Apocalyptic visions

An interesting article by Sameer Panya in Miller McCune on apocalyptic visions in movies, popular books and TV. Examples he points to include the Dark Knight (the latest Batman movie – evidently shows the Joker trying to destroy the world for sheer pleasure), Wall-E (see my post of 21 July 2008), Battlestar Gallactica (the recent TV version) and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road ( a novel which comes out as a film later this year). Two recent books examine this phenomenon: In Apocalyptic Dread by Kirsten Moana Thompson and Shocking Representation by Adam Lowenstein.

I wrote about apocalpytic visions in non-fiction in my post of 24 April 2008. I also used the introduction from Mad Max II to introduce my recent Fund Strategy feature on oil (see 26 August 2008 post).

Such visions seem to represent, in an extreme form, the fear of the future that is so prevalent at present.