Lifting the Veil

The journey through post-apocalyptic literature this semester has subjected us to alternate worlds characterized by apocalypses that have altered the state of reality for humankind. Societies have been rendered barren, adopted apathetic behavior, and forgotten or cast aside the nuances of language that originally served to bind humanity together; power in gender reversal has ripped worlds apart and pieced them back into place through suppression and indoctrination; religion and gods have been questioned and abstract concepts have taken form; meaning is placed on the altar of humanity and held as the highest standard. While the word "apocalypse" is generally associated with violence, destruction, and Christian theology, this class explored the transcendent aspect of apocalypse, the "lifting of the veil" towards a revelation that allows a release from previously held absolutes: the world must be this way because it always has been. Apocalypse severs the last connections to a former way of life and creates new bonds to constrain the participants, however unwilling. 

However, what is most surprising about each apocalyptic scenario is the power present in knowledge: in the case of Burdekin's novel The End of This Day's Business, Neil's personal apocalypse begins through knowledge of history and the revelation that men are not inferior beings; in Oryx and Crake, Snowman's apocalypse is linked to his slowly decaying knowledge of language and meaning; in Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, Morpheus's world becomes more focused when he realizes that he is dependent on humanity, a servant to their whims, no matter how much power he is granted through being Lord of the Dream Realm. Apocalypse signals a revelation, and in the case of the scenarios listed before, each revelation is accompanied by power through knowledge and understanding. 

Transcending Limitations

In "Musical Apocalypse: Tom Waits' Bone Machine" Angela Jones uses Derrida's theory of apocalyptic tone as a framework for analyzing the music of Waits, and also deconstructs the definition of apocalypse through application. According to Jones, the "act of revelation, of stripping things back and unveiling" is the point of apocalypse, a spiritual disclosure. This declaration is readily apparent in the section "Facade," excerpted from Neil Gaiman's Sandman graphic novel Dream Country, when the truth of existence is unveiled to Rainie, a woman whose body has been transmuted by the sun god Ra. 

Rainie, once a beautiful woman who worked for the CIA, is confined to her house after a horrific experience in Egypt has left her body transmuted to a gaseous state that can be morphed by thought. Unable to establish relationships and forced to live with a life devoid of purpose, hidden behind masks of her own making, Rainie seeks death. The Endless Death visits her and claims that her life is merely a hell of her own making, that she has the power to change her life if she only seeks that change. Rainie sheds her mask for Death, the masks that tied her to her limitations. In her essay, Jones connected the unveiling process to limitations which denote an opening, where something else is able to bridge the gap between those limits, to "break in." Rainie moves to the window of her home as a supplicant and calls to Ra, but when asked to look at the sun, she balks. Humans are not allowed to stare too long at the sun, a limitation of the human body exposed, even as the truth of the deity is unveiled: that even a god wears a mask. When Rainie looks upon Ra for the first time with understanding, she is no longer transmutable, but transfigured, shed of the burden of her former body. Rainie transcends the limitations of her mortal body after the mask of Ra is unveiled; she herself is stripped bare, unveiled and unclothed to meet her new fate as her body turns to dust, master of her own destiny.  

Purpose and Perspective

In Neil Gaiman's The Doll's House, interactions with humanity lead to an apocalyptic revelation for Morpheus, the lord of Dream: the Endless are not the autonomous, godlike figures they assumed themselves to be, but rather servants of the mortal world and subject to their control. Morpheus/Dream becomes a more conscientious, controlled being with tendencies toward human emotions and characteristics after his interactions with a man named Hob, whose life has not been touched by the fear of Death or its embrace. 

In "Men of Good Fortune" (Part Four) Dream enters a tavern with his sister Death, after she implores him to view humans on their own terms, rather than on the terms of the Endless, who (mostly) feel themselves to be superior to mortals. The Endless live apart from humans, and as abstract concepts that can alter their appearance to become tangible, their actions are still separate from the common world of humanity. Dream begins this part of the novel by implying that interactions with humanity are not rewarding experiences, and that he does not see "what purpose [it] will serve." Death, on the other hand, appears to grasp the importance of understanding them. When Dream states the fae consider leaving the physical plane, he appears to also consider the notion and weigh its merits. A conversation dealing with the denial of death leads Dream to Hob, a common man who declares that he will continue to live because he does not recognize death as an absolute. Over the course of several hundred years, Dream continues to meet with Hob, and comes to realize that even when faced with defeat and destruction, humanity remains resilient.

Slowly, the perspective of Dream changes, to where he acknowledges the worth of human lives, and when he finds that Hob has made riches from the slave trade, he asks Hob why he takes "pride in treating...fellow humans as less than animals" (Part Four), a considerable change from his own view of them as pawns in the beginning. The relationship between Hob and Dream may appear with the Endless having the upper hand, but it is Hob who becomes the teacher and Dream the pupil; Dream comes to respect humanity's will to live, its achievements as interesting and admirable. After a few centuries, Hob suggests that Dream continues to meet him because he is lonely, that he seeks a companion with whom to share the trials and triumphs of humanity. Dream angrily denies the statement, yet the next century seems pleased to state that he "heard it was impolite to keep one's friends waiting" (Part Four), then buys Hob a drink.

Throughout this section of The Doll's House Dream transforms from an entity that defines himself by his separateness, his superiority over to humanity, to just another subject of humanity's conscious. He realizes that he and the other Endless are not rulers over humans, but under their control and influence, telling his sister Desire that they "are the servants of the living--we are NOT their masters" (Part Four). Dream comes to the conclusion that existence of the Endless is contingent upon the belief of humanity. Without humanity, the Endless have not purpose and with not purpose comes despair. Dream's outlook is irreversibly changed by his interactions with humanity on their own terms, and he experiences a personal apocalypse when he reaches this conclusion. 

What Dreams May Come

In Neil Gaiman's second volume of the popular Sandman series, The Doll's House, abstract concepts such as Dream, Desire, Death, and Despair at times assume the tangible form of human bodies, walking through our world and other dimensions of their own creation. Though each concept differs from one another in myriad ways, they are all inextricably linked by their dependence on humanity to sustain them and their reliance on one another to function. Dream in particular, is versatile in his relationships with the other concepts, functioning as a conduit for Desire and an escape from Despair. 

The Doll's House features sequences of individual character dreams, where desire and escape are illustrated by various scenarios: young Jed who is transported through his dreams to a place where he is wanted by those around him, a real family--of superheroes, nonetheless!--that cater to his whims and love him; Barbie's dreams depict a princess on a quest, one who is taken seriously and has a sure purpose; Ken's full of sex and greed and power. While the realm of Morpheus brings these desires to life, they are not solely the property of Dream; all of the aforementioned aspirations are created by Desire. When the Fates speak to Rose, they warn her to "beware Dreams and Houses" (The Doll's House 18), because the realm of dreams is where desire takes form and comes to life, where desire becomes reality. Outside of nightmares, Despair does not reside in dreams except in the form of escape and avoidance, and Dream funnels this desire for evasiveness into the appropriate setting. 

But although Dream appears as a channel for Desire and Despair, Dream--with the help of Death--also give in to the desires of humanity, those who are truly in control. The abstractions imply at several points in the novel that only through Death do the living gain respite from Desire and Despair, but this is a false notion on their part. After granting immortality (of a sort) to Hob in "Men of Fortune," Morpheus observes the highs and lows of a life free from the fear of death, but also witnesses the pain of humanity when subjected to never-ending life. Hob declares that even Death holds no power when her existence is denied, and in his case this appears to be true, as both Death and Dream allow him to continue on for centuries. When Hob returns centuries later destitute and broken Morpheus inquires as to whether he would like to finally welcome Death: "You still wish to live? Do you not seek the respite of death" (14)? Even then, however, Hob chooses life, his utmost desire. The novel never ends the story of Hob, his tale cut off with yet another meeting with Dream, illustrating that in the end, Desire, Death, and Dream are all just creations of humanity and powerless without its acknowledgment. 

Symptoms of a Dying Planet

As evident in the P.D. James novel Children of Men and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, though there can be multiple symptoms that trigger an apocalypse, the direct cause of such an event is usually readily apparent: in Children of Men the cause of the apocalypse is worldwide infertility, and in Oryx in Crake it is a massive plague that wipes out almost the entire human species. Symptomatic and causal difference is denoted by factors that subtly, or indirectly, contribute to an apocalypse and those that have a direct and immediate, universal effect. An apocalypse is, above all, a change in mindset as everything ever known or thought to be True collapses and ceases to exist. The symptoms of an apocalypse can either contribute to or sustain the devastation, while the cause of an apocalypse is the conspicuous event that led to worldwide change. 

In Children of Men, the symptoms of apocalypse are contributing factors such as social evils, and also aftereffects such as apathy, hopelessness, and despair. These symptoms alone do not cause or sustain the apocalypse, it takes something much greater in scope that broadly influences every corner of civilization--worldwide infertility. We see many of the contributing/sustaining factors of the apocalypse in Children of Men in our contemporary society, but they do not lead to the epic repercussions seen in the novel simply because there is no universal, life-changing cause of an apocalypse to accompany such emotions. Symptoms that sustain the apocalypse include a change in religious theology, governmental regulation of bodies, apathetic perspectives, and hopelessness in the face of extinction: "they live without hope on a dying planet" (58). 

In Oryx and Crake, the cause of the apocalypse is also evident: the plague/disease that quickly infects and kills most of the human species. The symptoms of the apocalypse are once again the follies of humanity: the pride of Crake, the apathy of the world, desensitized society, and a breakdown in meaning regarding language. Each of these symptoms contributes and sustains the cause of the apocalypse, but alone they are not enough to produce universal devastation. 

The symptoms and causes of apocalypse should be thought of in much the same way a fatal disease is viewed: there are warning signs and also symptoms that manifest before/after the disease (such as cancer) has taken hold that signal its presence or warn of its impending appearance. The cause of apocalypse should be thought of like the disease, as the absolute presence and foundation of transformation, that which will turn the world upside down and eventually lead to death, or at least a death of the previous way of life--in the case of the two novels, the plague and infertility that heralds the death of the human species.  

The Doctrine of Unintended Consequences

In Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, events that happened before a worldwide catastrophe are narrated by Jimmy/Snowman, who was privy to the beginning of the plague that left no continent untouched. Interspersed through the daily post-apocalyptic activities that he encounters, Snowman reminisces about his lover, Oryx, and best friend, Crake, and recounts how the entire situation began, reverting to his original name, Jimmy, during these flashbacks. Though many factors contributed to the creation of the plague, idealism was a prominent element in Crake's motivation to bring an end to the current human species. 

As young teens, Jimmy and Crake played games involving extinction, annihilation, and balance--most notably a game called Blood and Roses, a game of strategy which featured players battling against one another using human achievements and atrocities as leverage. In order to stop atrocities (genocides, war, massacres), an achievement (art, literature, architecture) must be given up. For every atrocity committed in human history, there was an achievement that balanced the scale. This idealism on the part of Crake, that there was somehow perfection worth the cost of human life and devastation, attainable only through equilibrium of action, led to his creation of the Children of Crake. When Jimmy first viewed them at the Paradice Dome, he inquired about his inspiration for the new species, one which eliminated all of the traits in humans that Crake found undesirable or impractical (fear, desire, etc.): Crake replied that the Children "represent the art of the possible" (305). In Crake's world, there is always a price to pay, and the price for the perfection of the Children he created was the annihilation of the current species, devoid of any beneficial use after the introduction of his final work of art. Like the game of Blood and Roses, Crake rolled the dice and  decided that the atrocity of human extinction through plague was worth the price of his achievement. 

But what Crake did not count on was that, while he used the word "possible" in his description of the Children of Crake, he did not factor in--or perhaps deliberately chose to overlook--the possibility that humans, other than Jimmy, might actually survive the apocalypse. Crake's attention to detail and strict control over his experiment ended when he took his life in a murder-suicide involving Oryx: without his intervention the world became "one vast uncontrolled experiment…and the doctrine of unintended consequences [was] in full spate" (228). Crake essentially restarted the game of Blood and Roses when he relinquished his control of the outcome of his game. 

What's Love Got To Do With It?

In Children of Men, the belief in love has been replaced by a general apathy in regards to the human population. Humans have devolved emotionally, or at least become more cynical and selfish, about their lives since the apocalypse began. They lack the emotional and physical connections brought on by the personal and physiological aspects of established relationships-whether that relationship is familial, platonic, or sexual. Sexuality is regulated by the government, with state-sanctioned pornography and prostitution proffered through various pleasure-inducing programs. Sexuality and the body are used as means of control, by pacifying the population with physical release the government assures their complacence. Even though Theo posits "[r]omantic and idealized love has taken over" (7) the senses of the population, these feelings are merely idealized notions of an emotion humans now lack, along with hope and desire. 

Although Love, as the evangelist Rosie continually asserts, is the only hope for a cure in a world doomed to hopelessness and despair, the element of love, which progressively ended when Omega began, becomes confused with sense of purpose, duty, obligation, and responsibility towards the end of the novel; these characteristics are not mutually exclusive to love, but tend to be looked upon with the same fanatic intensity. Love, as we are aware of the concept today, ceased to exist and only manifests through specific characteristics, which does not suggest it is still present, only the sense of purpose created by such emotion. One passage in the novel declares "[m]an is diminished if he lives without knowledge of his past; without hope of a future he becomes a beast" (98); the concept of love allows those still living to forget impending death and extinction in favor of a relationship with those still surviving, even if the emotion is not reality, but construction.

The misguided notion of love in the novel, or at least a cynical variation on my part, is best illustrated through analysis of Theo's character. He declares himself a "selfish son, an unloving father, a bad husband" (218). Theo has shirked responsibility his entire life, even going so far as to declare himself purposefully evading the obligations inherent in responsibility: he gives up on his marriage because he does not want to bear the guilt of not loving his wife or daughter, and killing his daughter; he quits his position as counselor to the Warden of England, Xan, because he dislikes the responsibility and being overlooked; he is conflicted about joining the Five Fishes because he does not want the social or personal responsibility that comes with revolution, however minor. Theo experiences loneliness and isolation through choice and states: "I am 50 years old and I have never known what it is to love…[on a] doomed and joyless planet when man goes to his last rest and all desire fades" (133-134). But when he is introduced to Julian he experiences the first stirrings of obligation and duty. When he decides to help and get her to safety after Rolf has left, his entire view of the world shifts with his newfound responsibility. He finds himself with a purpose, and having never experienced even the vestiges of love, that purpose is mistaken for love. Obligation, duty, and responsibility are all symptoms of purpose, not desire or emotional attachment. When confronted with these strange feelings, the world opens up for Theo and he views it a "a place in which nothing that lived could be wholly alien from him" (222). 

Whatever hope the ending of the novel garners is banished with the realization that Theo's love is not quite what it seems. Love, even the semblance of love, is a dangerous emotion, much more so than apathy, particularly when wielded by one who is unfamiliar with its effects, such as Theo. His burgeoning love with Julian will eventually cause him pain, as he will not be able to bear the loss of her or the child, and the hope that child signifies. Theo lashes out at Miriam before the child is born, questioning the effects on the child if s/he is the only one that will ever be born again: "To what hell are we condemning her? Can you begin to imagine the loneliness of her last years" (219)? True love can blind the unwary and can sometimes lead to unexpected outcomes, but when that love is confused with other emotions it becomes problematic. When Theo places the coronation ring on his finger after killing Xan, dangerous thoughts brought on by his sense of duty and responsibility to Julian and her child surface: "[t]he sense that everything was possible to him, that what he wanted would be done, that what he hated would be abolished, that the world could be fashioned according to his will." (241) The power of position is clearly an enticing notion to Theo, and a "shadow" crosses the eyes of Julian, betraying the idealized notions of romance and love that Theo has latched onto, and indicating that hope for the future is as tenuous as their current situation.