From 4d5542caddb0386c0266b5894a10c027861aea06 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joe Carstairs Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2026 18:52:04 +0100 Subject: reading log: oxford handbook of apocalyptic literature --- reading-log.md | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 32 insertions(+) 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 -- cgit v1.2.3