and death via the Horsemen.  But it also grants me hope of a better world beyond the Horsemen's ride, of a messianic ruler granting Humanity peace and prosperity after millennia of strife and bloodshed.

Of course that isn't a viewpoint shared by everybody, so I'm going to focus on how the Apocalypse as a concept impacts my writing, and perhaps yours as well.  

As writers, we often draw on our life experiences as inspiration and material for our work.  And, as a science fiction and fantasy writer, I certainly find both in the Apocalypse.  The duality of the unfolding scenario, the horror of a dying civilization, the individual acts of heroism, bravery and selflessness; these are all hallmarks of a good apocalyptic, and post-apocalyptic story.  And you can find them in a number of my favorite books.  

From Terry Brooks' 'Knights of the Word' and the apocalypse that destroys modern civilization, only to re-imagine it as a fantasy world in his 'Sword of Shannara' series.  To Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' series that details the struggle of a chosen few as they try to fend off utter destruction even as their world collapses around them, the fantasy world is rife with apocalyptic themes and scenarios.

Science Fiction isn't safe, either.  Who can forget Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' where the mysterious alien monolith gradually reveals its plans for the evolution of the human species?  Only to cast them aside when it realizes that they cannot get past their animalistic natures in '2010: Odyssey Two'.  Along with Asimov's 'Foundation Trilogy', which is the attempt by a select group of intellectuals to survive the collapse of galactic civilization and give birth to a new one, and Arthur C. Clarke's 'Childhood's End', just to name a few, we see many examples of an apocalypse in action.

Recent reality too has been replete with examples of both the revealing of secrets nature of the apocalypse and the cataclysmic destruction we've come to associate with the word.  As an example it seemed for months on end I would read or watch the News and watch regime after regime fall to populations in uprising during the Arab Spring.  Which, in itself, was an echo of the earlier Autumn of Nations that saw the fall of the Eastern Bloc and the reduction in global Communism.

Looking back at all of this, how can a writer not find inspiration in the thousands of stories coming out of apocalypses, real and imagined, to craft together their own apocalyptic story?  I myself have woven together a number of stories that have involved many of the characteristics of an apocalypse, ranging from the uncovering of hidden knowledge, to the destruction and rebirth of a society.  Whether I focus on a singular character or situation, or create an entire world or society, I have been intrigued by assembling the elements of an apocalypse together then watching it evolve on the pages in front of me.

If you've read my ramblings here and find yourself wondering: 'how do I write a story about an apocalypse?', let me make a couple suggestions.  Start small.  Don't try to span the galaxy in your first go.  Create a hero/heroine and craft their immediate surroundings and situation.  Then put those surroundings into an apocalyptic scenario.  

Once that's done, you can start asking yourself what those characters would do, how they would react to their world collapsing around them, and how they would attempt to move forward.  Reveal your characters' evolution and development in an appropriate pace throughout your story and, by doing so, become apocryphal in your own writing.  It is an exercise I've done many times myself.

So, to the question I posed in my article's title: world's end or new beginning, I answer as a writer that the apocalypse is a new beginning.  A beginning of a new civilization, of the revelation of new knowledge and the mettle of your characters and, if you like action and adventure like I do, the beginning of a new adventure.

As writers let us draw inspiration from the apocalypse and craft stories about selfless acts of sacrifice, of grand shiftings of perspective and worlds and societies in transition.  With such a rich source of information to draw from, how can we fail to put together something that will be incredible?  I'd read a story like that in a heart beat.  =)