Tevun-Krus #51 - A Very Post-Apocalyptic Christmas

After the End... Winter and Rebirth - An Article by @angerbda

Est-ce la fin du début

Ou le début de la fin

Y en a-t-il encore ou plus

Est-ce aujourd'hui ou demain

Est-ce la fin du début

Ou le début de la fin

Si vous ne comprenez plus

Nous non plus, on comprends rien!

(La chanson du Début de la Fin, Émilie Jolie)*

***

The main trope of any Post Apocalyptic fiction, Sci Fi and other, is 'After the End'. What happens once the World is no more?

What brought the known World to its end is of no importance compared to the struggled for life to prevail.

How would you go with a Sci Fi Post Apocalypse? What Beginning of the End, would you chose? Alien invasion? Nuclear Catastrophe? Zombie outbreak?

Whatever your choice, whatever the End, it is the after that count in the post-apocalyptic story. The renewal of life, the rebirth of a World.

What happens to people, or any other sort of life under the struggle of this new beginning?

What I usually find interesting in this sub-genre is the depiction and rendition of the lowest of Human nature. I do not think compassion and acceptance an intrinsic part of Mankind nature. When the situation comes to worse, the animal instinct of survival will prevail, but the worst of the human nature will also surface: greed, jealousy, thirst of power... There will always be those who will try to take advantage of any situation, not just for survival, but also, and often before all, for a more personal agenda that usually denote a close-mindedness and a short-term and narrow vision.

People will fight each-others, fear will prevail above trust. Until they will unite against a common enemy. Then will they only be able to start anew, usually as a small group, a new Genesis, a new Adam and Eve in a new Eden...

What I find interesting in the Apocalypse and After the End trope is the focus on the human nature spectrum, from bad to good, from war to unity, from greed to sharing. Only when the positive side of the spectrum will be reach the World will be reborn. Most the Post-apocalyptic stories, in fact, show the faith, or lack thereof, of their authors in Mankind

The notion is not specific to Post-apocalyptic science-fiction, or fiction in general. And, if the stories nowadays are throwing aliens, zombies, nuclear bombs and other technology and invention, the Post-Apocalypse trope had been well depicted in more ancient texts.

The notion itself stems from religious background, Apocalypse, in Greek, meaning Revelation, the Apocalypse being the revelation of a possible future based on whether Man would line with the Good or the Evil side.

It is basically a choice. Will happen what may happen, but the outcome will be your direct responsibility. Choose wisely and own your decision.

In the Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic thesaurus, the Poetic Edda** depict a story of death and rebirth, of war and peace, of despair and hope. Ragnarök, the foretold battle between great Gods and the destruction of the World, for, without these events, the World could not be reborn, is the epitome of the apocalypse trope.

In the Völuspá, the End is prophesized, so is the After the End.

The End comes with the Winter. Winter is brought by the treachery of Loki, who leads Hodr to kill his brother, Baldr. The Beginning of the End follows. The Gods battle the invaders and fall one after the other. The balance of the World collapses, and Man is left to his own device...