That\u2019s the end of the first line of the chorus to REM\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s the End of the World\u201d. Why do we enjoy the end of whatever books? Last month\u2019s read, Mistborn: The Final Empire, was the first in a trilogy that brought the world of the series to the very brink of destruction. This month\u2019s, Project Hail Mary, puts our familiar Earth in the same jeopardy. If that\u2019s not a big enough boom for you, the final book in James Blish\u2019s Cities in Flight series goes all the way to the Big Crunch where the universe starts over again. Not to be out done, Midnight at the Well of Souls by Jack Chalker resets the universe at the touch of a button forcing the character at hand to go through the guilt of murdering every living creature in order to save several and of course the universe itself in its next iteration. Global threat is a constant in plenty of thriller movies, science fiction movies and even comedies \u2013 The Day After Tomorrow, When Worlds Collide, and How It Ends. But why do we enjoy this so much? We\u2019re in a situation right now watching the way our world alters due to Climate Change, where super storms are hitting the southern coast of the US in record numbers, ice caps are melting causing the rise of sea level, and temperatures keep climbing gradually. According to Alfred in The Dark Knight, \u201cSome people just want to watch the world burn.\u201d Are we really those people? Not, not likely, I would say. I think that we are in it for the end game, the part where the heroes swoop in and save the day. In a recent interview on NPR, author Tananarive Due, said that she enjoys watching horror movies because that catharsis that one experiences can help to deal with real traumas because there\u2019s always a positive ending of some sort. Similarly, we ride the rollercoaster with these experiences seeking the hopeful result at the end. It doesn\u2019t always end the way that we expect though. Take for example the film when Worlds Collide, (spoiler) we don\u2019t save Earth but rather move along. Even Tolkien\u2019s Middle Earth goes through several destructive phases before reaching the Third Age with its more stable times and Hobbits. Sara Douglass\u2019 Wayfarer Redemption Series second trilogy takes places in the ruins of the world that was the setting of the first three books and Terry Brook\u2019s Shannara books are set in the ruins of our own world. So, maybe the trip we take through another\u2019s imagination is a catharsis but is there another reason for this fascination? If we look at today\u2019s cinema\u2019s fascination with remakes it comes down to the simple factor of guaranteeing butts in seats for success. As an author how do you ensure that you create something that can be capture the interest of a wide audience \u2013 well, put the whole world at risk of course, because the automatic assumption is that you, the reader\/watcher are there! At the widest scope, things suddenly become personal. Destroy the solar system, wait I live there. It\u2019s also easy to drop an everyman character, such as Arthur Dent from the Hitchhiker\u2019s guide in and parallel the potential destruction of his home to the more inevitable destruction of the Earth by the Vogon Constructor fleet. We\u2019ve all felt helpless in the face of some exterior force at some time, so we can associate with Arthur even though his adventures will take us well beyond our experience. When we are faced with the loss of our home, which is what all of these various books or films are either positing or insinuating, we can relate directly, and we can infer that we are present during the impending danger if it is of a global nature. Taken from the dust jacket of Philip Jose Farmer\u2019s To Your Scattered Bodies Go, \u201cReborn. All humanity- including Sir Richard Burton, Alice in Wonderland and yourself!\u201d. Nothing like a direct appeal to the audience\u2019s ego. Finally, maybe we do like big explosions, is there a bizarre desire to see the world burn? Is this the end all of disaster fascination? Is this Faces of Death done to the largest scale? Hopefully, we are not all these people. In the end, we are fascinated with the end for some reason and the creators of entertainment of all sorts keep finding ways for the Earth, on up to everything, to come to an untimely demise. Popcorn or coffee in hand, we are likely to keep watching and reading, hoping for the heroes to save things one more time. As Rodney McKay says in SG Atlantis \u2013 \u201cJust give me a minute\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
That\u2019s the end of the first line of the chorus to REM\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s the End of the World\u201d. Why do we enjoy the end of whatever books? Last month\u2019s read, Mistborn: The Final Empire, was the first in a trilogy that brought the world of the series to the very brink of destruction. This month\u2019s, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n