reading log: oxford handbook of apocalyptic literature

1 files changed, 32 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/reading-log.md b/reading-log.md
index 597eac4..567e630 100644
--- a/reading-log.md
+++ b/reading-log.md
@@ -6,6 +6,38 @@ author: Joe Carstairs
 
 ## 2026-04-27
 
+### @{oxford-handbook-apocalyptic}
+
+I finished skimming the chapters today after starting last Friday.
+
+DiTommaso said there were three periods of modern apocalyptic fiction. Before
+1945, there was a small number of novels and short stories about the decline of
+civilization, including HG Wells, Isaac Asimov, and others. From 1945-1990s,
+apocalyptic was dominated by the symbol of nuclear holocaust. From the 1990s,
+apocalyptic has focused on other doomsday scenarios, and responds to the fall of
+the Soviet Union, the War on Terror, the environmental crisis, and the new
+medium of the Internet. Since 1945, apocalypse in fiction has been equated with
+doomsday, and is therefore not really apocalyptic in DiTommaso's view.
+
+I did have an idea today that environmental apocalypse today is hamstrung by the
+hidden symbol of nuclear armageddon structuring the shape of the narrative.
+Maybe there's something in this, and maybe I should read some nuclear
+apocalypses, or nuclear political rhetoric?
+
+Frykholm had an interesting discussion of American premillenial
+dispensationalism. 'Premillenial' means Jesus comes back to inaugurate the
+millenium, not to conclude it. Unlike the jeremiads of the Puritans,
+contemporary dispensationalism relegates the realm of human action to merely
+individual salvation, everything else is doomed. There is little emphasis on an
+ultimate state of peace, and lots of emphasis on doom and destruction. It became
+popular just as evangelicals became increasingly politically influential, and as
+it did so, turned ever more to active symbols like believers fighting
+Antichrist. It has been spread by mass media and sells very well. It has
+motivated missionary movements, since in the dispensationalist scheme, Jesus
+will return only after the Gospel has been preached over the whole Earth. It is
+a very resilient tradition, and is unaffected by series of failed prophecies. It
+seems to function well as a way to give meaning to world events.
+
 ### @{greenpeace-report}
 
 The Greenpeace report went like this: the scientists report their knowledge that