The Fifth World:Post-apocalyptic (Feel)
From The Fifth World
The post-apocalyptic genre usually confirms Thomas Hobbes' proclamation in Leviathan: "...and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." A distinct irony seems evident in this, given the original purpose of apocalyptic literature. Apocalypse (Ἀποκάλυψις, transliterated as "APOKALYPSIS," literally translated as "lifting the veil") offered hope to oppressed minorities with the promise that good would eventually triumph, the faithful would recieve their reward, and the wicked, as powerful as they might seem at present, will ultimately come to ruin. But post-apocalyptic fiction generally portrays such life as horrific and violent: a daily struggle for even the most basic needs, where people experience the apocalypse as an incredible loss.
The apocalypse of the Fifth World comes from the collapse of civilization, and while it shares some catastrophic themes in common with much other post-apocalyptic fiction, it also sets a decidedly different tone, which harkens back to the original meaning of apocalypse, as a kind of global renewal.
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[edit] Related fiction
[edit] Film
- Mad Max (1979) (IMDB, Wikipedia) In many ways, Mad Max presents the archetypal post-apocalyptic scenario. It has very little in common with the Fifth World; by the time of the Fifth World, people like Mad Max have died out.
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) (IMDB, Wikipedia)
- Waterworld (1995) (IMDB, Wikipedia)
- The Time Machine (2002) (IMDB, Wikipedia) Though this film has little to do with H.G. Wells' novel, the look of the Eloi village evokes the Fifth World strongly.
- Origin: Spirits of the Past (2006) (Wikipedia)
[edit] Themes in common with most post-apocalyptic fiction
- Global warming has caused massive ecological and geographical changes.
- An evolutionary explosion has created many new types of life, sometimes monstrous.
- The Rusting Age
- The ruins of civilization, and the widespread use of civilized artifacts in alternative ways
- Desperation in isolated areas where civilization continues
- Nuclear legacies, including nuclear power plant meltdown zones and mutations
[edit] Themes that defy most post-apocalyptic fiction
- Most surviving humans have gone feral
- The emergence of pseudo-utopian cultures.
- Most Fifth Worlders see the collapse of civilization as, generally, a good thing
[edit] Examples
- Little of civilization remains. Towns, roads, even cities have largely returned to the living world, overgrown and populated with animals.
- Areas that can support agriculture occur very infrequently. Where those pockets exist, they form from exceptional confluences of geography and ecology. Farming usually does begin in those areas, but that farming destroys the conditions fairly quickly, and without anywhere to expand to, the end result sees a Neolithic kingdom rise and then fall calamitously, in just a few centuries at most.
- Mining for metals generally does not yield much. Some metals do exist, though; mostly bog iron, and the occasional meteorite. Thus, blacksmiths with the knowledge to work such metals have become exceedingly rare. Iron tools or weapons generally recieve treatment as magical items, while Fifth Worlders regard blacksmiths as an incredible kind of magician.
- Though most of the effects of civilization dissipated rapidly, some long-lasting, lingering effects remain, like nuclear power, global warming and feral animal populations.
