Apocalypse Revisited: a Critical Study on End Times [1 ed.] 9781848883406, 9789004370739

Citation preview

Apocalypse, Revisited

Series Editors Dr Robert Fisher Lisa Howard Dr Ken Monteith Advisory Board Simon Bacon Katarzyna Bronk John L. Hochheimer Stephen Morris Peter Twohig

Ana Borlescu Ann-Marie Cook Peter Mario Kreuter John Parry Karl Spracklen S Ram Vemuri

A Critical Issues research and publications project. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/ The Ethos Hub ‘Apocalypse: Imagining the End’

2015

Apocalypse, Revisited: A Critical Study on End Times

Edited by

Melis Mulazimoglu Erkal

Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom

© Inter-Disciplinary Press 2015 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/id-press/

The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative, and which provides an exemplar for inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary publishing.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Inter-Disciplinary Press.

Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland, Oxfordshire. OX29 8HR, United Kingdom. +44 (0)1993 882087

ISBN: 978-1-84888-340-6 First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2015. First Edition.

Table of Contents Introduction: Apocalypse, Again? Melis Mulazimoglu Erkal Part I

Christian Apocalypse The Strange Case of Frank Stranges: Space, Saucers and a Fundamentalist Apocalypse in the Mid-Twentieth Century Daved Anthony Schmidt

Part II

vii

3

Christian Universalism and the Outsourcing of Hell Bernard Marcus Woodley

13

Apocalypse: Good and Bad Mladen Milicevic

25

Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead and the End of the ‘New World’ Kiron Ward

33

Cultural Apocalypse And I Feel Fine: Reflections of the Apocalypse in Popular Music Seth Habhegger

47

China, Modernity and Apocalypse: A Sociological Imagination Guang Xia

55

The Oulu Prophecy and Finland and Cold War Ville Jalovaara

65

Part III Literary (Post) Apocalypse Historicism, Empire and the Apocalyptic in Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick João Félix

77

After the End: Moral Utopianism in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake Yu-Ching Wang

87

Part IV

Part V

Cinematic Apocalypse The End of Pluralism in Béla Tarr’s Apocalyptic A torinói ló/The Turin Horse Phil Mann

101

Siren, Mother or Divinity: An Exploration of Femininity in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Deep Impact Bronwen Welch

113

Language Use and Instruction after the Apocalypse Jason D. Hendryx

121

Marketing the Apocalypse Fear and Consumption in the Face of Disaster Jennifer Drissel

137

Sirince, 2012: Apocalypse and Its Interpretations around the Globe Melis Mulazimoglu Erkal

147

Introduction: Apocalypse, Again? Melis Mulazimoglu Erkal Hail survivors of the 3rd Global Conference on Apocalypse, organized by the members of Inter-Disciplinary.Net at Mansfield College, Oxford in June 2014.1 This introductory note is to welcome readers to the collection of valuable papers presented at the conference which has been a prolific outcome of inter-disciplinary and academic study on the Apocalypse. We have been imagining this end for so long. The time is ripe for an academic closure. This work, in front of you includes different dimensions for the concept, Apocalypse and handles it in multiple contexts from literature to cinematography, social life and popular culture, history and religion. As indicated by the project members of the conference, one purpose of the gathering was to discuss Apocalypse from myriad frames such as the historical, literary, cultural and political. Secondly, it was to explore mankind’s fascination with End Time scenarios and thirdly, to understand why apocalypse always sells. During the 3 day-long conference, the delegates coming from a variety of nationalities and academic backgrounds discussed the definition, significance and the function of the Apocalypse, its symbolic meanings, and more importantly its prevalence not only in Western societies but also in the other parts of the globe. We ended up with the idea that popularity of the concept depends a lot on the multiple meanings tied to Apocalypse, emphasizing on the plurality of the term apocalypses rather than just one big Apocalypse. Originally a Greek word meaning unveiling of information, Apocalypse mainly depends on the prophetic revelation depicted in the Book of Revelation. However, we have come a long way now and apocalypse in its contemporary usage refers to End Time fears, anxieties or fascination with it. Apocalypse may indicate the traumatic past of one culture haunting its present condition, as well as pointing at the urgency for an ecological catastrophe yet to come. Apocalypse is located more in the present than in future, denoting the process of becoming rather than the finality of an age. Apocalypse both in its religious and secular manifestations, determines the way mankind copes with fear and shows how end time stories about death and decay formulate beginning theories for life. The selection includes most of the papers presented at the conference. Consists of 14 chapters organized into 5 parts, this critical study frames Apocalypse in terms of religious, cultural, literary, cinematic and consumerist practices. In Part 1, ‘Christian Apocalypse,’ the authors handle the concept from a religious perspective and discuss its relation to the society/individual in the 19th, 20th and 21th centuries. In the first chapter, ‘The Strange Case of Frank Stranges: Space, Saucers and a Fundamentalist Apocalypse in the Mid-Twentieth Century,’ Daved Anthony Schmidt examines how ‘Christian fundamentalists interacted with and interpreted the emerging subject of UFOs in the 1950s and 1960s via the writings

viii

Apocalypse, Again?

__________________________________________________________________ of Frank Stranges.’ ‘Christian Universalism and the Outsourcing of Hell’ by Bernard Marcus Woodley considers how ‘hellish circumstances of production and inadequate pay of the 19th century Victorian society are still largely the norm on a global scale. This idea of hell, connected to apokatastatic eschatology and the Christian concept of universalism is worked out in today’s societies’ as reflected in his chapter. In the third selection, ‘Apocalypse: Good and Bad’ Mladen Milicevic claims how ‘apocalyptic scenarios and realities strengthen religiousness, and whether religiousness can be considered adaptive and useful in an evolutionary sense. He furthers the question as in how many times the planet Earth would provide a playground for this scenario to be repeated over and over again.’ In ‘Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead and the End of the New World,’ Kiron Ward examines ‘the peculiar brand of millenarianism that emerges in Silko’s prophecy-novel which is a critique of visions of the future that depend on a total break with the past and the land, opening up a discursive space for a political radicalism and environmental justice.’ Part 2, ‘Cultural Apocalypse,’ focuses on how authors comment on the varied reflections of apocalypse in popular culture and social life. In ‘And I Feel Fine: Reflections of the Apocalypse in Popular Music,’ Seth Habhegger discusses how ‘music has provided a vehicle for exploring the themes of apocalypse throughout the 20th Century and into the 21st.’ Surveying a number of popular songs with apocalyptic tones, Habhegger demonstrates the songs’ imaginative, contextual, and applicable qualities as well as their relevance in the past, present, and future. Guang Xia’s chapter entitled ‘China, Modernity and Apocalypse: A Sociological Imagination’ is a critique on how ‘Chinese modernity may be apocalyptical for the Western world.’ Xia claims that both politically and culturally, Chinese modernity seems subversive to the status quo, hence today’s China appears to be a double Other for the West and its civilizational rival. In the next chapter ‘The Oulu Prophecy and Finland and Cold War,’ Ville Jalovaara discusses how ‘a common fear of the Soviet Union in the Finnish Lutheran Church during the Cold War was intensified by the preaching called the ‘Oulu´s prophecy.’’ In his chapter Jalovaara tries to find out to which extend ‘the Oulu Prophecy was an apocalyptic movement indicating that its followers were waiting for the end of world in near future as a result of a global nuclear war.’ Part 3 handles apocalypse from a literary aspect, mainly discussing how apocalyptic discourse is reflected on science-fiction and dystopic/utopic fiction. João Félix’s ‘Historicism, Empire and the Apocalyptic in Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick’ is a chapter that revisits the idea of a falling civilization, mainly Roman Empire in contemporary historical Science Fiction. Felix ‘envisions the postapocalyptic as an opportunity to restage history as a totality on a clean slate in the narratology of Dick and Asimov.’ In ‘After the End: Moral Utopianism in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake,’ Yu-Ching Wang analyzes what life may be like in a post-apocalyptic world of Atwood’s. In this light, ‘the novel resonates

Melis Mulazimoglu Erkal

ix

__________________________________________________________________ with Zygmunt Bauman’s idea of moral utopianism, which lies in taking responsibility for the other rather than exceeding human limits or achieving a totalitarian blueprint.’ The fourth part of this study centres on the reflection of apocalypse on white screen with examples from European and Hollywood cinema. ‘The End of Pluralism in Béla Tarr’s Apocalyptic A torinóiló/ The Turin Horse’ by Phil Mann is an interesting study figuring out ‘how forced containment can be understood as an allegorical representation of the Fidesz government’s attempts to silence dissidents through the centralisation of Hungarian media.’ As stated by Mann, the film’s descent into nothingness is claimed to be an allegorical foretelling, prophesying the repercussions of the Fidesz government and changes to the nation’s media laws, which have led to fears over the integrity of media pluralism in Hungary. In ‘Siren, Mother or Divinity: An Exploration of Femininity in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Deep Impact’ Bronwen Welch centres on the depiction of normative gender roles in Hollywood cinema. Welch questions to what extend ‘these two films serve to maintain or transcend social order in given apocalyptical contexts.’ Lastly, Jason D. Hendryx in his ‘Language Use and Instruction after the Apocalypse’ examines apocalypse on a linguistic level ‘trying to find out which kinds of languages will continue to be utilized and learned by survivors in post-apocalyptic environments as exemplified in a variety of films, TV series, fiction and documentaries.’ It is hoped that ‘by critically examining such questions and their possible answers, new imagined spaces for further inquiry into language use, learning, and change might emerge.’ The final section of this book focuses on marketing the apocalypse. Beside the religious and secular manifestations of the concept, it is the consumerist practices that determine the contemporary meaning of the Apocalypse at present time. In that sense, Jennifer Drissel’s ‘Fear and Consumption in the Face of Disaster’ is a brilliant chapter on how ‘increased media attention surrounding post apocalyptic scenarios has contributed to extreme and abundant consumption in recent years.’ Drissel conveys how ‘these factors work to create an environment of hyper-active consumerism and paranoia within the American public.’ Through analyzing shows such as Doomsday Preppers and Doomsday Bunkers, she explores how ‘these shows become infectious to the spectator and encourage the viewer to embrace the idea that one can never be too prepared, and that the only way to do such is to overindulge in consumer products.’ Apart from the USA, marketing and broadcasting the apocalypse is also reflected in a Turkish context as exemplified in my paper, ‘Sirince, 2012: Apocalypse and Its Interpretations around the Globe.’ Discussing Apocalypse as a product of globalization and consumerism in the frame of Sirince phenomenon, it is argued that ‘media has a substantial role in transforming the universe into a global village, where the masses are affected by the same cultural trends and thoughts which give them the will to survive and an identity to cling to.’ Adding to this argument, the gathering at Sirince signals how

x

Apocalypse, Again?

__________________________________________________________________ Apocalypse prevails as a part of a grand narrative -to be consumed and re-created again and again- fitting the spirit of times. The need to understand, categorize and interpret Apocalypse has been the topic for this year’s productive meeting. Reflected by the delegates’ valuable contributions briefly mentioned above, it is argued that mankind’s fascination with end times is not new and apocalypse has always been a significant part of our stay in this world. Whether it is the Apocalypse now, then and yet to come, or little apocalypses we have been through, beside a textual apocalypse where the bomb is only a metaphor2, the concept is also reflected as an in-between situation, a process, a becoming. The concept is ripe for further inquiry and this valuable study is definitely not the only way about how it ends. Until we meet again in forthcoming issues of academic apocalyptic discourses, this work will ease fears and expectations of an end to come!

Notes 1

I have been influenced by many sources while thinking about the title and content. Jacques Derrida’s article ‘No Apocalypse, Not Now’ (1984), Coppola’s movie, Apocalypse Now (1979), T.S. Eliot’s two poems, ‘The Waste Land’ (1922) and ‘The Hollow Men,’ (1925), Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899), Fleisher’s Soylent Green (1973), DeLillo’s White Noise (1985), Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006), Trier’s Melancholia (2011) and lately, Nolan’s Interstellar (2014), to name only a few. 2 For further research, please check Jean Baudrillard and Jacques Derrida.

Bibliography Baudrillard, Jean. ‘The Anorexic Ruins.’ Looking Back on the End of the World. Edited by Dietmar Kamper and Christopher Wulf, 29-49. NY: Semiotexte, 1989. ———. The Illusion of the End. Translated by Chris Turner. Stanford UP, 1994. Berger, James. After the End: Representations of Post-Apocalypse. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP, 1999. Dellamora, Richard. Apocalyptic Overtures: Sexual Politics and the Sense of an Ending. New Jersey: Rutgers, 1994.

Part I Christian Apocalypse

The Strange Case of Frank Stranges: Space, Saucers and a Fundamentalist Apocalypse in the Mid-Twentieth Century Daved Anthony Schmidt Abstract This chapter uses the ministry and writings of Frank Stranges to examine how Christian fundamentalists interacted with and interpreted the emerging subject of UFOs in the 1950s and 1960s. Unlike many contemporary Christians, Stranges took a positive stance toward the subject. He believed flying saucers offered a message from God warning humanity about its errors in order to prepare it for the Second Coming. Moreover, Stranges made the extraordinary claim that he met and maintained contact with a Venusian Christian who had come to earth to reveal the cosmic context of Christianity. While Stranges was atypical in his beliefs, studying his story begins to contribute to the understudied subject of the Christian response to the UFO phenomenon and the basis of his views reveals concerns generally shared by other Christians in this period. This chapter argues that Stranges shared with others a concern for the religious implication of space exploration, particularly what it would mean to discover new life and how scientific advancement might challenge traditional religious perspectives. Exploring this subject, therefore, will elucidate both the relationship between Christian and paranormal beliefs and the broader religious imaginations of fundamentalists in the mid-twentieth century. Key Words: Aliens, apocalypse, Christianity, Cold War, eschatology, flying saucers, millennialism, outer space, scripture, UFOs. ***** 1. Introduction Frank Stranges (1927-2008) was an anomaly in American religious history. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1927 and raised in a Pentecostal church, he attended Eastern Bible College in Pennsylvania, studying psychology, and subsequently began a short career as a criminal investigator. He had felt called to the ministry at a young age, however, and during the 1950s ministerial work became his life’s focus. Throughout the decade, he built a name for himself as an evangelist and spoke at churches across the United States. In 1959, he founded the International Evangelism Crusades, a non-denominational organization that eventually established a presence in over twenty countries. Stranges’ work and theologically conservative position on Biblical inerrancy, his interest in prophecy, and his fierce distain for communism were typical of other fundamentalists of the 1950s and 60s. What made him exceptional was his outspoken interest in the emerging subject of flying saucers. Stranges published his first book on the subject,

4

The Strange Case of Frank Stranges

__________________________________________________________________ Flying Saucerama, in 1959, which argued that they held a special message for Christians in the last days.1 Even more extraordinary, that same year he claimed he met an alien who imparted divine wisdom to him and with whom he struck a longlasting friendship. Until recently it has been largely assumed by scholars that there is an inverse relationship between UFO beliefs and Christianity. 2 The more tightly one holds to scriptural literalism, or to the doctrine of creation, in other words, the less likely one will be seriously interested in aliens or flying saucers. Many Christians in the 1950s and ‘60s denied their existence altogether. Others believed flying saucers existed, but categorized them as demonic. Stranges provides a case study of how a Christian positively engaged the early UFO movement. At the same time, while Stranges’ claims placed him on the margins of evangelicalism in this period, they do illuminate concerns more broadly felt. UFOs became symbolic of the anxiety Christians felt over the spread of communism, technology and the Bomb. Most importantly, they symbolized the anxiety many experienced over space exploration and its religious implications. Stranges’ apocalyptic interpretation of UFOs was certainly on the fringes of Christian thought. But it is often by looking to the margins that we see most clearly the issues at the centre. 2. UFOs in Cultural Context Unexplainable objects have been witnessed in the sky for centuries, but the widespread idea that these objects were controlled by intelligent beings from other worlds only began in the 1940s.3 In June of 1947, amateur pilot Kenneth Arnold saw nine flying objects moving, as he described, like a saucer skipping on water while flying his plane near Mt. Rainier in Washington State. By the end of the year, around 850 similar sightings of ‘flying saucers’ were reported in America alone.4 Over the next two decades, the American government opened official investigations tasked with gathering evidence and evaluating UFO sightings. Hundreds of amateur organizations were founded in order to do the same, such as the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon (NICAP). Stranges would found his own organization, the National Investigations Committee on UFOs, in 1967. By that time, the government had investigated over 10,000 sightings, with thousands more going unreported. The question early on was twofold. If they are real, where they military technology? And if they were extraterrestrial, why were they here? A number of factors lay behind the growing pop-cultural prominence of UFOs. Christopher Partridge points to media coverage of the Arnold incident and subsequent sightings as one important reason.5 Of course, movies such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) placed the subject prominently in the public imagination. Popular radio programs like that of John Nebel’s on New York City’s WOR routinely discussed flying saucers, interviewed witnesses, and hosted UFO experts throughout the 1950s and Stranges cited Nebel’s program has having

Daved Anthony Schmidt

5

__________________________________________________________________ shaped his beliefs.6 Magazines like Raymond Palmer’s Flying Saucers from Other Worlds helped sparked public interest, as did the work of August C. Roberts who, in addition to collecting and supplying magazines with UFO photographs, published his own volume of saucer images. 7 The importance of the Cold War context, and the seemingly rapid advance of military technology, cannot be overstated. The era was one of tremendous optimism about the future and the potential of technology, but also one of anxiety over the limits of human control of this technology and the potential for society, in the name of self preservation, to destroy itself. Theories about UFOs always measured them against existing military capabilities and even placed them within the Cold War struggle itself. Some suggested they were a weapon being developed by the U.S. under the same shroud of secrecy that had covered the Manhattan Project. Others, such as Major Donald Keyhoe, a former naval officer and cofounder of NICAP, believed they were other worldly and that the government was not disclosing all it knew. His books Flying Saucers are Real (1950) and Flying Saucers From Outer Space (1953) argued that the purported speed and manoeuvres of the objects vastly outperformed any earthly aircraft. 8 In this context, saucers drew the same mixture of curiosity and fear as the atomic bomb and for people like Keyhoe they were tied to the same existential anxieties that such technology evoked. Keyhoe believed their purpose on earth was clear. The sudden widespread number of sightings could only mean, in the words of a colleague, that they were ‘measuring us for a knockout.’9 Arguably the biggest contributing factor behind interest in flying saucers was the pursuit of our own space endeavours. Whether or not they were actually secret military weapons or extraterrestrial, public interest in saucers was primed by the very real earthly efforts to develop rocketry and space craft that would take human beings to the moon and beyond. It seemed realistic with the advance of technology that this would happen soon. Perhaps, through our travels, we would encounter life. While Christians such as Stranges certainly participated in the excitement surrounding space flight, it is important to remember that for many space explorations potentially challenged old theological assumptions about God, the universe, and humanity’s place in creation. There was a sense that a new age had arrived and with it questions about the relevance and limitations of Christianity as it had been practiced. Dozens of books by evangelical ministers, such as James Roy Smith’s God Still Speaks in the Space Age, Walter Scragg’s The Bible and the Space Age, and Charles Halff’s The Bible and Space Travel, asked how discovering life on other planets might change our reading of Genesis, our view of the Bible’s accuracy, or our understanding of Jesus and salvation. 10 Would exploring the heavens cause the same reevaluation of Christian thought that occurred after Copernicus or Darwin? The Space Age impacted faith, then, and the underlying question was where to find God in a vast universe.

6

The Strange Case of Frank Stranges

__________________________________________________________________ Stranges’ 1959 book Flying Saucerama was a product of this milieu and was directed to a Christian audience excited, yet troubled, by the potential of space flight. When one reflects on the incredible distances found in space, he said, ‘you begin to see how isolated is our solar system’ and have to realize that ‘our earth is a tiny speck.’11 Saucers, for him, provided meaning to this isolation and evidence that God was indeed in a universe increasingly disenchanted by science. In order to appreciate this, one needed to overcome what he called the fear, ignorance, and superstition that had shaped opinions of UFOs. 3. Flying Saucerama and the Meaning of UFOs Stranges began investigating UFOs in the late 1940s, only a few years after the Kenneth Arnold incident. Through his research he met figures associated with NICAP such as Leonard H. Stringfield, the organization’s director, Donald Keyhoe, and Ray Palmer. He also became friends with August Roberts. Flying Saucerama was Stranges’ attempt to navigate between outright denial of the phenomenon and misconceptions about UFOs. Those explaining their origin, he said, have resorted to ‘speculation and mere guesswork.’12 Saucers were real, but only by ‘the use of facts and reason, always supported by the sacred scriptures’ can one fully understand them.13 The most troubling fact for believers and sceptics alike was the sheer number of cases being reported. Many were made by government and military officials, police officers, teachers, ministers, reporters, pilots, and professional scientists. ‘Men and women of high repute,’ Stranges claimed, ‘would hardly perjure themselves for the sake of notoriety.’14 Such reliable witnesses lent credibility to the phenomenon. Proponents certainly understood that people were fallible. Optical illusions, natural phenomena, cases of mistaken identity, not a space ship, could adequately explain a light in the sky. But not all cases could be dismissed in this way. Many Christian believers, following Keyhoe and many science fiction movies, interpreted flying saucers as malevolent, specifically as demonic manifestations in the last days meant to lead believers astray and aid the antichrist. Fellow Pentecostal writer Sam Todd made this connection in Flying Saucers, Atomic Bombs and the Second Coming of Christ.15 W.V. Grant believed UFOs were demonic in his Men in the Flying Saucers Identified - Not A Mystery!, and went so far as to say they were aiding Communist Russia. 16 Other UFO myths, however, drew from the theosophical tradition and put forth a benevolent rather than a malevolent alien. For George Adamski, the first person to claim contact with a saucer occupant, as well as other emerging New Age ‘UFO religions’ like the Raëlians, the occupants were humanoid ‘space brothers’ (often from Venus) here to offer spiritual and technological guidance out of concern that humanity would soon destroy itself.17 In both cases, saucers were sacralized into ‘technological angels.’ For some, they happened to be fallen ones.

Daved Anthony Schmidt

7

__________________________________________________________________ Stranges believed that to fully understand what was happening one had to look beyond orthodox science and religion. He was not suggesting UFOs offered a new revelation from God, but rather shed new light on old revelation, which resulted in a more accurate understanding of scripture and nature. This involved confronting people who resented any ‘threats to their way of life’ since, he said, ‘the history of progress proves that dedicated minorities often change history itself.’18 There could be no fault in the truth, Stranges contended. ‘As a Bible expositor, I’ve studied the Scriptures for many years. Within the confines of the sacred Scriptures, we find the answers to the ills of this world. We find the key that is capable of unlocking the secrets of the universe itself. Now, if this is true, perhaps the Bible will give us the answer to the flying-saucer riddle.’19 The Bible, he reminded his readers, does not say there is life on other planets. But it also does not say there is not. Stranges’ believed UFOs were messengers from God, literally evangelists or angels.20 Perhaps, he hypothesized, ‘the affairs of men on earth have gotten so far out of hand that the Divine Creator has dispatched His Angels to help us during this crucial period?’21 Social unrest, the spread of communism, growing secularism all seemed to be portents of the end. Furthermore, the church was fractured and unable to stop them.22 Did not the Luke speak of heavenly signs and wonders appearing in the last days? Only by returning to God, he said, could this generation ‘develop into maturity, ready and willing to face the problems of the day, and together overcome the obstacles confronting humanity.’23 Within this theological framework, UFOs became a warning, a revelation of knowledge that would awaken and unite Christians by pointing to the divine reality that transcended the limitations of earth. 4. Valiant Thor and Cosmic Christianity It was at a book signing in Washington D.C. in December of 1959 when Stranges met Nancy Warren, a Pentagon employee and fellow UFO enthusiast who was taken aback by a photograph he had shown during his talk. In 1957, August Roberts had contacted Stranges claiming to have met an alien who had come to earth from Venus. Roberts photographed this Venusian as he lectured to a small gathering of people in High Bridge, New Jersey. Stranges had been using the picture in his sermons and lectures. According to Stranges, Warren approached him with an invitation to meet this very alien. He later published a book about this encounter titled, Stranger at the Pentagon.24 The Venusian was named Valiant Thor and at this meeting he explained to Stranges the reason for his visit. Thor was a dapper humanoid, around 6 feet tall who, in addition to piercing eyes and a firm handshake, had the wisdom of one who had lived thousands of years. And indeed he had. Thor’s civilization had been observing human society for millennia. He had personally commanded observation missions when we were living in caves and he and his crew were greeted by us throwing rocks at his space craft. He witnessed this same fear and confusion later

8

The Strange Case of Frank Stranges

__________________________________________________________________ when we shot arrows at them. Still later we fired cannons and bullets. Now we sent fighter jets. The people of earth were territorial and war-like, Thor said, who out of instinct ‘sought to protect themselves against any foreign force.’25 When instruments on Venus detected nuclear explosions, Thor’s people worried about our safety. In addition to continued surveillance, they concluded it was time for direct intervention. Thor commanded around 70 other Venusians and their mission, in short, was to infiltrate human society, eliminate nuclear stockpiles, give knowledge to proven individuals, and speak with the political and religious leaders of earth. 26 He landed on March 16, 1957 near Washington and was voluntarily taken into custody by the military. Since then he stayed mostly at the Pentagon to undergo tests and met with government and religious officials. He offered these leaders knowledge of how to achieve peace and prosperity for all humankind by eliminating poverty, sickness, and even death. Thor’s message, however, was a mixture of New Age thought and traditional evangelical teaching. In sum, the universe contained independent civilizations united by knowledge of God, each taking a different historical and spiritual course. Unlike people on Earth, the Venusians did not suffer the stain of original sin. According to Thor, his ability to read humans was a ‘gift from the Almighty Creator for those created beings who have never transgressed His perfect laws.’27 There was no need for a Bible on Venus because ‘a personal unbroken fellowship with the ‘Author’ did not necessitate the printing of a ‘book.’’28 The Christian story as we know it on earth was necessary because of the spiritual condition of humanity. Christian truth was universal, in other words, but the ‘systems’ on earth were localized manifestations. Thor’s point was that God is universally present. Only in this light can one fully understand God’s power, the scale of God’s love, and one’s place in the cosmos. Only then would tribalism on earth fade and humans achieve the type of morality and knowledge other planets possessed. Thor’s mission was ultimately to reveal this knowledge and transform existing social and religious structures in preparation for the Second Coming. His directive was to ‘help people back to God’ and encourage the creation of a one-world government ‘under the control of God-loving scientists not professional politicians, prior to the establishment of God’s kingdom.’29 Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, and other religious and secular leaders ultimately rejected Thor’s offer. They feared it would destroy the world’s economy and, more importantly, undermine their power base. Plan B was to use sympathetic religious leaders like Stranges to spread the message. After his meeting with Stranges, Thor left earth on March 16, 1960, three years to the day after he arrived. Over the years Thor would return to visit Stranges, who would incorporate Thor’s message into his own ministry.

Daved Anthony Schmidt

9

__________________________________________________________________ 5. Conclusion It would be easy to enter a lopsided debate over whether or not Thor existed. Stranges always denied he fabricated the story. While Stranges’ followers were certainly genuine, outside of Roberts’ photographs, no one ever saw Thor, his spacecraft, or shared in his secrets directly. But Thor’s existence is beside the point. The faith of Stranges and his followers and what it tells us about its context is what is important. Thor was an angelic figure sent to earth to steady the waters in a period of immense change. He came to eliminate nuclear weapons, confirmed God’s existence, and offer a Christian path to social harmony. It is no coincidence he stayed at the Pentagon, and neither is it that he was a clean-cut white male. More than a mere guardian angel, however, he was a Christ-like figure that symbolized God’s presence in the heavens and on earth. He existed seemingly before all ages, came down from heaven to dwell among us, ministered for three years, was sinless, and ultimately was rejected. His message revealed the cosmic context of the faith at a time when Christians struggled with godless communism as well as the idea of a godless universe. Whatever their reality, UFOs and Thor became vehicles for conveying uncertainty when science seemed poised to claim another part of creation as its own. They strengthened faith in an unseen God at the dawn of a new age of exploration. And faith, after all, however Strange in this case, is sometimes the best evidence of things unseen.

Notes 1

Frank E. Stranges, Flying Saucerama (New York: Vantage, 1959). For an overview of this see Jeff Levin, ‘Revisiting the Alexander UFO Religious Crisis Survey (AUFORCS): Is There Really a Crisis?’ Journal of Scientific Exploration 26.2 (2012): 273-284. See also Richard H. Hall, The UFO Evidence: A Thirty-Year Report, Vol. 2 (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2001), 632; Hall discusses Dennis P. Rosenbaum, Richard A. Maier, and Paul J. Lavrakas’ ‘Belief in Extraterrestrial Life: A Challenge to Christian Doctrine and Fundamentalists?’ Journal of UFO Studies 2 (1980): 47-57. 3 For an overview, see Brenda Denzler, The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passions, Religious Beliefs, and the Pursuit of UFOs (Berkley: University of California Press, 2001), 1-33. 4 Christopher Partridge, ‘Understanding UFO Religions and Abduction Spiritualities,’ in UFO Religions, ed. Christopher Partridge (London: Routledge, 2003), 5. 5 Christopher Partridge, ‘Alien Demonology: The Christian Roots of the Malevolent Extraterrestrial in UFO Religions and Abduction Spiritualities,’ Religion 34.3 (2004): 163-189; see also Ken Hollings, Welcome to Mars: Politics, Pop Culture, and Weird Science in 1950s America (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2014). 2

10

The Strange Case of Frank Stranges

__________________________________________________________________ 6

Stranges, Flying Saucerama, 48. Brad Steiger and August C. Roberts, Enemies from Outer Space: The Flying Saucer Menace (New York: Award Books, 1967). 8 Donald Keyhoe, Flying Saucers are Real (New York: Fawcett Publications, 1950) and Flying Saucers from Outer Space (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1953). 9 Keyhoe, Flying Saucers from Outer Space, 209. 10 James Roy Smith, God Still Speaks in the Space Age (Kansas City: Beacon Hill, 1967); Herschel H. Hobbs, Space Age Religion: Sermons (Fort Worth: Southern Baptists’ Radio and Television Commission, 1963); Walter Scragg, The Bible and the Space Age (Warburton, Victoria, AU: Signs Publishing Company, 1960); Charles Halff, The Bible and Space Travel (San Antonio: Christian Jew Hour, 1959). 11 Stranges, Flying Saucerama, 13-14. 12 Ibid., 9. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid., 48. 15 Sam Todd, Flying Saucers, Atomic Bombs and the Second Coming of Christ (Sermon, Newnan, Ga., 1955). 16 W.V. Grant, Men in the Flying Saucers Identified: Not A Mystery! (Dallas: Faith Clinic, 1954). 17 Desmond Leslie and George Adamski, Flying Saucers have Landed (British Book Centre, 1953); see also Benjamin E. Zeller, ‘At the Nexus of Science and Religion: UFO Religions,’ Religion Compass 5 (2011): 666-674; and John A. Saliba, ‘The Study of UFO Religions,’ Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 10 (2006): 103-123. 18 Stranges, Flying Saucerama, 11. 19 Ibid., 110. 20 Ibid., 111. 21 Ibid., 111. 22 Ibid., 112. 23 Ibid. 24 Frank Stranges, The Stranger at the Pentagon (Van Nuys, CA: International Evangelism Crusades, 1967). 25 Ibid., 3. 26 Ibid., 10. 27 Ibid., 26. 28 Ibid., 28. 29 Ibid., 14. 7

Daved Anthony Schmidt

11

__________________________________________________________________

Bibliography Denzler, Brenda. The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passions, Religious Beliefs, and the Pursuit of UFOs. Berkley: University of California Press, 2001. Grant, W.V. Men in the Flying Saucers Identified: Not A Mystery! Dallas: Faith Clinic, 1954. Halff, Charles. The Bible and Space Travel. San Antonio: Christian Jew Hour, 1959. Hall, Richard H. The UFO Evidence: A Thirty-Year Report, Vol. 2. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2001. Hollings, Ken. Welcome to Mars: Politics, Pop Culture, and Weird Science in 1950s America. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2014. Keyhoe, Donald. Flying Saucers are Real. New York: Fawcett Publications, 1950. ———. Flying Saucers from Outer Space. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1953. Leslie, Desmond and George Adamski. Flying Saucers Have Landed. British Book Centre, 1953. Levin, Jeff. ‘Revisiting the Alexander UFO Religious Crisis Survey (AUFORCS): Is There Really a Crisis?’ Journal of Scientific Exploration 26.2 (2012): 273-284. Partridge, Christopher. ‘Understanding UFO Religions and Abduction Spiritualities.’ In UFO Religions, ed. Christopher Partridge. London: Routledge, 2003. ———. ‘Alien Demonology: The Christian Roots of the Malevolent Extraterrestrial in UFO Religions and Abduction Spiritualities.’ Religion 34.3 (2004): 163-189. Rosenbaum, Dennis P., Richard A. Maier, and Paul J. Lavrakas. ‘Belief in Extraterrestrial Life: A Challenge to Christian Doctrine and Fundamentalists?’ Journal of UFO Studies 2 (1980): 47-57. Saliba, John A. ‘The Study of UFO Religions.’ Nova Religion: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 10 (2006): 103-123.

12

The Strange Case of Frank Stranges

__________________________________________________________________ Scragg, Walter. The Bible and the Space Age. Warburton, Victoria, AU: Signs Publishing Company, 1960. Smith, James Roy. God Still Speaks in the Space Age. Kansas City: Beacon Hill, 1967. Steiger, Brad and August C. Roberts. Enemies from Outer Space: The Flying Saucer Menace. New York: Award Books, 1967. Stranges, Frank E. Flying Saucerama. New York: Vantage, 1959. ———. The Stranger at the Pentagon. Van Nuys, CA: International Evangelism Crusades, 1967. Zeller, Benjamin E. ‘At the Nexus of Science and Religion: UFO Religions.’ Religion Compass 5 (2011): 666-674 Daved Anthony Schmidt is a PhD candidate in American religion at Princeton Theological Seminary. His research focuses on late-nineteenth and twentieth century evangelicalism and he is interested in particular in questions related to popular piety, millennialism, religious innovation, and popular science.

Christian Universalism and the Outsourcing of Hell Bernard Marcus Woodley Abstract Since the publication of Rob Bell’s Love Wins in 2011, the discussion about Christian Eschatology has been publically debated once again. In his book, Bell revives the idea of Christian universalism and, coupled with it, that of an earthly hell replacing an after-worldly one. In the face of high Western living standards, however, we may find ourselves asking where exactly the hell he is talking about is supposed to be. One does not have to look far though to find its traces: Casting a glance into the British market basket can be a friendly reminder of Western wealth still being largely dependent on the exploitation of others. It can be considered common knowledge that hellish circumstances of production and inadequate pay are still largely the norm on a global scale just as they were throughout Europe only 150 years ago. In the West, we like to consider the problem solved: economically speaking however, the only action that has taken place is a mere outsourcing of hell. By portraying these kinds of circumstances on our own doorstep, 19th century fiction can help us to visualize what nowadays often seems far off. The Victorian social problem novel describes this kind of hellish life with an astounding topicality, portraying sweaters’ dens which are fully comparable to modern day ones in the majority world. In Charles Kingsley’s Alton Locke, the narrator takes us on a journey to the darkest places of 19th century London right up to ‘the very mouth of hell’.1 It is exactly this idea of hell, connected to apokatastatic eschatology, which is to be worked out in the proposed chapter. The Christian concept of universalism, encompassing the idea of an earthly, nontransient hell is tightly woven into Kingsley’s book. Working this out cannot only lead to a deeper understanding of Alton Locke but also of an apocalyptical concept that is still relevant and applicable to the economical situation today and may help us reconsider modern consumer behavior. Key Words: Christian eschatology, universalism, hell on earth, social change, modern economics, exploitation, Victorian social problem novel. ***** 1. Introduction This is where it could end; Hell. It could end in a place that many would argue is to gruesome to be true, in a subterranean Smithfield,2 a seven circled underworld,3 a utopia of fire and brimstone. The man who, arguably, has the best claim to know hell described it simply as a place where ‘there will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth’.4 Yes, some will argue that this is where it could end. But what if someone told us that this is where it begins? Because this is actually where

14

Christian Universalism and the Outsourcing of Hell

__________________________________________________________________ it began; for millions; for the suffering masses; for our own forefathers, only 150 years ago. Many saw themselves as having been born into hell. The experience of the 19th century speaks of this kind of earthly hell and this may have been one of the causes for the ‘radical change in nineteenth-century theology and Christian teaching’.5 One of these changes saw the revival of the Christian doctrine of universal salvation as we observe it in Victorian theology and literature. And today? All seems done and dusted compared to one and a half centuries ago. Nowadays, a supernatural concept such as hell is often qualified as just another misguided religious delusion.6 Yet, others still take it more seriously, even in the 21st century. In fact, the Christian universalistic idea of an earthly transient hell, replacing an after-worldly eternal one, seems to have regained ground throughout the 19th and 20th century and is still around in contemporary theology. However, personal experience in the 21st century seems to speak against the existence of an earthly hell. In the following, I want to show that this is a premature judgement. I aim to do this in the following manner: In a first step, it is important to outline the Christian apocalyptic concept of universalism and its idea of hell. Next, the 19 th century’s social problem novel, specifically Alton Locke, and its depiction of an earthly hell shall be looked at. It is to be stressed that I am not using this particular book out of the lack of contemporary examples,7 nor do I think that referring back to the 19th century has a distancing effect. On the contrary: using a wellestablished, Western example creates a closeness which can help us experience hell on our own doorstep. In a third and final step, I aim to show that, although we like to consider these problems solved in the minority world, the only action that has taken place economically speaking is a mere outsourcing of hell. Before the discussion begins, however, I want to make one thing clear. In this chapter, it is neither my aim to discuss universalism’s merits and limitations, nor do I want to judge the truthfulness of competing Christian apocalyptic concepts. Infinitely more apt scholars have fought about these for centuries and still different eschatological ideas exist. Instead, what I want to do is show how the concept of an earthly hell can sensitise us to perceive hellish living conditions in our world today. I don’t want to negate any form of (eternal) hell nor do I wish to prove it. My hope is that this concept, which talks about the reality of an earthly hell, carrying a specific, strong metaphorical vocabulary, can provide the topic at hand with the utmost urgency and with the utter seriousness it deserves. 2. Rob Bell and the Newest Universalism Controversy In 2011, Love Wins was published and the discussion about Christian apocalyptic concepts dragged into the open again.8 In a witty 200 page read, Bell displays a modern day interpretation of a belief that goes back to the Greek Church Father Origen. In early Christian Theology, ‘the salvation of the whole human race and the union of all creation’9 were far more widely spread than after it was

Bernard Marcus Woodley

15

__________________________________________________________________ declared heresy at the second Council of Constantinople in 553. Despite this denunciation, Origen’s thoughts never ceased to have an impact on eschatological debates. Even today, leading theologians such as Jürgen Moltmann count it as a serious alternative to ‘a double outcome of judgment’.10 The gist of universalism is rather simple: By abstaining from literally accepting the few scriptural passages arguably talking about everlasting punishment and rather looking to ‘the scriptures of God in their broad outlines’11 one may conclude that the common view of heaven and hell may not necessarily be the most scriptural one. Rather, an earthly hell is suggested supplanting a transient one which will one day be superseded by the restoration of all things at the end of the age. As stated above, I will not be dealing with universalism as a whole in this chapter. Rather, I am taking up the basic idea of a non transient hell so as to show how this concept can help us to recognise traces of a contemporary earthly hell in the midst of our own society. But what idea of hell to work with? Throughout the history of Christendom, there have been many wild interpretations and depictions of hell. I want to restrict myself to its most basic, scripturally based features which describe hell as a place void of God’s righteousness,12 a place of physical as well as spiritual torments,13 and as a place where ‘there will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth’,14 thus encompassing human suffering in its countless forms. 3. Kingsley’s Earthly Hell: More Than a Label In the 19th century, supposedly more liberal minded theologians such as Frederick Temple and F. W. Farrar crusaded against the common view of heaven and hell, arguing for a broader, if not universalist, application of salvation.15 Although the theological arguments they employed weren’t new ones, they were supported by one’s everyday experience with starvation, despair and death seemingly making them more convincing than ever. In the Victorian social problem novel, major novelists, like Dickens in Hard Times or George Gissing in The Nether World, picturesquely display those inhumane circumstances.16 In many of these depictions, it seems that hell itself was come to earth. So, [w]hile theologians wrangled over key words and doctrines, the leading novelists and poets, most of whom held liberal or radically revisionary views on the subject, continued to find in the language traditionally associated with hell a repertoire of resonances and associations through which to describe spiritual experience in the here-and-now, and particularly in the treatment of […] hell on earth.17 Alton Locke might be one of the books which speak of this hell most unabashedly.18 As Kingsley himself devoted a great part of his life to the study of the living and working conditions which gave rise to the Chartist movement, it can

16

Christian Universalism and the Outsourcing of Hell

__________________________________________________________________ hardly be called surprising that his novel brims with biblical apocalyptic language and symbols especially with regard to different concepts of hell. 19 For the sake of this chapter’s topic however, it is much more relevant to consider how living and working conditions are portrayed in order to show the legitimacy of the earth-hell comparison. This is done in two steps: On the one hand, the novel contains vivid depictions of hellish living circumstances culminating in those of Jeremy Downes. The ex-sweater, now a sweater’s man himself, lives and works in a single filthy stinking room with nothing inside it but the naked corpses of his wife and two young children.20 Alton Locke, the novel’s hero, describes this room as ‘the very mouth of hell’.21 On the other hand we have the portrayal of multiple economic practices included in the definition of contemporary forms of slavery.22 It is exactly these practices which lead to the depicted hellish circumstances. The first one which shall be sketched out here is the practice of debt bondage. In Alton Locke this is taken up more than once and in great detail as the narrator describes how workers become ‘slaves, often the bodily prisoners, of [...] sweaters, who draw their livelihood out of [the workers’] starvation’.23 In chapter 21, we have a description of a sweatshop – ‘a fetid, chocking den, with just room enough in it for the seven or eight sallow, starved beings, who coatless, shoeless, and ragged, sat stitching’.24 Here, the workers are bound by unfavourable contracts, in debt to the sweater for lodging and food costs which not only swallow up all the pay but lead them ever further into debt. One of the workers fittingly describes this vicious cycle by openly pleading for someone to take him ‘out of this hell’.25 Another, even more gruesome, practice we can find in Kingsley’s work is that of child labour. When Alton is on a Chartist mission to mobilize the rural poor, he sees two little boys working in the fields. They are described as two little wretches with blue noses and white cheeks, scarecrows of rags and patches, their feet peeping through bursten shoes twice too big for them [...] crying and inarticulate with cold.26 Aside from it being winter, the work they are supposed to do for merely a shilling each week is much too hard and so ‘their little hands were purple with chilblains, and they were so sore-footed they could scarcely limp’.27 There is no space for our modern idea of childhood in a time where ‘children must labour from the cradle without chance of going to school’,28 ending up paupers and prostitutes. This leads us to the third practice we encounter in the book: that of forced prostitution. When Sandy MacKaye takes Alton on a tour through the dark streets of London, they meet Ellen, a single mother of three girls. She is ill and can neither afford food nor medicine. Therefore, one of her daughters, Lizzie, sees no alternative to prostituting herself although this results in bitter self-hatred.29

Bernard Marcus Woodley

17

__________________________________________________________________ Together they dream of escaping to the colonies believing this ‘would be like getting into heaven out of hell’.30 Overall, I think it is reasonable to say that even these few examples of debt bondage, child labour and forced prostitution selected from the novel suffice for supporting the claim that we have a strong depiction of hellish earthly living conditions. This is further backed up by the fact that most of the characters involved actually identify their situation as living in hell. Narratively speaking, we have a multi-perspective consensus on this point as well as on the thought that a hypocritical society, pretending but not acting according to the gospel, is to blame;31 A society which is presented as being full of ‘crime and poverty, all devouring competition, and hopeless struggle against Mammon and Moloch’,32 full of the ‘great spirit of the nineteenth century’ proclaiming the Rehoboamian maxim ‘make haste to be rich’33 not regarding which gruesome practices this may imply. This spirit was backed up by an exploitative economic system, justified by utilitarianism, Spencerian thought and later Social-Darwinism.34 Thus arose ‘the knowledge that there was no remedy, no salvation [...] for us in man, that political economists had declared such to be the law and constitution of society’.35 In view of all this, the Christian universalistic view of an earthly hell seems neither delusional nor ungrounded in empirical evidence 36 but rather thoroughly applicable. 4. Where Is This Hell Today? Even today, theologians such as Moltmann still hold the view of an earthly hell as appropriate for the 21st century. Depending on the country one lives in however, we may find ourselves asking where this hell is supposed to be. In Germany for instance, the existence of living and working conditions as depicted in section 3 is unthinkable, illegal even. Furthermore, Merkel’s grand coalition has even included the establishment of minimum wages in its coalition contract and, with the German industry thriving, the adjusted unemployment rate in March 2014 was as low as 5,1%.37 In other European countries such as Spain and Greece, on the other hand, one out of four persons is currently unemployed.38 Nonetheless, shocking economic practices such as debt bondage are unimaginable even here. 39 It seems that over the course of the last 150 years these aspects of an earthly hell in our midst has disappeared, or at least shrunk. So, how did we do that? Has man found a remedy, a salvation for the suffering masses after all? Staying within the textile industry, the process of outsourcing seems to have been the solution. During the 19th and 20th century, ‘textile technology and work systems were diffused throughout the globe. Once machines were put to work with far cheaper labour in India and Japan, British advantages were eventually erased’.40 Textile goods continued to be sold for the cheapest price possible. Even today, not much has changed and fashionable t-shirts can be had at large clothing retailers starting from as little as two Euros. Objectively, one might think that common

18

Christian Universalism and the Outsourcing of Hell

__________________________________________________________________ sense alone should be enough to realize this can have nothing to do with fair trade. In 2008, The Guardian published an article concerning the supply chain of Primark.41 The BBC’s Panorama programme had exposed that the clothes retailer had been, allegedly without knowing it, ‘subcontracting labour to child workers’.42 In southern Indian refugee camps ‘young children had been working long hours in foul conditions’.43 Sadly, this is no isolated case, since the majority of the larger companies worldwide have ‘tangled supply chains’44 which they cannot be legally held responsible for. According to Finkentscher, Hacker and Podszun, this is exactly the crux of the matter: The problem of market fairness is not only its translation ‘into legal rules’ but also their enforcement.45 Nevertheless, one may think that much has been done in the past century to fight poverty and the hellish living circumstances it brings on a global scale. In a path breaking book, Miers shows that the exploitation of labour has not decreased at all, but has actually increased throughout the 20th century.46 Even today, we face the same problems as we did 150 years ago when Kingsley’s book was written. Debt bondage, for example, ‘was one of the most widespread forms of contemporary slavery’47 throughout the 20th century. Amongst other areas, it is widely spread in South Asia although it was outlawed in many countries during the second half of the twentieth century. The ‘debtors were usually illiterate, landless, rural poor’ who saw themselves forced ‘to take out a loan simply to survive’.48 The practice hasn’t changed much: ‘[Creditors] could levy illegal fines, or charge for food, tools, fertilizer, and other essentials, while keeping wages too low for the debts ever to be repaid’.49 Forced labour is also to be found in modern day sweatshops around the globe. Miers alludes to many examples involving abysmal working conditions as well as demanded yet unpaid overtime in which labour laws had not been enforced: In 1999, for instance, garment factories on the American island of Saipan were employing some forty thousand young Asian women, who had been promised good jobs but were imprisoned in compounds, threatened with violence, and forced to work twelve hours a day, seven days a week producing goods for wellknown U.S. firms.50 As the Guardian article above shows, child labour is also still widely spread, even within Western company’s supply chains. According to Unicef,51 an astounding 49% of Somali children aged between 5 and 14 were engaged in child labour in 2013 with other countries not far behind. Miers also shows that ‘both forced and consensual prostitution’52 were also increasing throughout the 1990’s. In the light of these facts and figures, one has to acknowledge that, in spite of our daily experiences, man has found neither a remedy, nor a salvation for these problems yet. At the end of the last century ‘unprecedented numbers of people

Bernard Marcus Woodley

19

__________________________________________________________________ were in some form of “contemporary slavery” and it was both widespread and perhaps increasing’.53 Hell might have largely been banished from the minority world but clearly not from our market basket. 5. Conclusion Hell - this is where it could end and, more often than not, this is where it begins. Subsequently, it does not seem surprising that the universalistic concept of hell on earth is still taken seriously today by theologians such as Moltmann or Bell. In chapter three, it became increasingly clear that the 19th century’s horrific economic practices allow for an apokatastatic reading of Victorian social problem novels such as Alton Locke when, on the basis of scripture, hell is considered a place of physical as well as spiritual torments, full of desolation and human suffering, and void of the presence God’s righteousness. Even today, the old 19th century problems are far from being solved. In the face of uncontrollable supply chains and the seemingly semi-conscious recklessness of modern consumer behaviour, man’s well-meaning legal efforts seem to have proven futile. Please, let me stress that I don’t want to sound overly pessimistic; much is being done and achieved in the fight against the contemporary forms slavery. These, however, are proving adaptive. The bottom line is, the minority world has found neither remedy nor salvation for an earthly hell; what has been achieved can only be described as a mere outsourcing thereof. Although a little light seems to have been shed on some points, the reader is still left with many open questions at the end of this short chapter. Why have things developed this way? Is it really as Michael S. Aßländer, one of the leading German experts in business ethics, suggests due to a double transformation of economics towards a science, free of morality and values on the one hand and towards a universal theory of human action on the other, thus leading to a society ruled by economical principals alone?54 Another question would be the one concerning proposed solutions. In this case, one might turn back to Alton Locke which offers two approaches: The highly idealistic idea of Christian socialism and the idea of personal sacrifice as displayed in the character of Lady Ellerton. But that is indeed the topic for another chapter.

Notes 1

Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke: Tailor and Poet (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), 333. 2 Kingsley, Alton Locke, 87. 3 Cf. Dante Alighieri, Inferno (NC: Burk Classics, 2013). 4 Mat. 8:12 5 Michael Wheeler, English Fiction of the Victorian Period (New York: Longman, 1994), 187.

20

Christian Universalism and the Outsourcing of Hell

__________________________________________________________________ 6

Cf. Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (London: Simon & Schuster, 2005). 7 For contemporary novels see for example Kashmira Sheth, Boys without Names (New York: Haper Collins, 2010) or Patricia McCormick, Sold (New York: Hyperion, 2006). 8 Cf. Rob Bell, Love Wins (New York: Harper One, 2011). 9 Brian E. Daley, The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology (Cambridge: Cambrige University Press, 1991), 201. 10 Jürgen Moltmann, The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), 241. 11 Frederic William Farrar, Eternal Hope; Five Sermons Preached at West Minster Abbey, November and December, 1877 (Memphis: General Books, 2012), 23. 12 Psalm 11:71. 13 Cf. Luke 16:24, 2 Thessalonians 1:5-9. 14 Mat 8:12. 15 Cf. Frederick Temple, ‘The Education of the World,’ Essays and Reviews, ed. John William Parker (Memphis: General books, 2012); cf. Farrar, Eternal Hope. 16 Cf. Charles Dickens, Hard Times (New York: Bantam, 2004); cf. George Gissing, The Nether World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) 17 Michael Wheeler, Death and the Future Life in Victorian Literature and Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 196. 18 Cf. Kingsley, Alton Locke. 19 Just two examples shall suffice here to support this claim: On page 87 we find references to non biblical popular ideas of hell; On page 88 we have a direct reference to the Moloch cult which took place in Gehenna (cf. Kgs. 23, 10; 2 Chr. 28,3; 33, 6; Jer. 7, 32; 19, 2-6). The modern idea of hell is said to derive from this cult (cf. Bell, Love Wins; Farrar, Eternal Hope). 20 Cf. Kingsley, Alton Locke, chapter 35. 21 Ibid. 333 22 Cf. Suzanne Miers, Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem (Walnut Creek: AltaMira, 2003). 23 Kingsley, Alton Locke, 103. 24 Ibid., 200. 25 Ibid., 201. 26 Ibid., 256. 27 Ibid., 157. 28 Ibid., 103-104. 29 Ibid., 91. 30 Ibid., 92. 31 Ibid., 56. 32 Ibid., 94.

Bernard Marcus Woodley

21

__________________________________________________________________ 33

Ibid., 101. Cf. Wheeler, English Fiction of the Victorian Period. 35 Kingsley, Alton Locke, 195. 36 Cf. Harris, The End of Faith. 37 ‘Arbeitsmarkt,’ German Federal Statistical Office, 2014, viewed on 18 May 2014, https://www.destatis.de/DE/ZahlenFakten/Indikatoren/Konjunkturindikatoren/Arbe itsmarkt/arb410.html. 38 ‘EU-Staaten.’ German Federal Statistical Office, 2014, viewed on 18 May 2014. https://www.destatis.de/Europa/DE/Staat/EUStaaten/EU.html. 39 It goes without saying, of course, that Europe is still facing a host of other troubles of which the latest waves of refugees and their subsequent miserable existence in camps is just one example. For a contemporary depiction of the living conditions in a British immigration detention facility see Ian Rankin, Fleshmarket Close (London: Orion, 2008). 40 Prasannan Parthasarathi, ‘Global Trade and Textile Workers,’ The Ashgate Companion to the History of Textile Workers, 1650-2000, eds. Lex Heerma van Voss, Els Hiemstra-Kuperus, Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010), 575. 41 Dan McDougall, ‘The Hidden Face of Primark Fashion,’ The Guardian, June, 2008, viewed on 27 May 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/22/india.humanright. 42 Ibid. 43 Ibid. 44 Ibid. 45 Wolfgang Finkentscher, Philipp Hacker and Rupprecht Podszun, FairEconomy: Crisis, Culture, Competition and the Role of Law (Heidelberg: Springer, 2013), 72. 46 Cf. Miers, Slavery in the Twentieth Century. 47 Ibid., 423. 48 Ibid., 423. 49 Ibid., 423. 50 Ibid., 437. 51 Cf. ‘Percentage of Children Aged 5-14 Engaged in Child Labour,’ Unicef Child Protection, 2014, Viewed on 17 May 2014, http://www.childinfo.org/labour_countrydata.php. 52 Miers, Slavery in the Twentieth Century, 432. 53 Ibid., 455. 54 My translation of the following quote ‘Die im Laufe der historischen Entwicklung stattfindende doppelte Transformation der Ökonomie - zum einen hin zur moral- und wertfreien Lehre und zum anderen hin zur Universaltheorie der Erklärung menschlichen Handelns - mündet so in eine von ökonomischen 34

22

Christian Universalism and the Outsourcing of Hell

__________________________________________________________________ Prinzipien beherrschte Gesellschaft ’ (cf. Michael S. Aßländer, Wirtschaft, (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013), 140).

Bibliography ‘Arbeitsmarkt.’ German Federal Statistical Office, 2014. Viewed on 18 May 2014. https://www.destatis.de/DE/ZahlenFakten/Indikatoren/Konjunkturindikatoren/Arbe itsmarkt/arb410.html. Aßländer, Michael S. Wirtschaft. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013. Bell, Rob. Love Wins. New York: Harper One, 2011. Daley, Brian E. The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Dante Alighieri. Inferno. Burk Classics, 2013 [1472]. Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. New York: Bantam, 2004 [1854]. ‘EU-Staaten.’ German Federal Statistical Office, 2014. Viewed on 18 May 2014. https://www.destatis.de/Europa/DE/Staat/EUStaaten/EU.html. Farrar, Frederic William. Eternal Hope; Five Sermons Preached at West Minster Abbey, November and December, 1877. Memphis: General Books, 2012 [1878]. Finkentscher, Wolfgang, Philipp Hacker and Rupprecht Podszun. FairEconomy: Crisis, Culture, Competition and the Role of Law. Heidelberg: Springer, 2013. Gissing, George. The Nether World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008 [1889]. Harris, Sam. The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason. London: Simon & Schuster, 2005. Kingsley, Charles. Alton Locke: Tailor and Poet. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983 [1850]. McCormick, Patricia. Sold. New York: Hyperion, 2006.

Bernard Marcus Woodley

23

__________________________________________________________________ McDougall, Dan. ‘The Hidden Face of Primark Fashion.’ The Guardian, June, 2008. Viewed on 27 May 2014. www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/22/india.humanrights. Miers, Suzanne. Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Walnut Creek: AltaMira, 2003. Moltmann, Jürgen. The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996. Parthasarathi, Prasannan. ‘Global Trade and Textile Workers.’ The Ashgate Companion to the History of Textile Workers, 1650-2000, edited by Lex Heerma van Voss, Els Hiemstra-Kuperus and Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, 561-576. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010. ‘Percentage of Children Aged 5-14 engaged in child labour.’ Unicef Child Protection, 2014. Viewed on 17 May 2014. http://www.childinfo.org/labour_countrydata.php. Rankin, Ian. Fleshmarket Close. London: Orion, 2008. Sheth, Kashmira. Boys without Names. New York: Harper Collins, 2010. Temple, Frederick. ‘The Education of the World.’ Essays and Reviews, ed. John William Parker. Memphis: General books, 2012 [1861]. Wheeler, Michael. Death and the Future Life in Victorian Literature and Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Wheeler, Michael. English Fiction of the Victorian Period. New York: Longman, 1994. Bernard Marcus Woodley is a doctoral student at the English Department of the Ruprecht-Karls-University in Heidelberg, Germany. After having studied English, Sports Science and Theology in Heidelberg he is now devoting himself to the study of Eschatological and Apocalyptical visions and their depiction in British popular Fiction.

Apocalypse: Good and Bad Mladen Milicevic Abstract Within the occidental framework of discourse, if apocalyptic scenarios and realities strengthen religiousness, can religiousness be considered adaptive and useful in an evolutionary sense? Driven by fear of death and meaninglessness, humankind is bound to constantly develop strategies in order to cope with the vicissitudes of life and doomed predicament of the human condition. For example, the Abrahamic religious mega-narratives could not be better-suited vehicles to free humans from the anxiety of death and annihilation. One of humanity’s fundamental natural tendencies is to avoid fear and to search for ‘certitude’ and homeostasis. Economic prosperity and education significantly stimulate attainment of homeostatic certitude, but as humankind advances its understanding of natural phenomena, more and more of the supernatural goes by the wayside. However, many of the byproducts created by thriving industrialized economies such as pollution, global warming, climate change, overpopulation, and destruction of the environment, undermine homeostasis as being small apocalypses, and religion may be required to step in again. In that framework religiousness may be considered adaptive and useful in an evolutionary sense. The only question that remains is how many times the planet Earth would provide a playground for this scenario to be repeated over and over again. Key Words: Apocalypse, religiousness, alienation, certitude, globalization, homogenization, existential insecurities, famine. ***** This is the paradox: he is out of nature and hopelessly in it; he is dual, up in the stars and yet housed in a heart-pumping, breathgasping body that once belonged to a fish and still carries the gill-marks to prove it. His body is a material fleshy casing that is alien to him in many ways- the strangest and most repugnant way being that it aches and bleeds and will decay and die. Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order to blindly and dumbly rot and disappear forever. It is a terrifying dilemma to be in and to have to live with. 1

26

Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction Within the occidental framework of discourse what are some of the strategies that humankind has derived in order to cope with the vicissitudes of life and doomed predicament of the human condition? Religion is one of the most important and undoubtedly most effective cultural inventions that address this problem. In transcending mortality humans devised approaches to escape the anxiety of awareness that in the end, their lives will not count much and that they will eventually become food for worms or, to put it into more a contemporary scientific framework, the atoms that constituted human bodies will get rearranged within the local pool of all the matter that exists in the universe. In order to maintain human self-esteem, humans had to embark on a project of the refusal of reality by creating supernatural promised worlds and destinations in which human existence becomes meaningful in an eternal and infinite scheme of things. The human sense of vulnerability and mortality represent fear of knowledge of our condition. Even in the Biblical context the trouble started with the awareness of fallibility. That awful serpent ruined it all. So, humans frantically seek an enduring and permanent solution to our vulnerabilities. Driven by fear of death and meaninglessness we constantly develop many novel kinds of technological improvements to earthly life, in a desperate effort to get closer to perfection and permanence. The constant improvement of human living conditions may, paradoxically, be seen as one of the main causes of human suffering, as we frantically try to subject nature to the human will. Religious mega-narratives are well-suited vehicles to help alleviate the human anxiety of death and annihilation. However, it would be completely inadaptable in an evolutionary sense for humans to rely on a single strategy to address such a deep neurosis regarding the avoidance of the penalty of dying. Many immortality systems are still coming to existence in order to help us deal with this self-esteem eroding neurosis. These systems all give us an assurance, more or less, that human lives will expand and not perish beyond our expiration date. The race, the nation, the culture, the family, the sciences, the arts, and countless others, are nothing but may be little more than mere vehicles for transcending human physical impermanence. From that point of view, all these tactics may be viewed as secular means of human redemption, while religion encompasses the sacred redemption. 2. Memes and the Brains In order to maintain mental health and overcome the human fear of selfknowledge, religious narratives portray supernatural powers that pave the paths to human salvation. Those who embrace and share a particular religious narrative may have certain advantages. Having more and more healthy individuals with boosted self-esteem, who identify and bond together though a shared vision of projected immortality, strengthens their chances of survival as a socio-economic group. Most people do not believe something because it is true, but rather believe

Mladen Milicevic

27

__________________________________________________________________ something that makes them feel good, something that improves their self-esteem. Furthermore, being surrounded by other individuals who use similar mechanisms of refusal of reality increases myelination and strengthens the neuronal connections that support our devices used for transcending human physical fate. Repetition is the best way to get good at something, and one of the main strategies for sustaining religious narratives is replication of religion-related memes.2 According to the memetic theory, the memes are not good for anything by themselves (by their genotype) but rather by the way they present themselves to the external world (by their phenotype). Thus, whatever these religious memes are doing to the humans who harbor them in their brains is good primarily for the memes themselves whose main function is to replicate and only secondarily for the hosts of the memes -the humans. Propagation of the memes will continue and improve as long as there are human brains to host them and support the propagation system. In this particular case there is symbiosis where religious memes help to improve the human condition by strengthening the social bonds, which in turn produces more individuals capable of carrying and spreading the same meme. This is a simple replication process, which is built into the genetic code of memes. Very similar memetic processes are at work for other structures of immortality power such as the nation, the culture and the family, which all assure in some way the perpetuation of its members not only in reality, but far more significantly beyond the world of flesh and blood. Transcendence of earthly existence through the abandonment of bodily limitations seems to be one of the most appealing and thus very effective strategies for such redemption systems. 3. Apocalypse and Religion The concept of apocalypse may be tackled in many different ways. Based on a Judeo-Christian religious context, it may be seen as the disclosure of knowledge and the ultimate victory of good over evil at the end of the present age. The End Time scenario, where at the judgment day the righteous will be ushered into the beginning of eternity, seems a very appealing concept to the immortality-seeking human brain. Thus, this view of apocalypse acts as an elevated individual immortality formula executed on a grand scheme of a single and all-encompassing redemption event. As such, it has a much more powerful message and a far more efficient effect. What has been a part of a rather private immortality system, enabling the transference of individual human spirit from a fallible and therefore ultimately dead body into the eternal supernatural world, now has become an agent of mass redemption for large groups of the righteous ones. What a powerful meme to be spread around! On judgment day, all the smaller-scale immortality projects will be unified, justified, and absolutely validated in a big cataclysmic event. Thus, the frightened human creatures, which tirelessly worked on many very difficult reality-based projects to secure the victory over their physical limitations, are finally relieved and rewarded for the work they have done. Zap! Like the magic

28

Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________ wand, transcendence becomes immediate. It becomes an event rather than a long and excruciating process. However, this approach is not unique to religious apocalyptic scenarios. In a slight variation of the End Time judgment day situations, we may find similar strategies when it comes to the nations as redemptive agents. For example, during the Balkan war in the nineties, many outrageous examples of human suffering and material destruction -small apocalypses- were justified using an old meme. Particularly, the Serbian people were presented as the chosen people of the New Testament, the new Israel.3 Hence the temporary apocalypse became just a passing phase to the final destination of a permanent, invulnerable, and eternal nation-state of perfection. It provided an instrument for transcending the insignificance, weakness, and death, of one's existence onto an eternalized vision of the humanized heaven on Earth. As such, it offered a booster shot to the crumbling memes of self-esteem maintenance. Similar examples of applications of the immortality systems may be found when it comes to the institutions of family, science, arts, etc. 4. Certitude It could be stated that religious immortality systems predominantly exist to deal with self-esteem eroding neurosis, in order to protect human communities and improve the progress of the socio-cultural group in question. One of the fundamental human natural tendencies is to avoid fear and to search for certitude or, as Damasio would say homeostasis.4 In order to cope effectively with the management of life, an organism has to, for its survival, maintain a homeostatic stable environment, which is the ability that human species receive though their genomes. Economic prosperity and education undoubtedly promote homeostatic certitude, but as humankind advances its understanding of natural phenomena, more and more of the supernatural gets to go by the wayside. More social stability lessens the need for religion-driven collaborative protection of a socio-cultural group. To a large extent it could be stated that the amount of religiosity is inversely proportional to the amount of certitude, but the amount of certitude is directly proportional to the amount of social alienation. Understandably, the members of socio-economic groups with low certitude are heavily dependent on helping each other and creating and maintaining strong social bonds. In that context poor countries with greater insecurity, are in need of rather heavy-duty religious immortality systems in order to deal with the daily vicissitudes of life. In religionsanctioned political structures such as communism, the secular idolatry of the sanctified political figure replaces religious immortality systems. One example may be the relationship between North Korean leaders and the North Korean population. Under low certitude circumstances, familial compassion and mutual collaboration are of essence, and thus there is a lower level of alienation in that society. On the other hand, cultures with a high degree of certitude are in reduced need of the religious narrative vehicles that help to free humans from the anxiety of

Mladen Milicevic

29

__________________________________________________________________ death and annihilation. To the contrary, many wealthy Americans think that God allowed them to get rich, because they have good standing with him. On the other hand, poor and disenfranchised Americans are said to be deprived from God’s blessings because they deserve their own predicament. Expanding on that logic, the USA seems certainly blessed by God and chosen to redeem the Earth, since it is evident that there are many God-forsaken places around the planet. By lessening the severity of the vicissitudes of life and the human awareness of them, survival driven bonding among the group members will start collapsing while pushing them away from each other. Economic prosperity inevitably produces a less religious but more alienated population. Living a more contented life apparently boosts human self-esteem, but provokes at the same time a form of discontent because it stifles basic human drives in the struggle for survival. Life turns out to be certain and relatively predictable while the promise of happiness becomes less and less exciting. As Freud would say for the source of our basic neurosis: When any situation that is desired by the pleasure principle is prolonged, it only produces a feeling of mild contentment. We are so made that we can derive intense enjoyment only from a contrast and very little from a state of things. Thus our possibilities of happiness are already restricted by our constitution.5 One of the consequences of these socio-economic changes may be that individuals will increasingly have to construct their own social identities rather than merely adopt a group identity. Greater variation of personal options creates difficulties in understanding and adapting to each other's uniqueness. Under such conditions, stranger compassion gradually replaces the familial compassion, because it is less personal and much cleaner. Helping a neighbor or an elderly bedridden family member is a much harder and far more directly experienced inthe-body act, than writing a check to the disaster fund for the victims of a tsunami. Seeing the fallibilities and limitations of the human body up close reminds us of our own anxieties over the creatureliness of death. The more distant we get from the world of flesh and blood, the more we get assured in our immortality. Lessening the vicissitudes of life makes us feel not only more comfortable, but a stable and extended period of comfort can make an individual feel almost invincible. Disruptions of those comfortable periods disturb that illusion of invincibility and may bring about changes in social identity. 5. The Unifying Power of Trouble The need to help each other increases with the mounting economic and ecological crises, which are to large extent byproducts of globalization. Helping each other in high level certitude industrialized societies is no longer the expected

30

Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________ response unless there is big trouble either looming or actually happening. Global warming, climate change, overpopulation, pandemic worries, a threat of nuclear war, or an asteroid collision with the Earth, may produce major existential insecurities. In times of famine -small apocalypse- religiousness flourishes, bringing people together, who then through increased close collaboration become less alienated. In spite of the huge amount of animosity among Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia caused by tremendous atrocities in the Balkan wars of the nineties, recent floods brought these three countries together on a basic humanitarian level. The borders were erased and everybody was helping everybody. However, as usual in many similar occasions around the world, religious leaders may co-opt the famine as some kind of mini-apocalypse and interpret it a warning from God. The patriarchs of the Serbian Orthodox church and of Montenegro have blamed devastating floods in the Balkans on Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst, saying ‘This [flood] is not a coincidence, but a warning. God sent the rains as a reminder that people should not join the wild side.’6 (‘Conchita Wurst’ is the stage name of Thomas Neuwirth, a gay male singer who performs in drag. His selection to represent Austria in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, and subsequent win, was controversial among religious conservatives.) However, religiousness -especially the fundamentalist approaches which thrive on various apocalyptic scenarios- moves social groups from heterogeneity to homogenization. In turn, that kind of homogenization may undermine the political tolerance essential to democratic processes and emphasizes/exaggerates the differences between societies and countries, which in turn may fuel global conflicts and apocalyptic prospects for local and worldwide famine. The current events homogenizing the Russians and Ukrainians in Ukraine represents a glaring example of undermined democracy. All this may be seen as a recursive process where humans striving to maintain homeostasis need religious immortality systems in order to attain higher levels of certitude. Then, through economic prosperity and education, withering away of religion will eventually start to take place, as humans get more and more preoccupied with amassing material goods while embarking on the project of creating a Heaven on Earth. Inadvertently or deliberately, the byproducts of thriving economies such as pollution, climate change, overpopulation, and the destruction of the environment will ultimately undermine the human homeostasis and the implementation of religious narratives may be needed to step in and save the day once again. In that framework, religiousness may be considered adaptive and useful in an evolutionary sense. The only question that remains is how many times the planet Earth would provide the playground for this scenario to be repeated over and over again. It is important to be cognizant that blind evolutionary adaptive processes exist solely to propagate the genes -or the memes- of the given species, and in that context long-term thinking which takes into account survival of the planet, or other species becomes secondary. Thus, if religiousness is shown to

Mladen Milicevic

31

__________________________________________________________________ strengthen human social bonds and generally improve the well being of those who subscribe to it, then it is evolutionary adaptive and useful. Another important point to keep in mind is that the evolutionary processes never look ahead but only adapt to whatever immediate environmental circumstances exist. Should those circumstances change many species will die and only those who happen to have the advantageous features will survive. As long as the humans who subscribe to religious apocalyptic scenarios are able to survive in today’s rapidly changing environment, they are definitely the fittest. Whether they are the wisest or not, from the evolutionary point of view is more less irrelevant.

Notes 1

Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death (New York: The Free Press, 1973), 26. Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperm or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via process which, in the broadest sense, can be called imitation. If a scientist hears, or reads about, a good idea, he passes it on to his colleagues and students. He mentions it in his articles and his lectures. If the idea catches on, it can be said to propagate itself, spreading from brain to brain. Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1976), 206. 3 Miranda Vickers, Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo (Columbia University Press: New York, 1998), 14. 4 Antonio Damasio, Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain (Pantheon Books: New York, 2010), 27. 5 Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents (W. W. Norton & Company: New York, 1930/2005), 53. 6 By Our Foreign Staff, ‘Conchita Wurst Caused Balkan Floods after Eurovision Win, Say Church Leaders,’ The Telegraph, 22 May 2014, viewed 10 June 2014, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/serbia/10850219/ConchitaWurst-caused-Balkan-floods-after-Eurovision-win-say-church-leaders.html. 2

Bibliography Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death. The Free Press, New York, 1973. Damasio, Antonio. Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain. Pantheon Books, New York, 2010. Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 1976.

32

Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________ Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. W. W. Norton & Company, New York (1930) 2005. Vickers, Miranda. Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo. Columbia University Press, New York, 1998. Mladen Milicevic is a professor and chair of the Recording Arts Department at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. His interdisciplinary interests cover wide range of topics such as music, film, aesthetics, semiology, neuroscience, sociology, artificial intelligence, education, religion, and cultural studies.

Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead and the End of the ‘New World’ Kiron Ward Abstract At the first ‘Apocalypse: Imagining the End’ Global Conference in 2012, Michael E. Harkin presented a timely paper that built on European misunderstandings of the so-called Mayan Apocalypse. Harkin provocatively argued that the cultural structure of conquest and colonisation led to more than just the projection of Christian millenarianism onto indigenous people: for him, the ‘annihilation of self and other’ has become a necessary ‘part of the practice and symbolism of the postColumbian world.’ This paper runs with Harkin’s idea by examining the peculiar brand of millenarianism that emerges in Leslie Marmon Silko’s prophecy-novel Almanac of the Dead (1991). In this, I use Norman Cohn’s definition of millenarianism to ascertain how Silko critiques visions of the future that depend on a total break with the past and the land, particularly capitalist visions; for Silko, any such vision is hubristic and ultimately self-defeating. I go on to discuss how Silko cultivates a type of de-totalised millenarian aesthetic that prioritises connection with the past and the Earth, and which in turn opens up a discursive space for a political radicalism and environmental justice that will bring about the end of the colonial ‘New World.’ Key Words: Leslie Marmon Silko, Almanac of the Dead, Ceremony, apocalypse, millenarianism, millennialism, utopia, totality, capitalism, Norman Cohn. ***** I want to start by giving you a bit of background to my research and to explain to you how I have come to produce this paper—I work on three authors: James Joyce, an Irish modernist who you may well have heard lots about, and two recent novelists from the Americas, Leslie Marmon Silko and Roberto Bolaño. My project looks specifically at the engagement their work makes with the history of encyclopaedic thought. I am certain that you will have used an encyclopaedia at some point in your life: whether to pluck facts off Wikipedia, or flick through one of the letters in a Britannica, or maybe you even remember the heady days of Microsoft Encarta. My research looks at the historical, political, and philosophical bases of encyclopaedic projects like these, and tries to understand the different ways in which fiction writers—Joyce, Silko, and Bolaño in particular—interact with them. What we think of as encyclopaedic projects—attempts to systematise all that we know into a written document—began in the Middle Ages partly as a type of accounting of human achievement for God before Christ’s second coming.1 And so

34

Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead

__________________________________________________________________ a millenarian anticipation of the divine and fiery end is one of the things that I would say is built in to the very beginnings of encyclopaedic thought. Today I am going to discuss how Leslie Silko engages with this millenarianism in her novel Almanac of the Dead. Leslie Silko is a Native American writer from the Laguna Pueblo tribe, who are based in the North-west of New Mexico. Silko is one of the foremost names in the ‘Native American Renaissance’ of the late 60s and early 70s, and is best known for her Pulitzer-winning first novel Ceremony, which is widely taught at U.S. universities and on American Studies courses. Almanac of the Dead is Silko’s difficult second novel—I am going to focus on how its use of the Laguna Pueblo’s Jackpile-Paguate uranium mine as an apocalyptic symbol differs with that of Ceremony in order to assert an esoteric form of millenarianism, and then discuss briefly how Silko uses her millenarianism to understand capitalism in the Americas. Native American millenarianism has been a hot topic in recent years: Matthew Restall and Amara Solari, for example, have persuasively argued that the cultural logic of conquest has seen millenarian ideologies fallaciously projected on to indigenous people—think of the 2012 ‘Mayan Apocalypse,’ or Mel Gibson’s film Apocalypto, or even The X-Files. I am interested in the work of Michael Harkin, who argued, at the first Global Apocalypse conference, that in spite of this the ‘annihilation of self and other’ is nevertheless an inevitable ‘part of the practice and symbolism of the post-Columbian world.’2 Silko’s Almanac corroborates this: it is itself a millenarian pursuit. But what is interesting about Silko’s millenarianism is how she reconceives it in order to assert the primacy of history and land while opening up a discursive space for political radicalism. Almanac of the Dead as a novel is monstrous: comprised of nineteen books with approximately seventy characters, and spanning the entire Americas, it pulls together nearly 800 pages of narrative from the 500 years’ history surrounding its eponymous Almanac, a fictional lost Mayan codex that prophesies the ‘disappearance of all things European’ via indigenous revolution.3 Its publication was something of a shock for critics expecting a reprise of her previous lyricism— and indeed, the critical response was marked by a number of reviews labelling Silko deluded, hysterical, and in need of psychiatric help.4 As these critics demonstrate, discussing Native American literatures from the position of ‘Friend of the Indian’ can be fraught when specific context is not given adequate consideration—so before I get into the Almanac itself I am going to provide a bit of history about uranium mining in the U.S. and on Laguna Pueblo land. The ‘Grants Mineral Belt’ that covers the ‘Four Corners’ of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah is where the majority of U.S. uranium mining has taken place. The Jackpile-Paguate uranium mine was operational from 1953 to 1982—it was for a long time it was the largest uranium mine in the world, and it remains the largest to have operated in the U.S.5 The history of the Jackpile mine is, for many,

Kiron Ward

35

__________________________________________________________________ typical of the economic double-bind and false ethical choices confronting many South-western indigenous communities. The uranium boom in the 40s arrived at the end of decades of Native American ‘reorganisation’ by the U.S. courts. Communities in the ‘Four Corners’ were finding themselves, for the first time, unable to live off a traditional subsistence economy—and uranium exploration, which had become lucrative for the Navajos, was proving one of the only available pathways into the cash economy. 6 And indeed, the opening of the Jackpile mine at Paguate village was tremendously important for the Laguna Pueblo—they became one of the only tribes to enjoy full employment.7 A heavy price was paid.8 Public health and quality of life quickly deteriorated as the Jackpile’s open-pit grew to within 200 yards of Paguate village; at midday every day the village was pelted by ‘potato-size rocks’ from the pit-blasting.9 And the long-term impact also far surpassed local expectations. By the 70s, the site had been strip-mined so deeply that groundwater seepage had become as much of an issue as in a shaft mine. When the mine’s owners pumped the irradiated groundwater into tailing ponds, it just drained back into its aquifer and contaminated the reservation’s only source of surface water.10 The scars it has left on the land to this day are visible in Figure 1.

Image 1: Eve-Andrée Laramée, Jackpile Uranium Mine © 2009. Reprint permission kindly granted by Eve-Andrée Laramée.

36

Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead

__________________________________________________________________ For Silko, these problems were manifestations of a spiritual corruption implicit in the Laguna’s exploitation of their land. In her understanding, the very opening of the mine was antithetical to the Pueblo worldview. Could benefits really be expected when the ‘margin for error’ in the desert is so slender?11 How could a people who ‘have always concentrated upon making things grow, and appreciating things that are alive and natural, because life is so precious in the desert’ contribute to the production of nuclear weapons?12 In Ceremony, Silko grapples with the Jackpile mine and the mess it has left on Laguna land by presenting it as a synecdoche for an apocalyptic revelation: demolishing the bases of their culture and ethics for the purpose of desecrating life across the globe, the Jackpile mine represents an abjection of the Laguna by the dominating culture that forces it to enact its own evisceration—or, as a medicine man in Ceremony puts it, ‘This is the trickery of witchcraft…They want us to believe all evil resides with white people. Then we will look no further to see what is really happening. They want us to separate ourselves from white people, to be ignorant and helpless as we watch our own destruction.’13 To do absolutely no justice to this immensely suggestive assertion, suffice it to say for the moment that the protagonist, Tayo, interprets the mine and its symbolism as an occasion for Laguna-Japanese solidarity in the face of Western imperialism, and tries to reconceive the mine’s destructive trajectory. He thinks to himself, that there are ‘no boundaries, only transitions through all distances and time.’14 In 1979, before Silko began planning her Almanac, an incident at the Jackpile mine confirmed for her and other local traditionalists their critique and interpretation of its apocalyptic symbolism. Two Jackpile employees found that a formation of rocks in the shape of a giant snake had appeared at the base of a pile of uranium tailing, with its head pointed west and jaws open wide. The employees, who patrolled the area regularly, had not seen anyone constructing it: its occurrence seemed to be miraculous. This generated a great deal of excitement, particularly among religious Lagunas—as Silko points out, Laguna tradition is full of stories that mention ‘a great snake’ called Ma ah shra true ee ‘who is a messenger for the Mother Creator.’15 The snake’s shrine is not open to the public, so there are no photographs of it—but Silko did paint a mural inspired by it in Tucson (figure 2) that provides a useful way of thinking through her use of Jackpile in Almanac. Silko’s painted snake, with its belly full of the past, tells us that ‘The people are cold. The people are hungry. The rich have stolen the land. The rich have stolen freedom. The people cry out.’16 In this, Silko interprets the Jackpile snake as a prophecy of impending revolution—the mine’s apocalyptic symbolism takes on a new urgency.

Kiron Ward

37

__________________________________________________________________

Figure 2: Leslie Marmon Silko. Stone Avenue Mural © 1994. Reprint permission kindly granted by The Wylie Agency LLC. Silko has explained that she wrote Almanac of the Dead ‘in order to figure out for [herself] the meaning of the giant stone snake.’17 And indeed, in the novel we find a Spirit Snake relaying a revolutionary message in the eponymous codex— ‘this world is about to end.’18 Silko aligns the Almanac’s Spirit Snake with numerous serpent-related figures throughout the text—including the Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcoatl and the Vodou Loa Damballah—but ends the text with the journey of a protagonist—Sterling—to see the stone snake at the Jackpile mine. Almanac is more than an update of Ceremony’s depiction of the mine, however— this time, the mine’s symbolism is much more determined. Placing the scene at the novel’s end puts it within the text’s prophesied near-future of indigenous revolution—that is, the point after which ‘this world’ has ended. In Almanac, then, the mine’s apocalyptic revelation is less that of the narrative through which the U.S. colonises indigenous people and more that of an affirmation of the Spirit Snake’s millenarian message. And, vitally, the mine’s mystical aspect has come to life again: the snake is now ‘looking south in the direction from which…the people would come’19—not west. Sterling can wait, safe in the knowledge that the revolution has begun. The Jackpile mine in Almanac is fully co-opted into a prophecy of revolution— less like Ceremony’s revelatory solidarity, and more like, to reformulate famous Sussex historian Norman Cohn’s phrase, a millennial pursuit.20 And indeed, Cohn’s definition of millenarian movements as pursuing collective, terrestrial, imminent, miraculous, and total salvation does seem like an accurate description of the text.21 Almanac prophesies a collective insurrection; its primary purpose is the reclamation of terrestrial land from governments and private capital; its occurrence is at the imminent beginning of the ‘Fifth World’ (calculated according to Silko’s

38

Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead

__________________________________________________________________ interpretation of indigenous calendars, particularly Mayan)22; and the involvement of the stone snake confirms that it will be miraculous. But the question of totality in Almanac’s prophecy is far more vexed. For Cohn, millenarian movements conceive of salvation as an absolute transformation of life ‘so that the new dispensation will be no mere improvement on the present but perfection itself.’23 Almanac, conversely, is a prophecy that eschews the idea of a total break implicit in this idea of ‘absolute transformation.’ Rather, it insists on and is defined by its connection to what would need to be broken with to manifest any type of absolute transformation: the past and the land. This is clear in Sterling’s interpretation of the stone snake: The snake didn’t care if people were believers or not; the work of the spirits and prophecies went on regardless. Spirit beings might appear anywhere, even near open-pit mines. The snake didn’t care about the uranium tailings; humans had desecrated only themselves with the mine, not the earth. Burned and radioactive, with all humans dead, the earth would still be sacred. Man was too insignificant to desecrate her.24 To believe in the possibility of a break with the past—‘spirits and prophecies’— and the land—even when it is ‘burned and radioactive’—is to engage in a logic that is hubristically self-defeating. This is where Almanac’s use of the mine develops that of Ceremony—the mine’s apocalyptic symbolism is interpreted as unequivocal rejection of the idea of human mastery of time and space, of the logic and assumptions implicit in the idea that any total transformation of life could ever occur. For Silko, time and space are absolute, unchanging constants—they will never be broken with because they control us, and will persist independently of us if it comes to it; to try to affect or to desire a total break is only to unmoor humanity from that which sustains it. So, when Silko has her Almanac’s Spirit Snake tell us that this is the end of the world, what is she talking about? I argue that we need to conceive of her millenarianism on de-totalised terms—a sort of revolution without human mastery, yoked to the sacred persistence of the past and the land. In this light, the sprawling horrors of the novel begin to make a bit more sense: the catalogue of appalling characters and narratives are all in pursuit of total millenarian visions; and these, mirage-like, present themselves as total utopias, when they are, as the novel makes clear, wholly negative. Examples of these negative utopias proliferate, but in this paper I am going to look at just one: Silko’s presentation of capitalism, or ‘vampire capitalism’ in her terminology. Almanac’s discussion of capitalism centres on the character of Menardo, an insurance magnate in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Menardo’s desire for capitalist success, he decides, necessitates the denial of his mestizo identity—and

Kiron Ward

39

__________________________________________________________________ as such, his narrative begins conspicuously, with the only passage of first person prose in the novel. Once he decides to pretend that the flat ‘family nose’ 25 he inherited from his Mayan grandfather is actually the outcome of a boxing match, his voice disappears, and is absorbed into the third person monotone that constitutes the rest of the novel. Although it convinces pretty much no-one, the abandonment of his ancestry marks a significant moment: by asserting a break with his past in order to sell insurance protecting the Mexican state from the risk it has incurred by seizing tribal lands, Menardo ascends to the local aristocracy—he enters his utopia of nouveau riche social acceptability—he’s invited to golf clubs and so on. Of course, by buying into an attempt to reverse the control that the past and the land have over him, Menardo’s identity becomes usurped by a kind of commodity fetishism that aligns his self with his capital. This begins showily, with trophy wives and a dream home, and then moves on to defence mechanisms, as he becomes obsessed with protecting his capital. This reaches its climax with his bulletproof vest, which leads him to believe in his total invulnerability. Inevitably, this leads to Menardo’s accidental suicide when trying to demonstrate this invulnerability to all his friends—an aberration in the vest’s ‘high technology’ sees the demonstration bring him to an end. For attempting to control the past and the land, Menardo has to be killed. Indeed, his dreams of running over snakes in his limousine augur this. I want to end by positing that Silko’s vision of de-totalised millenarianism does not abandon the vision of global solidarity in Ceremony—rather, it elaborates on it, opening up a discursive space for urgent, collective radicalism free of the desecration and negativity of total transformations. Looking again at Silko’s mural, the binary it sets up between ‘the people’ and ‘the rich’ is suggestive—Almanac does this also, polarising ‘the people’ and ‘the Destroyers.’ These two terms incorporate such ‘dispersed and incommensurate’26 sets of characters as to be nearly meaningless—but in this, identity comes to be reshaped according simply to those who, on the one hand, do, and on the other, do not contribute to the fulfilment of the Almanac’s prophecy. Sterling realises at the Jackpile mine that ‘Cortés and Montezuma had hit it off together when they met’ because both had been members of the secret Destroyer clan: but if the Destroyers can form such alliances, it follows that so too can the people. Silko’s de-totalised millenarianism provides a way of envisioning these global alliances and provides an urgent call for action to be taken. You might be wondering what this little-read, oft-maligned fiction about the horrors of the post-Columbian Americas inspired by a miracle in the desert really achieves—and there’s a story about its reception in Chiapas for another time27— but, I would argue that by retelling, reimagining, and repurposing the story of the Jackpile mine, as she does, her vision becomes all the more urgent; the importance of stories for survival and resistance (or ‘survivance,’28 to use Gerald Vizenor’s

40

Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead

__________________________________________________________________ term) in extreme situations, situations where the apocalypse is both past and imminent, is reasserted. And so I will end on a final quote from Silko, permutations of which can be found throughout the Almanac: One day a story will arrive at your town. It will come from far away, from the southwest or southeast—people won’t agree. The story may arrive with a stranger or perhaps the parrot trader. But when you hear this story you will know it is the signal for you and the others to prepare.29

Notes 1

Richard R. Yeo, Encyclopaedic Visions : Scientific Dictionaries and Enlightenment Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 2, 5. 2 Michael Harkin, 'From King Phillip’s War to the Mayan Apocalypse: Native American and Western Visions of the End Times,' in Cultures of Apocalypse (presented at the Apocalypse: Imagining the End: First Global Conference, Harris Manchester College, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2012), 1, http://www.interdisciplinary.net/critical-issues/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/harkinapaper.pdf. Accessed on 20 May 2014. 3 Leslie Marmon Silko, Almanac of the Dead: A Novel (U.S.A.: Penguin, 1991), 14. 4 Sven Birkerts, ‘Apocalypse Now: Review of Almanac of the Dead, by Leslie Marmon Silko,’ New Republic, November 4, 1991; Alan Ryan, ‘An Inpet Almanac of the Dead,’ USA Today, January 21, 1992. 5 United States Environmental Protection Agency, ‘(NPL) Site Narrative for Jackpile-Paguate Uranium Mine,’ National Priorities List (NPL), Accessed 13 May 2014, http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/nar1865.htm; Valerie Kuletz, The Tainted Desert: Environmental Ruin in the American West (Psychology Press, 1998), 24. A famous photograph of the pit blasting in 1956, taken for LIFE Magazine by J.R. Eyerman, can be found at: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/blasting-at-anacondas-jackpilestrip-mine-news-photo/50412363. 6 Joseph Masco, The Nuclear Borderlands The Manhattan Project in Post-Cold War New Mexico (U.S.A.: Princeton University Press, 2006), 117. 7 Leslie Marmon Silko, Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit: Essays on Native American Life Today (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1997), 128. 8 For a particularly egregious example of how heavy the price could be for indigenous communities, see the United Nuclear Corporation’s Church Rock

Kiron Ward

41

__________________________________________________________________ Uranium Mill disaster, in which more radioactive waste spilt onto the Navajo Nation’s land than was split at the Three Mile Island accident. 9 Silko, Yellow Woman, 127, 132. 10 Ward Churchill, 'A Breach of Trust,' in Acts of Rebellion: The Ward Churchill Reader (New York: Routledge, 2003), 144. 11 Silko, Yellow Woman, 130. 12 Leslie Marmon Silko, Conversations with Leslie Marmon Silko, ed. Ellen L. Arnold (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2000), 30. 13 Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (New York: New American Library, 1977), 132. 14 Ibid., 246. 15 Silko, Yellow Woman, 126. 16 A version of the same mural, reprinted in Yellow Woman, reads ‘The people are cold. The people are hungry. The rich have stolen the land. The rich have stolen freedom. The people demand justice. Otherwise, Revolution.’ Ibid., 150–1. 17 Ibid., 144. 18 Silko, Almanac, 135. 19 Ibid., 763. 20 Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium : Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages, Third edition. (London: Pimlico, 1957). 21 Ibid., 13. 22 Ellen L. Arnold, ‘The World Made Visible: Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead,’ in American Indian Rhetorics of Survivance: Word Medicine, Word Magic, ed. Ernest Stromberg (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006), 220. 23 Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium, 13. 24 Silko, Almanac, 762. 25 Ibid., 259. 26 Eva Cherniavsky, 'Tribalism, Globalism, and Eskimo Television in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead,' Angelaki 6, no. 1 (2001): 20. 27 For a starting point, see Silko’s ‘An Expression of Profound Gratitude to the Maya Zapatistas, January 1, 1994’ in Yellow Woman. 28 Gerald Vizenor, Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance, First Bison Books (Lincoln, NE: Bison, 1994), 1. 29 Silko, Almanac, 135–6.

42

Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead

__________________________________________________________________

Bibliography Arnold, Ellen L. 'The World Made Visible: Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead.' In American Indian Rhetorics of Survivance: Word Medicine, Word Magic. Edited by Ernest Stromberg. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006. Birkerts, Sven. 'Apocalypse Now: Review of Almanac of the Dead, by Leslie Marmon Silko.' New Republic, November 4, 1991. Cherniavsky, Eva. 'Tribalism, Globalism, and Eskimo Television in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead.' Angelaki 6, no. 1 (2001): 111–26. Churchill, Ward. 'A Breach of Trust.' In Acts of Rebellion: The Ward Churchill Reader, 103–30. New York: Routledge, 2003. Cohn, Norman. The Pursuit of the Millennium : Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages. Third edition. London: Pimlico, 1957. Harkin, Michael. ‘From King Phillip’s War to the Mayan Apocalypse: Native American and Western Visions of the End Times.’ In Cultures of Apocalypse. Harris Manchester College, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2012. http://www.interdisciplinary.net/critical-issues/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/harkinapaper.pdf. Accessed on 20 May 2014. Kuletz, Valerie. The Tainted Desert: Environmental Ruin in the American West. Psychology Press, 1998. Laramée, Eve-Andrée. Jackpile Uranium Mine. Photograph, http://micawaterhole.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/jackpile-uranium-mine.html. Accessed on 13 May 2014.

2009.

Masco, Joseph. The Nuclear Borderlands: The Manhattan Project in Post-Cold War New Mexico. U.S.A.: Princeton University Press, 2006. Ryan, Alan. 'An Inpet Almanac of the Dead.' USA Today, January 21, 1992. Silko, Leslie Marmon. Almanac of the Dead: A Novel. U.S.A.: Penguin, 1991. ———. Ceremony. New York: New American Library, 1977.

Kiron Ward

43

__________________________________________________________________ ———. Conversations with Leslie Marmon Silko. Edited by Ellen L. Arnold. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2000. ———. Stone Avenue Mural. 1 photographic print col., 1988. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. ———. Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit: Essays on Native American Life Today. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1997. United States Environmental Protection Agency. '(NPL) Site Narrative for Jackpile-Paguate Uranium Mine.' National Priorities List (NPL). Accessed 13 May 2014. http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/nar1865.htm. Vizenor, Gerald. Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance. First Bison Books. Lincoln, NE: Bison, 1994. Yeo, Richard R. Encyclopaedic Visions: Scientific Dictionaries and Enlightenment Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Kiron Ward is a PhD student at the University of Sussex in Great Britain. His project, which is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, explores the relationship between encyclopaedic thought and fiction, and focuses on James Joyce, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Roberto Bolaño.

Part II Cultural Apocalypse

And I Feel Fine: Reflections of the Apocalypse in Popular Music Seth Habhegger Abstract Representations of the end times are as old as history itself. From the Bible to the latest apocalyptic novels and films, concepts of how and why the world will end are limited only by the creators’ imagination. This is no less true in popular music. Throughout the 20th Century and into the 21st, music has provided a vehicle for exploring the themes of apocalypse, be it the causes, the act, or the aftermath. These songs can not only provide a striking view of the perceived threats of annihilation ubiquitous to the context in which they were composed, but can also project specific aspects of the prevailing culture into the future. This has the impact of expressing both the fears of the end and the hopes of what will remain, all in a three minute pop song. In addition, many of these songs are repurposed to gain new meaning in the context of subsequent events, i.e. 9/11. This applicability shows that though the details may change, many of the concerns raised are universal and, as such, are relevant in the 21st Century. This presentation looks to survey a number of pop songs with apocalyptic themes, their characteristics, and the context in which they were written. From this, a number of basic ideas will be extracted and applied for conceptual analysis. This structure will then be used to understand the songs both in their own epoch and in their future interpretation. The goal is to demonstrate the songs’ imaginative, contextual, and applicable qualities as well as their relevance in the past, present, and future. Key Words: Culture, popular music, apocalypse, history, imagination. ***** 1. Introduction As much as any form of popular culture, music reflects the dominant themes and contemporary events of any given era. Since songs are the 20th and 21st Centuries most prevalent structure of music, it is not surprising that they have run the gamut of topical issues. While forms such as novels and films are able to delve quite deeply into a given subject, they tend to lack the immediacy of the 3 minute pop song. In this format, at least since the advent of recording, songs have been able to delineate and navigate the great number of concerns, mores, and controversies of an epoch within the framework of short narratives set to music. The end of the world, then, is as ripe as any from which to pluck inspiration for the imaginative songwriter. These reflections on the apocalypse are as varied as the eras that spawned them. As such, they can open a window into some of the fears, cultural spheres, and aspirations of the possible end of the world as seen through the paradigm of, say, the Cold War. These could entail thoughts on the lead-up to,

48

And I Feel Fine

__________________________________________________________________ the actual undertaking, and the aftermath of catastrophic events. And while most of these songs cannot be divorced from the time period in which they were written, some do contain certain universal elements that make them applicable to other eras in surprisingly different contexts. In other words, the end of the world is always a ‘hot topic’. For the purposes of this chapter, the songs selected will be in the ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ period (with one exception) of popular music - roughly 1954 to 1989. This is because the ascendant status of rock ‘n’ roll is still in force today. Also, all the songs are in English by American, Canadian, and British performers (again, with one exception). Unfortunately, both space constraints and lack of familiarity preclude using songs of other languages. 2. Survey Less than one month after Kenneth Arnold made his historic UFO sightings near Mount Rainier in Washington State on June 24, 1947, a country group calling themselves Buchanan Brothers and the Georgia Catamounts recorded a single called ‘(When You See) Those Flying Saucers’. The song suggested ‘You’d better pray to the Lord when you see those flying saucers. It may be the coming of the Judgment Day.’ These saucers were ‘...more than atom bombs or falling stars’ and you should ‘... repent today, you’re running out of time.’ 1 This is a perfect example of a popular song inspired directly from an event of the day. How the songwriter used it, of course, is reflective of their own beliefs on how the world was to end. Here we have a religious context with touches of recent scientific advances; namely, the atom bomb. Not surprisingly, the threat of nuclear annihilation, not the Second Coming, would be the dominant concern among those songwriters who tackled the subject in the coming years. Perhaps the most famous – and popular, at least during the time of its initial recordings – was P. F. Sloan’s ‘Eve of Destruction’. Released in 1965, Barry McGuire’s version topped the charts in the U.S. and reached #3 in the UK and provided a laundry list of ills that would bring down civilization, including ‘if the button gets pushed.’ 2 Two years earlier, Bob Dylan had recorded ‘Talkin’ World War III Blues’ for his album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, a humorous take on walking around New York City after a nuclear holocaust. This song’s tone was much more in line with Tom Lehrer’s ‘We’ll All Go Together When We Go’ (1959) than the ultra seriousness of Sloan’s composition. As the 60s progressed and pop music became more experimental, some of the most influential artists of the era created end of the world scenarios: Jimi Hendrix ‘1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)’; Crosby, Stills and Nash (CSN) ‘Wooden Ships’; and Neil Young ‘After the Gold Rush’. All three deal with life after the apocalypse, though the CSN piece is less abstract in its imagery then the other two, while ‘After the Gold Rush’ is surreal to the extreme. During the 1970s, the undisputed king of ‘apocalypse rock’ was David Bowie. Following a line closer to environmental disaster than nuclear war, Bowie released the albums The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in 1972

Seth Habhegger

49

__________________________________________________________________ and Diamond Dogs in 1974. In general terms, the former could be categorized as pre-apocalypse and the latter as post-apocalypse, though they do not follow the same storyline. In addition, other Bowie songs of the period, such as ‘Oh, You Pretty Things!’, ‘Aladdin Sane (1913 - 1938 - 197?)’, and ‘Drive-In Saturday’ all touch on some aspect of the end of the world. The dire financial situation in late 1970s New York City was the inspiration for Billy Joel’s ‘Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)’. Interestingly, both Bowie and Joel’s tunes have a much more science fiction feel to them rather than the more ‘realistic’ nature of their 60s counterparts. It could be attributed, at least in part, to the lessening of hostilities between the United States and the Soviet Union at this time. With the coming of a more belligerent stance between the two countries in the early 1980s, however, a plethora of popular songs concerning nuclear holocaust and its aftermath were released. Some of the more successful ones included ‘99 Luftballons’ (1983), ‘Breathing’ (1980), ‘Everyday is Like Sunday’ (1988), ‘The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades’ (1986), and ‘1999’ (1982). While not specifically about nuclear Armageddon, R. E. M.’s ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’ (1987) is probably one of the most long of tracks from this era, having cropped up in several movies and other media. Since the end of the cold war, there are fewer notable songs concerning the end of the world outside death metal bands (which is beyond the scope of this chapter). Still, it’s not a completely dead topic either, with groups such as The Postal Service (‘We Will Become Silhouettes’ 2005) and The Decembrists’ (‘Calamity Song’ 2011) carrying on the torch of post-apocalyptic imagination. 3. Analysis When taken as a whole, the songs listed above may seem to have very little in common other than the broad subject of the end of the world. They can, however, be broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks for easier analysis. First, these songs can be looked at by what kind of Armageddon to which they were referring. Obviously, the number one (probable) cause for immediate destruction was nuclear attack. The whole of the rock ‘n’ roll era takes place within the Atomic Age and it was headline making news for the better part of four decades. Hence, one can find a song that details how we got to this point (‘Eve’, ‘Future’), how the destruction actually happened (‘99’, ‘Go Together’, ‘1999’), or what happened afterward (most of the rest). In particular, the compositions that describe life after the end are rich in diversity and imagery. For example, ‘Wooden Ships’ details the experience of a group of people on vessels at sea as they watch people die from radiation poisoning on the shore.3 On the flip side, Dylan’s ‘Talkin’ World War III Blues’ offers a humorous take on walking around the deserted streets of New York, driving an abandoned Cadillac and meeting people who are suspicious of his motives.4 Hendrix ‘1983...’ describes a couple spending their last moments on dry land before they climb into a ‘machine’ and live the rest of their days underwater.5

50

And I Feel Fine

__________________________________________________________________ In ‘Every day Is Like Sunday’ Morrissey sings about the seaside town that was spared in the destruction, but is now completely isolated. 6 It is perhaps one of the most haunting and beautiful songs of its type. Kate Bush’s ‘Breathing’ takes on the role of a fetus that is nonetheless aware of the nuclear radiation outside its mother’s womb.7 As mentioned above, nuclear war was not the only ‘cause’ of the theoretical apocalypse. Neil Young’s ‘After the Gold Rush’, though rather obtuse, seems to be about an ecological disaster and the alien ships that come to save humanity from itself.8 This science fiction vibe would provide real meat to David Bowie, who tied up his songs with vague, imminent disasters (‘Five Years’) and ideas filched from iconic stories (George Orwell’s 1984). He too enjoyed describing the aftermath of the end; indeed, a majority of the songs on Diamond Dogs (‘Future Legend’, ‘Diamond Dogs’, ‘Sweet Thing’, ‘1984’, ‘Big Brother’) are all about life in ‘Hunger City’ a post-apocalyptic nightmare of violence and sleaze. Perhaps his most outré entry is ‘Drive-In Saturday’ in which people have forgotten how to have sex and need to watch old porn movies in order to procreate. 9 While Bowie got some of his ideas from science fiction sources, Billy Joel’s ‘Miami 2017’ was very much grounded in reality, though it certainly has a science fiction type narrative. In the mid-1970s, New York City was in danger of defaulting on its debts. Refused aid by the federal government, the city teetered on the brink of collapse. Joel imagines the city’s fall and how anyone who was able fled to Florida. This entails the actual, physical destruction of New York and the wistful remembrances of an elderly grandparent trying to explain it to a youngster. 10 This is definitely a story with an unhappy ending. Another aspect worth looking at is the cultural touchstones that make a specific song part of the epoch from which it sprung. It is not surprising that ‘(When You See) Those Flying Saucers’ is the only song with religious overtones in this survey; it came from a time when these allusions were more accepted and could even garner respectable radio airplay. The coming of rock ‘n’ roll changed all that. It was loud, brash, and aggressively secular. It did not, however, essentially expand the vocabulary of pop music - most songs were still about love and relationships. It took the folk revival of the late 50s - early 60s to open up the subject matter to weightier ideas and lyrical sophistication. Dylan, of course, was a part of that scene, which can be seen in some of the New York landmarks he mentions in ‘Talkin’ World War III Blues’ such as 42nd Street and ConEd. 11 While Dylan is somewhat miserly with his references - at least in this case - Sloan’s ‘Eve of Destruction’ was wholly a product of its time. With mentions of Vietnam, nuclear proliferation, the civil rights fight, Red China, the space program, and the War over Water, the song neatly encapsulates any number of burning issues in 1965. 12 Less straight forward, though no less evocative, the three numbers from the late ‘60s, ‘1983...’ ‘Wooden Ships’ and ‘After the Gold Rush’ encapsulate the mysticism and hippyism that were quite prevalent at that time, at least among the arts community.

Seth Habhegger

51

__________________________________________________________________ It should be noted that while these songs had no illusions as to the quality of life after the end, they did offer an alternative: either on the sea, in the sea, or in outer space. As the counterculture slowly slid into the burned-out culture of the 1970s, however, life after the apocalypse offers little but degradation and exploitation. Bowie’s songs, on Diamond Dogs in particular, evince a filthy, anarchic, wholly uninhabitable world where violence and want are the only way of life. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine another era that could have spawned ‘Drive-In Saturday’ than the post-sexual revolution 1970s and the sudden appearance of hardcore porn in mainstream movie theaters. Interestingly, the early 1980s seemed to be the polar opposite in many respects. Not only did the threat of nuclear annihilation seem that much closer, but the goals of young people seemed to be much more materialistic. So much so that a song ostensibly a satire of yuppie culture, along with somewhat vague anti-nuclear intentions, ‘My Future’s So Bright...’ was taken by many at face value and became a sort of anthem for the get-rich-quick 1980s. Prince’s ‘1999’ is all about living in the now, having a good time in the face of mutual destruction. Perhaps club culture was not as pervasive as it seems in retrospect, but here, at least, it provides an example of a cultural touchstone affected by the fear of destruction. Considering how attached most of these songs are to their era, it is perhaps surprising that a few have been repurposed in more recent decades. The most recent example involves ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’ and the purported ending of the Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012. Not only did sales of digital copies of the song jump from 3,000 to 19,000 that week, but a radio station in Canada repeatedly played it throughout the entire day. Granted this was due more to the chorus of the song than any of its verses, but it does illustrate how songs can take new meanings as time passes. Billy Joel has repurposed ‘Miami 2017’ on two occasions, once after September 11, 2001 and again after Hurricane Sandy struck New York and New England in 2012. Others, such as ‘Every day is like Sunday’ and ‘After the Gold Rush’ are vague enough to be covered by many other artists without the theme of the song being understood. Perhaps not surprisingly, the vaguer the lyric, the greater the likelihood of adaptation at a later date. However, this can take away from the whole point of the song and this is certainly not what the composer would have had in mind when it was written. If one were to look at the broader social and political trends that were taking place during each of the eras mentioned above, it is easy to see why the artists' responded as they did. Take, for instance, the late 1960s and compare it to the early 1980s. The 60s were a time of social upheaval and rampant questioning of authority. Not only was there the protest against the Vietnam conflict, but racial tensions in many major U.S. cities had exploded into violence. There was a large shift in cultural norms, from feminism to sexual freedom to drug experimentation. Still, in spite of all the changes, the three songs from that era analyzed here had a

52

And I Feel Fine

__________________________________________________________________ spirit of optimism and hope, cautious though it may have been, that everything would turn out for the better. By contrast, the 80s suffered from the hangover of the drug-infused and politically disastrous events of the 1970s. With the renewed threat of nuclear annihilation seemingly closer than ever and the economy in shambles, it is unsurprising that a marked cynicism had pervaded popular culture. The only thing left to do was party and wait for the end, for the world wasn't even worth saving anymore. Here we see the songwriter as prophet of doom, intoning what awfulness is about to happen, but not caring a fig either way. 4. Conclusion It is safe to say that there are certain themes that run through several of these odes to the end times. It’s not just that they are a product of the era in which they were written, nor that they attempt to conjure up images of what is to come, though they certainly accomplish this. It is more the emotions and feelings that are evoked by the descriptions themselves: fear, isolation, paranoia, numbness, loss, and hopelessness. Even as the author writes about the ‘wonders’ of a brave new world, there is no denying the melancholy that hangs over most of these songs, even those with a humorous bent. Each is indeed a mirror, reflecting not only the major concerns of a given time period, within the context of apocalypse, but what cultural mores (or lack thereof) would continue after the end. Some may be forgotten altogether and it seems very clear that humanity would descend to the depths of individual moral decay and a loss of any sense of community - though there are a few exceptions. In addition, many of the songs are so wedded to their era they do not translate well to future performance – again, exceptions do apply. And while the threat of nuclear annihilation is not nearly as severe in the present age, we can certainly learn a thing or two about what it meant to live in those times. Perhaps not in depth, but at least how those who wrote and performed such music, not to mention the thousands that listened, felt about the whole thing. And maybe that’s all they needed to do.

Notes 1

‘(When You See) Those Flying Saucers’, Brain in a Box: The Science Fiction Collection, Claremont, CA: Rhino, 2000, CD. 2 ‘Eve of Destruction’, The Best of Barry McGuire, Los Angeles: Geffen, 2009, MP3. 3 ‘Wooden Ships’, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Claremont, CA: Rhino, 2010, MP3. 4 ‘Talkin’ World War III Blues’, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, New York: Columbia, 1988, CD. 5 ‘1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)’, Electric Ladyland, New York: Legacy Recordings, 2010, MP3. 6 ‘Everyday is Like Sunday’, Viva Hate, Claremont, CA: Rhino, 2014, MP3. 7 ‘Breathing’, Never For Ever, London: Parlophone, 1999, MP3.

Seth Habhegger

53

__________________________________________________________________ 8

‘After the Gold Rush’, Brain in a Box: The Science Fiction Collection, Claremont, CA: Rhino, 2000, CD. 9 ‘Drive-In Saturday’, The Platinum Collection, London: Parlophone, 2012, MP3. 10 ‘Miami 2017 (I’ve Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)’, Turnstiles, New York: Columbia, 1998, MP3. 11 ‘Talkin’ World War III Blues’. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, New York: Columbia, 1988, CD. 12 ‘Eve of Destruction’, The Best of Barry McGuire, Los Angeles: Geffen, 2009, MP3.

Bibliography Bielen, Ken. The Words and Music of Billy Joel. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2011. Bronson, Fred. The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, 4th Edition. New York: Billboard Books, 1997. George-Warren, Holly, Patricia Romanowski and Jon Pareles, eds. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, 3rd Edition. New York: Fireside, 2001. Gillett, Charlie. The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 3rd Edition. London: Souvenir Press, 2011. Goddard, Simon. Songs That Saved Your Life: The Art of the Smiths 1982-1987. London: Titan Books, 2013. Heylin, Clinton. Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions 1960-1994. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995. Pegg, Nicholas. The Complete David Bowie, 6th Edition. London: Titan Books, 2011. Shapiro, Harry and Caesar Glebbeek. Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995. Seth Habhegger is currently a graduate student at The New School for Public Engagement in New York City. This is his first publication in any way, shape, or form.

China, Modernity and Apocalypse: A Sociological Imagination Guang Xia Abstract Apocalypse has many versions. This essay attempts to formulate a sociological imagination of how Chinese modernity may be apocalyptical. Of course, modernity in its conventional fashion is, in the final analysis, based on relentless exploitation of natural resources. As such, modernity per se is apocalyptical. Why, then, is China especially relevant? For two reasons: First, the scale and pace of China’s development are globally consequential. To the surprise of China watchers, it takes a little more than three decades for China to accomplish what the West has achieved in industrialization for the past three centuries. If modernity is on its way to destroying nature as an ecological system, then China’s modernization can only dramatically accelerate this process. In this sense, Chinese modernity, as part of global modernity, is ecologically apocalyptical. Second, China’s economic success is achieved under a different political system and within a different cultural context. Therefore, both politically and culturally, Chinese modernity seems subversive to the status quo, or an America-dominated and Western-centric world. Indeed, today’s China appears to be a double Other for the West – its ideological opponent (the East) and its civilizational rival (the Orient). China’s modernization clearly demonstrates that modernity can be globalized, regardless of the ideological and civilizational differences among humanity. In face of the ecological consequences of global modernity, ideological disparities or civilizational clashes between nations do not make much sense. China’s development points to a basic dilemma of modernity: all nations have equal desires, equal rights, and equal potentials to become modernized, but globalized modernity, with technological rationality at its core, can only be realized at the cost of ecological sustainability and will lead to humanity’s self-destruction. It is high time for humanity to rethink the project of modernity from an ecological perspective and to envision an ecologically sustainable future. Key Words: China, modernity, globalization, ecological crisis, apocalypse. ***** 1. Introduction Apocalypse has many versions. Most of them have their origins in mythologies or religions and do not particularly concern modernity. Modernity is of course an Enlightenment project. Equipped with the newly enshrined Reason, Enlightenment thinkers were generally optimistic about humanity’s future. Despite the two devastating World Wars, the deteriorating ecological condition, and a possible nuclear catastrophe, the Enlightenment optimism has continued to occupy the

56

China, Modernity and Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________ mentality of the post-Enlightenment world. It was in the writings of Max Weber (and, under his influence, the Frankfurt School) that a pessimistic view of modernity was first systematically theorized. In his words, modern society is now bound to the technical and economic conditions of machine production which to-day determine the lives of all individuals...... with irresistible force. Perhaps it will determine them until the last ton of fossilized coal is burnt.1 This paragraph depicts both the existential predicament and the ecological impasse of humanity in modern times: on one hand, individuals are in the ‘iron cage’ of machine production (or, more generally, instrumental rationality); on the other, also because of the dominance of instrumental rationality, natural resources will be depleted. Weber’s reading of the human condition under modernity is echoed by, among others, Martin Heidegger. In his view, modern technology has changed how humanity relates to itself and to nature: Under technological modernity, human beings’ authentic sense of being is contaminated or distorted. Their control of technology and their mastering of nature are illusory. Defined by a technological mode of Being, they become merely something technological, and they are treated as ‘human resources’. Meanwhile, nature is no longer natural and is no longer the home of humanity; nature serves as ‘standing-reserve’, or calculable, manipulable, and utilizable material resources for humanity – nature is instrumentalized. 2 Therefore, modern technology brings an end both to our own authenticity and to nature as it is. Apparently, for Weber and Heidegger, modernity is apocalyptical for individuals on the existential level and for humanity in an ecological sense. It is disputable whether modernity is apocalyptical for individuals on the existential level, or whether modern human beings live a miserably nonhuman life. One can make a long list of key modern thinkers (from Marx to Sartre, from the Frankfurt School to postmodernists such as Foucault and Baudrillard) who would sympathize with Weber and Heidegger’s theorizing of modern individuals’ existential condition. However, for the majority of the learned community, their theory may sound eccentric or extreme, if not utterly wrong. It can be argued that with the unfolding of modernity, substantial social progress has been made in improving the existential condition for individuals, including ordinary people. Nevertheless, few would doubt that modernity is ecologically apocalyptical for humanity. Industrialization makes humanity depart from nature, the ecological home for humanity. But industrialization does not leave nature intact. Global warming, the decrease of biodiversity, and, more precariously, the exhaustive extraction of natural resources, all result from the progress of modernity. The ecological cost of modernity will be potentially unbearable for humanity. After all, humanity is part of nature, and the end of nature implies the end of humanity. If modernity in its conventional fashion goes on, the future of humanity is doomed.

Guang Xia

57

__________________________________________________________________ Modernity, originated in the West, is inherently globalizing and has been increasingly globalized. If modernity is on its way to destroying nature as an ecological system, then the modernization of China, given the size of its population and territory (the largest population and one of the largest territories among all nations), can only dramatically accelerate this process. Thus, Chinese modernity, as part of global modernity, is ecologically apocalyptical. Still, the global consequences of Chinese modernity are more complicated than ecologically apocalyptical. China’s rise poses serious challenges to the status quo, an Americadominated and Western-centric world. Of course, the global impact of China’s development is so far primarily in the economic sphere. But its economic success is achieved under a different political system and within a different cultural context. Whereas China’s economic success is widely praised among the international community, its odd political system is an easy target for ideological criticism (particularly from the West), and its distinctive cultural tradition often invites distrust (to say the least). What, then, are the global consequences of Chinese modernity? What does China’s rise mean for American domination and Western-centrism? How relevant are the ideological and cultural differences between China and the West when all humanity is facing the ecological apocalypse of modernity? Will humanity be smart enough to prevent the seemingly inevitable ecological apocalypse and to envision a post-apocalyptical world? 2. The Coming of China The rise of China in the post-Mao era is perhaps the most significant event in this part of world history. To the surprise of China watchers, it takes a little more than three decades for China to accomplish what the West has achieved in industrialization for the past three centuries. China, a largely agricultural society with an underdeveloped industrial base in the late 1970s, has become the world’s largest manufacturer, the largest trading nation, the largest consumer of natural resources, the largest patent filer, a country with the highest foreign exchange reserve, the largest foreign holder of US debt, the (second) largest economy, and the most important engine for world economic growth. It is only a matter of time for China to regain its dominance in the world economy, which it lost shortly after its entrance into modern times. China’s rapid development has much to do with economic globalization. In retrospect, China since the late 1970s has been a key initiator and a major player of the current wave of globalization: Its economic reforms have transformed itself from a planned economy to a market economy, and its open-door policy has integrated itself into the global market. China’s participation in global economy is concurrent with the rise of neoliberalism, a radical revival of classical liberalism,3 and China perhaps better embodies the neoliberal spirit than any other countries – China urges the rest of the world to acknowledge its full market-economy status, and no country is more aggressive than China in globalizing its economy through

58

China, Modernity and Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________ the mechanism of market economy. It is ironical that China often criticizes the West for practicing trade protectionism. Obviously, post-Mao China has been playing a game of the modern West, the game of market economy. Today’s Chinese economy is characterized by some as ‘state capitalism’ or ‘bureaucratic capitalism’ or ‘mercantile capitalism’. In its self-concept China is a ‘socialist market economy’. It is a capitalist system or market economy anyway.4 Of course, economic globalization itself does not make China exceptionally successful. Market economy operates through free competition. What makes China globally competitive? An oft-mentioned factor is China’s labour force. Indeed, China’s labour force is, on average, much cheaper (than that in developed countries), better-educated (than that in developing countries), and more industrious (than that in almost all other countries). According to the labour theory of value, the value of a commodity is determined by the amount of labour necessary to its production. This theory explains the shift of a large portion of the manufacturing industry from the developed world to China, and the corresponding shift of wealth. It should be immediately noted that it is in its social context that China’s labour force becomes so productive. Two factors in Chinese society are particularly relevant to its market economy. First, for thousands of years there has been a vigorous and sophisticated civil society in the Chinese world, which is highly capable of self-governance. In Pye’s words, ‘Chinese society had built-in powerful forces for self-regulation. The traditions of the family and clan and other associations and occupational groupings made government intervention to maintain routine order rare.’5 In the liberal doctrine, a self-governing or autonomous civil society is vital to market economy. Second, post-Mao China is governed by an authoritarian and meritocratic government. The authoritarian nature of the Chinese government is directly inherited from its Maoist past and deeply rooted in Chinese history, whereas its meritocracy derives from the scholar-official tradition cultivated by Confucian intellectualism. When an authoritarian government is meritocratic, its effectiveness in public administration is readily predictable, which in turn lays the foundation for its legitimacy.6 From a neoliberal perspective, the government, like individual agents and private enterprises, can be a profit-pursuing actor in the global market, hence neoliberal mercantilism. The role of the Chinese government in China’s economic development well exemplifies this perception. 3. The Apocalyptical Implication of Chinese Modernity China’s modernization is apocalyptical in two senses: First, given its vast population and territory, China’s modernization substantially enlarges the physical scope of modernity. In the sense that modernity is ultimately based on the exploitation and exhaustion of natural resources, we are already in the countdown stage of human evolution under modernity. Therefore, as part of global modernity, Chinese modernity is ecologically apocalyptical. Second, China’s rise as a world

Guang Xia

59

__________________________________________________________________ power means the end of American domination and Western-centrism. The modern world has been Western-centric, and, in conventional wisdom, the rest of the world can only become modernized via Westernization. However, China’s modernization seems to be achieved under a different political system and within a different cultural context. Thus, China’s ascending global influence makes the Americadominated and Western-centric world significantly shrink, if not disappear. For obvious reasons China’s modernization is ecologically apocalyptical. In becoming the ‘world factory’, China is put in the forefront of humanity’s ‘conquest’ of nature. China’s own natural resources are already insufficient for accommodating its development, and it heavily relies on the global market to meet its expanding demand for natural resources. In fact, China is competing with the West, India (another gigantic emerging economy), and many others, to gain access to natural resources. Given the limited amount of natural resources, China, together with the rest of the world, is fighting a losing battle with nature – the temporary gain of humanity will lead to its eventual demise. In an Australian TV interview the US President Obama says: [I]f over a billion Chinese citizens have the same living patterns Australians and Americans do right now then all of us are in for a very miserable time, the planet just can’t sustain it.7 This statement, while politically incorrect and culturally insensitive, tells a plain truth about the ecological boundary of global modernity. Conditioned by the limits of nature, modern economy is essentially scarcity economy, which makes national territory an extremely sensitive issue. Unsurprisingly, many modern wars are fought directly for natural resources – in the name of ‘motherland’ or ‘fatherland’ or simply national interests. As its demand for natural resources grows, China becomes more concerned with its territory than ever. The current dispute between China and some of its neighbours over some islands (and surrounding waters) is a recent example of the importance of natural resources to China (or any nation, for that matter). Natural resources, somehow divided among nations in the form of territories, are regarded as something sacred, for which people would sacrifice their life. Human beings, aiming at natural resources and armed with modernized means of war, will perhaps eradicate themselves even before they destroy nature. Some modern wars are fought not directly for natural resources – they appear to be waged for the sake of ideologies or civilizations. This is another reason why Chinese modernity is apocalyptical – apocalyptical for American domination and Western-centrism. China is, in its self-knowledge, a socialist country (with Chinese characteristics), and Marxism is its official ideology. Meanwhile, China has arguably the longest continuous civilization, and the role played by Chinese civilization in its modernization becomes increasingly visible. Therefore, China

60

China, Modernity and Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________ represents a double Other for the West: With the ending of the Cold War, China becomes the sole major power that may remind the West of the existence of the East – its ideological opponent; Moreover, notwithstanding all the Orientalist discourses, China remains a vibrant part of the Orient, the civilizational rival of the West. Apparently, history does not, as declared by Fukuyama, end up with liberal democracy or Western modernity. The East or the Orient is re-emerging from the horizon of history – this time the Other for the West is China. Both ideologically and culturally, Chinese modernity seems subversive to American domination and Western-centrism. In fact, the ‘Chinese threat’, a current version of the ‘Yellow Peril’, is frequently felt or faked among Westerners. There have been talks about the ‘Chinese Century’. And a G2 framework for managing world affairs becomes conceivable. One may wonder, how different is China from the West ideologically and culturally? And how relevant are their ideological and cultural differences? China is indeed among the few countries that insist on socialist ideology in the post-Cold War world. As long as China claims to be socialistic, its human rights records can be an easy target for the West, and its global presence may appear menacing to the West. However, in what sense is China a socialist country? It could be argued that socialism represents, if anything, China’s future better than its past or present. Because of the immense impact of the Maoist legacy on China, socialism continues to be ideologically instrumental in legitimizing the Chinese government. In the real world, however, in terms of the role of the welfare state in its social life, and in terms of the gap between rich and poor, China is much less socialistic than Western countries. Furthermore, China’s market-oriented reforms have fundamentally transformed China into, in Western terms, a capitalist country, making its socialism only ideologically relevant. There are certainly socialist elements in China (much less so now than in the past), but China has a long way to go to become a mature socialist country. China itself formally (and honestly) admits that it is in the ‘initial stage’ of socialism. Amusingly, in the Western discourse, China is even more than a socialist country – China is often derogatively referred to as a communist country (read: another vicious empire). The Cold-War mentality lingers in the West! China is actually more pragmatic and less dogmatic than the West where ideological differences are concerned. What about the difference between Chinese civilization and its Western counterpart? Thanks to China’s recent development, East Asian modernity, pioneered by Japan in the late 19th century and spread to the Four Mini-Dragons (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore) from the 1960s on, has become full-fledged. The formation of East Asian modernity suggests that modernity can be globalized, and it can be so not necessarily through wholesale Westernization. Sinologists would agree that Chinese civilization, especially its Confucian tradition, plays a central role in shaping the spirituality of East Asian modernity. Nevertheless, the difference between Chinese civilization and its Western counterpart (Western modernity in particular) should not make us blind to their

Guang Xia

61

__________________________________________________________________ basic similarities. In many ways China has been, by Western standard, modern since antiquity. For instance, a largely secular state, a meritocratic bureaucracy, a highly self-governed civil society, a written language accessible to both literati and laypeople, a stratification system based on achieved rather than ascribed status, a cohesive culture open to multiculturalism, the idea and practice of educational equality, etc., which are defining elements of Western modernity, have long existed in China or the Sinicized world.8 Sadly, cultural differences among human beings almost always attract more attention than cultural similarities, and they are often essentialized and exaggerated by vested interests to create group or international confrontation, as exemplified most recently in Huntington’s ‘civilizational clash’ thesis. Global modernity transcends ideological differences and nullifies Eurocentrism (or any kinds of ethnocentrism) by putting all humanity in the same boat. In face of global modernity, particularly its possible ecological consequences, the ideological disparities or civilizational clashes among nations do not make much sense. China’s modernization points to a basic dilemma of modernity: all nations have equal desires, equal rights, and equal potentials to be modernized, but globalized modernity, with technological rationality at its core, can only be realized at the cost of ecological sustainability and, in the end, will lead to humanity’s self-destruction. 4. Conclusion: Back to the Basics Human evolution is a biological as well as cultural process. Ideally, culture functions to facilitate humanity’s biological evolution. However, in consequence of technological modernity, culture has made human evolution ecologically apocalyptical. Human beings are, after all, a form of biological existence. No matter how far they depart from nature, or however civilized they are, they belong to the ecological system. When the ecological system collapses, human evolution, biological or cultural, is finished. A watershed in human evolution is modernity. As an emancipatory project, modernity is designed to liberate human beings from, among other things, nature’s destiny. In the mind of Enlightenment thinkers, the project of modernity is of universal values – it applies to all humanity. Thus conceived, the difference between the West and the rest is not that between races, nations, or cultures, but that between, to paraphrase Gellner, ‘time zones’ of modernization. In other words, it is only a matter of time for developing countries to become modernized. Unfortunately, nature has its limits and it sets the limits for modernity. A global implication of China’s modernization is that the ‘tragedy of the commons’ is the tragedy for all humanity. Whereas the West is in no legitimate position to stop China, or the rest of the world, from becoming modernized, modernity in its conventional fashion, if ever globalized, would be ecologically ephemeral. Technology is a double-edged sword: it traps humanity into modernity, and yet it is also the key to saving humanity from its apocalyptical consequences.

62

China, Modernity and Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________ Unfortunately, contrary to the technological utopianism of the Enlightenment, human evolution is now reaching a point of technological dystopia. Humanity becomes an endangered species by the ‘Cunning of Reason’. For the sake of human evolution (survival and reproduction), it is high time for humanity to rethink the project of modernity and to envision a post-apocalyptical world. In a post-apocalyptical world, technology is not to be employed to ruin nature and to massacre humanity, but to build an ecologically sustainable future. How to make use of ever-evolving technology for the good of humanity is a fatal challenge and a definitive test for human wisdom.

Notes 1

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, with an introduction by Anthony Giddens (London: Allen & Unwin, 1976): 181. 2 Martin Heidegger, ‘The Question Concerning Technology’, translated by W. Lovitt with revisions by D. F. Krell, in D. F. Krell, ed., Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings, revised and expanded edition (London: Routledge, 1993): 311–41. 3 David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). 4 Edward Steinfeld, Playing Our Game: Why China’s Rise Doesn’t Threaten the West (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012); Ronald Coase and Ning Wang, How China Became Capitalist (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). 5 Lucien W. Pye, China: An Introduction, 4th edition (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1994): 72. 6 Martin Jacques, When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order, revised/2nd edition (New York: Penguin, 2012). 7 ABC.net, viewed on 15 March 2014, http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2872726.htm. 8 Xia, Guang. East Asian Modernity vs. Western Modernity: From a Cultural Perspective, in Chinese. Beijing: The SDJ Joint Publishing Company, 2005.

Bibliography Coase, Ronald and Ning Wang, How China Became Capitalist. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Gellner, Ernest. Nationalism. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997. Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Guang Xia

63

__________________________________________________________________ Jacques, Martin. When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order, revised/2nd edition. New York: Penguin, 2012. Pye, Lucien W. China: An Introduction. 4th edition. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1994. Steinfeld, Edward. Playing Our Game: Why China’s Rise Doesn’t Threaten the West. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, with an introduction by Anthony Giddens. London: Allen & Unwin, 1976. Xia, Guang. East Asian Modernity vs. Western Modernity: From a Cultural Perspective, in Chinese. Beijing: The SDJ Joint Publishing Company, 2005. Guang Xia received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1997 and is now Professor at the School of Business, Macao Polytechnic Institute. His main academic areas of interest include modern Western social theory, traditional Chinese social thought, globalization in relation to culture, and psychoanalysis.

The Oulu Prophecy and Finland and Cold War Ville Jalovaara Abstract A common fear of the Soviet Union in the Finnish Lutheran Church during the Cold War was intensified by the preaching called the ´Oulu´s prophecy´. A female preacher from the city of Oulu claimed in autumn 1960 to have received a revelation that the Soviet Union was going to occupy the country, if a certain number of the Finns had not repented from their sins. According to the preaching also Finland´s neighboring countries Sweden and Norway were in danger to be punished by God. Although the Church’s leadership disassociated itself from the prophecy in spring 1960, this did not prevent supporters of the prophecy to claim that the revelation had come true in autumn 1961 when so called Note Crisis started. Key Words: Cold War, Church History, Finland, Soviet Union, nuclear war, religious sect. ***** 1. The Cold War and the End of the World Times of crisis have often prompted religious extremists to try to predict the future and foresee the exact moment of the end of the world. Within the Christian tradition these kinds of groups have seen parallels between events in the present and biblical writings. During the Cold War the nuclear arms race and superpower confrontation created an international situation of uncertainty and fear for the future of the world. The fear of Armageddon was especially imminent during the Cuban Missile crisis in October 1962.1 Finland had a long tradition of mutual distrust with its neighboring USSR. In the early 1960s the international situation of the Cold War combined with a period of uncertainty in Finnish-Soviet relations led to the emergence of a movement based on the Oulu prophecy.2 Despite the distrust it was not seen appropriate to criticize the USSR openly in Finnish media during and all kinds of periphrasis had to be found. The critical attitude towards the USSR was evident also in the Finnish religious field. The purpose of this article is the find out how the hidden distrust and fear of the Soviet Union was expressed during the high point of the Cold War in the early 1960s throughout the preaching of a charismatic prophetic movement in the city of Oulu in northern Finland. The article also tries to find out that to which extend the Oulu Prophecy was an apocalyptic movement which indicates that its followers were waiting for the end of world in near future as a result of a global nuclear war.

66

The Oulu Prophecy and Finland and Cold War

__________________________________________________________________ 2. Finland and the Cold War The uncertain international position of Finland in the beginning of the Cold War was a suitable atmosphere also for the pessimistic religious views about the future of Finland to emerge. In the Second World War Finland had fought in the war on the side of Germany against the Soviet Union. During the summer of 1944, the Finnish armed forces had halted a Red Army offensive aimed at occupying the country and despite harsh peace terms, Finland had been able to maintain her independence.3 Under pressure from the Soviet Union Finland was forced to sign an assistance treaty, which also included two military articles. While this did not make Finland an ally of the Soviet Union, the treaty imposed limitations on the foreign policy until the fall of the Soviet Union in the beginning of the 1990s.4 3. The Lutheran Church of Finland During the Cold War the Finnish Lutheran church was closely affected by the fortunes of the Finnish nation. In the beginning of the 20th century, a typical characteristic for the Lutheran Church of Finland had already been patriotism. This tendency was already evident before Finland became independent from Imperial Russia in 1917. In the years following independence, patriotism increased. The Lutheran Church saw itself as a folk church, which had a mission to build and support the fatherland. During the Second World War, the Church supported the nation’s war effort and saw the fight against atheistic Bolshevism as justified. After the war, the Finnish Church feared that the rise of the extreme left would jeopardize its position. However, the Church managed to maintain its status as the established church unchanged throughout the critical post-war years.5 4. A Prophet Threatens Finland with Soviet Occupation In the early 1960s, the position of the Lutheran Church was still strong in Finnish society. At least according to the statistics, the Church could justly claim to be the folk church of the great majority of Finns. In 1960, about 93% of the Finns were members. Although fifty years ago people went to the church more actively than today the mainstream of Finnish Christianity can be described more of a low profile devotion.6 As seen against this background the Oulu prophecy described in this article had a major impact on the Finnish Lutheran Church in 1961. Church leaders had to take a stand on a religious movement started by one family´s religious practice in the city of Oulu, which is a middle-sized city by Finnish standards, located in the northern part of the country. The prophecy allegedly started in late August 1960, when the Oulu County clerk Miss Laila Heinonen felt that she had a prophetic announcement from God during the evening devotion. According to the story the parents of Miss Heinonen were initially confused by the incident, but they soon believed that God was speaking through their daughter and they began to help to spread the prophecy. 7

Ville Jalovaara 67 __________________________________________________________________ The Oulu prophecy was an exceptional phenomenon at the time in the Finnish Lutheran Church, because there was no so-called charismatic movement active in the Church. Therefore its supporters acclaimed that the prophecy had started unexpectedly in a normal, traditional Lutheran family. In reality the matter was opposite. Research indicates that the Heinonen family had a long time interest in charismatic religious practices and they had read about the activities of previous Finnish religious preachers who had regarded themselves as prophets. The biographies of men and women who had defined themselves as prophets had been widely read in the family. Laila Heinonen had been particularly inspired by the biography of Mrs. Helena Konttinen. She was a Lutheran female prophet, who had been active in the early years of the twentieth century in the small county of Uukuniemi in Eastern Finland. Konttinen had fallen into a trancelike state and, according to her followers she had been able to predict both the future of Finland and the future of individuals who had come to meet her. In an interview in 1963 a member of the Heinonen family said that prior to the beginning of the prophecy the parents had been severely ill and that they believed that they had been healed by a miracle.8 The core of the Oulu prophecy was that the Finnish people should repent from their sins before the year 1962, or the whole nation would face an enemy invasion. According to the Heinonen´s preaching destruction would face all nations that did not possess enough believers. By this she was revering to the use of nuclear weapons. Especially threatened were Norway and Sweden. According to prophecy, God had protected Finland during the Second World War: 'I saved Finland from falling into the same fate as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary.' 9 Although God had shown His mercy towards Finland, the Finnish people had not repented for their sins. Therefore according to Heinonen´s prophecy God had given the nation one year in which to repent from September 1960 onwards. Within this period, 800,000 individuals should repent of their sins or Finland would face a Soviet invasion. Finland as a nation would cease to exist, its people would be taken in to captivity in Siberia, and the country would be resettled with new inhabitants from the Soviet Union. Soon the preaching was altered so that 8,000 intercessors would be enough to save the country from destruction. In mid-September 1961, two weeks before the deadline, the prophet gave the nation extra time. According to the prophecy, a new and final period of repentance would last from October 1961 to the end of the year. The prophecy acclaimed that although God would discipline Finland with a firm hand He would not abandon His devout people in the difficult months ahead.10 The ultimate fear in Finland during the years following the Second World War was an attempt by the Communists to try violent takeover with direct or indirect support of the Soviet Union. In the words of Oulu prophecy the ultimate unspoken fear of the Soviet Union was clearly described. During its active phase in 1961, the Oulu prophecy was spread to the Finnish people by a small but dedicated core group. Because of their visibility in the media,

68

The Oulu Prophecy and Finland and Cold War

__________________________________________________________________ the activity of a few dozen people could give the false impression that behind the prophecy was a popular movement larger than in fact was the case. Most active members were of Laila Heinonen's family and their home became a site of pilgrimage for those who believed in the prophecy in Finland. Even some visitors from neighbouring countries like Sweden and Norway, which were also threatened with destruction by the prophet, travelled to Oulu to visit their home. 11 A pietistic religious magazine Palavin Lampuin (With Lamps Light) took to publishing Heinonen´s prophecies as they came. In the autumn of 1961 a book called Suomi sinun pelastuksesi on minun poikani veressä (Finland Your Salvation is in My Son´s Blood) was published. The book contained all of the prophecies concerning the public.12 Heinonen´s prophecies were also circulated through flyers and audio tapes containing her speeches. With the aid of mostly negative articles both in the ecclesiastical press and in the daily newspapers, the message of the Oulu prophecy was known to the majority of Finns by the autumn of 1961. 13 5. The Church Takes a Stand on the Prophecy Typically for the religious revivals also in the first half of 1961 in the wake of the Oulu prophecy a wave of ecstasy, in which many individuals began to regard themselves as prophets and speak about the Soviet invasion and the nuclear war, spread to Finnish religious life. Olavi Kares, the Dean of Turku, saw in private letter in an increase of 'fanatical spirituality', as a sign of the times. According to Kares, in the city of Pori in Western Finland, a group of laymen were trying to drive their chaplain out of the church and take over the congregation. At Jyväskylä, 'a trance man' had come to regard himself as 'the voice of God' and started to prophesy. Kares referred to the Soviet Union and estimated that prophecies were gaining support, because 'we can be easily threatened as our whole nation lives under the threat.'14 The unwillingness of the leadership of the Finnish Church to express openly their opinions about the Oulu prophecy led to uncertainty among many on how to respond to the prophecy. Some churchgoers started to think that perhaps the bishops believed in the preaching because they declined to comment on it. 15 As the Bishops were supporting president Kekkonen´s Soviet friendly foreign policy it is more likely that the reason for the silence was the fear of political provocation. A prominent Church leader first took a public view on the prophecy, when the bishop of Mikkeli Osmo Alaja spoke in March 1961 in Mäntyharju at a religious event. In his speech Alaja tried to diminish the foreign political aspects of the prophecy and view it as a religious issue. Now Alaja warned of a rising mood of panic and said that the future of Finland did not correlate with the amount of prayers.16 The reason for the fact that one of the Finnish Church leaders was finally willing to take an official stand on the Oulu prophecy was clearly related to fact that some extreme left newspapers in Finland tried view prophecy as a foreign

Ville Jalovaara 69 __________________________________________________________________ political issue. Silence was no longer the best defense, because the extreme left had taken Heinonen´s preaching as a weapon in the political struggle and this could help to endanger Finland’s delicate relations with the Soviet Union and this was something the Finnish Church, with its close ties to the State, could not passively follow. In another newspaper statement in spring 1961 Bishop Alaja estimated that Laila Heinonen was not a typical end time prophet. Instead he compared her to Mr. Mikko Reponen, who had been active in Viipuri before the Winter War. Reponen had interrupted a sermon in the local church in the late 1930s and proclaimed that the city would be destroyed unless the Finns repented of their sins. During the Winter War, in February 1940, the same cathedral was destroyed in an air raid and after the war the whole city of Viipuri had to be handed over to the Soviet Union.17 6. The Note Crisis Actualizes the Oulu Prophecy In the autumn of 1961 the political situation in Finland was tense both on international and national level. Soon after the construction of the Berlin Wall in the summer of 1961, a severe stand-off occurred between American and Soviet forces on the Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. At the same time gigantic nuclear weapons tests were made by both superpowers. As on previous occasions, an increase in tension in international affairs had effects on Finnish-Russian relations. The outcome of the 1962 Finnish presidential elections was not solely determined by the will of the Finnish voters, because the Soviet Union decided to secure President Urho Kekkonen´s re-election by interfering in Finnish affairs. The cycle of events started when, on 30 October 1961, the Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, gave Finland’s Ambassador to Moscow a diplomatic note demanding military consultations based on the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance. According to this note, West Germany’s military activity in the Nordic region had increased so significantly that consultations were necessary. The real target of the note was Finnish domestic affairs. Soviets saw the candidacy of Kekkonen´s rival Olavi Honka as a threat to its interests in Finland, and the note was most probably intended to help Kekkonen get re-elected.18 To resolve the crisis, at the end of November 1961 Kekkonen travelled to meet the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Siberia. As a result the Soviet Union agreed to postpone military consultations.19 During the Note Crisis the prophet's family lived as if they were witnessing the last days of peace as they expected that the war predicted in the prophecies could begin at any moment. When the invasion did not come after all, they explained that 'probably the number of prayers had changed the Lord´s plans.' The family wanted to keep this as a secret, because if the word that God had postponed the war would leak, intercessors could become tired.20

70

The Oulu Prophecy and Finland and Cold War

__________________________________________________________________ 7. The Time for Repentance Comes to a Close The entire Finnish population breathed a sigh of relief after the end of the Note Crisis. For followers of the Oulu prophecy, the end of the year 1961 meant the end of the time given for repentance set out in the prophecy. During the Note Crisis the Church leadership had maintained a low profile on the preaching. After the crisis had passed, the cautious attitude came to an end. In the end of 1961, Bishop Eero Lehtinen gave an interview in which he warned readers about the prophecy. Although these were serious times, fear-based religious preaching was not justified. According to Lehtinen, repentance was always topical and the reason for repenting should not be the fear of punishment. 21 On New Year's Eve in 1962, followers of the prophecy gathered together in different locations around Finland to wait in excitement for the turn of the year. In the Finnish capital Helsinki one thousand supporters of the prophecy had come to one meeting hall to witness the ending of the time for repentance. The program at the meeting consisted of speeches, the audience praying on its knees and listening to prophecies from audiotapes. Clearly they were expecting that something exceptional might happen in the midnight. 22 Miss Heinonen herself waited for the ending of the year at her home in Oulu. She had told in a letter to one of her close supporter that God had promised more anxiety for the people, because they had not accepted the message during the repentance time. Despite this, God would preserve Finland and Norway from destruction.23 8. The Second Coming of the Prophecy in 1967 The midnight came and nothing unexceptional took place in Finland. Soon after, the prophecy movement began to evolve into a closed sect which wanted to have close control over the lives of its members. In the following years several Lutheran pastors and laity who had been actively involved in the movement from the beginning withdrew one by one and broke all connections with the Heinonen family. The movement also disappeared from public view. 24 In the summer of 1967, the Finnish press started to once again closely follow the events around the Oulu movement. During the summer of 1967, an unusual spectacle took place when a group of Heinonen´s followers gathered around the local church and started shouting 'light the fire!' Someone called the fire brigade and the police. The group was calmed down and they were arrested by the police, to whom they told that they were not arsonists and the shouting had been a symbolic cry for God.25 In the summer of 1967, the radicalization of European youth spread to Finland and the actions of the conservative Heinonen sect provoked anger in young people and protests started outside their prayer room in the city center of Oulu. The standoff led to clashes between the police and youth and only calmed down after a

Ville Jalovaara 71 __________________________________________________________________ nightly curfew was announced.26 Soon after these events Miss Heinonen and her remaining group of loyal supporters finally disappeared from public view. 27 9. Conclusion: Was the Oulu Prophecy an Apocalyptic Movement? The Oulu prophecy is an exceptional phenomenon in Finnish Lutheran Church after the Second World War. From the research perspective, the popularity of the prophecy in the early 1960s can be explained in the sense that the movement was a religious manifestation of the fear caused by a period of Cold War crisis and it became a marginal phenomenon, after the threat disappeared. In a traditional sense the Oulu prophecy was not an apocalyptic movement which was focused only on waiting for the end of the world in a near future. However the prophecy about the destruction of the Nordic countries at the time when the fear of nuclear war was in everyone’s mind is a clear indication for apocalyptic thinking. Future research would be needed to find out whether there were parallel movements evident in other countries during the Cold War.

Notes 1

John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War (London: Allen Lane, 2005), 75-78. Eila Helander, ‘Uskonto ja arvojen muutos’, in Uskonto ja nykyaika: yksilö ja eurooppalaisen yhteiskunnan murros, ed. Markku Heikkilä (Jyväskylä: Atena, 1999), 59–60. 3 Jukka Nevakivi, ‘From the Continuation War to the Present’, in From Grand Duchy to a Modern State A Political History of Finland since 1809 (London: C. Hurst & Co, 1999), 217-224. 4 Ibid., 242-251. 5 Aila Lauha, ‘The Lutheran Church of Finland and Finnish Society in the 1920´s and 1930´s’, in Hungary and Finland in the 20th Century, ed. Olavi Vehviläinen (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 2002), 81-91. 6 Olavi Tarvainen, Suomen evankelisluterilainen kirkko vuosina 1957–1961 (Joensuu: Piispainkokous, 1963), 5-6. 7 Rauno Elomaa. ‘Oulun profeetta’ (Pastoral thesis., Diocese of Mikkeli, 1968), 2223. 8 Elomaa, ‘Oulun profeetta’, 11-23. 9 Laila Heinonen, Suomi Sinun pelastuksesi on minun poikani veressä (Kokkola: Palavin lampuin, 1962), 15. 10 Ibid., 6-16, 166-167. 11 Ville Jalovaara, Kirkko, Kekkonen ja kommunismi poliittisina kriisivuosina 1958-1962 (Helsinki: SKHS, 2007), 199-200. 12 ‘Suomi sinun pelastuksesi on Minun Poikani veressä’, Palavin Lampuin, July 1960. 2

72

The Oulu Prophecy and Finland and Cold War

__________________________________________________________________ 13

Elomaa,‘Oulun profeetta’, 37-38. Jalovaara, Kirkko, Kekkonen ja kommunismi, 200. 15 Ibid., 201. 16 Osmo Alaja, ‘Paniikkimielialan synnyttäminen Raamatun vastaista’, Kotimaa, 24 March 1961, 5. 17 Osmo Alaja, ‘Oulun profetian arviointia’, Kotimaa, 7 April 196, 4. 18 Jason Lavery, The History of Finland (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2006), 139140. 19 Jalovaara, Kirkko, Kekkonen ja kommunismi, 212-238. 20 Ibid., 231. 21 Eero Lehtinen, ‘Herra tuntee vanhurskasten tien’, Kotimaa, 22 December 1961, 4. 22 ‘Etsikkoaika on ohi’, Suomen Kuvalehti, 13 January 1962, 10. 23 Jalovaara, Kirkko, Kekkonen ja kommunismi, 248-249. 24 Ibid. 25 Esa Lehtonen, ‘Oulun profetia hengellisenä ilmiönä vuosina 1960–1961 ja sen muuttuminen heinoslaisuus-lahkoksi vuosien 1962–1967 aikana’(Master´s thesis., University of Helsinki, 2002), 93-94. 26 Ibid. 99-104. 27 Ibid. 106-109. 14

Bibliography Alaja, Osmo. ‘Paniikkimielialan synnyttäminen Raamatun vastaista.’ Kotimaa, 24 March 1961. Alaja, Osmo. ‘Oulun profetian arviointia.’ Kotimaa, 7 April 1961. Elomaa, Rauno. ‘Oulun profeetta’. Pastoral thesis. Diocese of Mikkeli, 1968. ‘Etsikkoaika on ohi.’ Suomen Kuvalehti, 13 January 1962. Gaddis, John Lewis. The Cold War: London: Allen Lane, 2005. Heinonen, Laila. Suomi Sinun pelastuksesi on minun poikani veressä: Kokkola: Palavin lampuin, 1962. Helander, Eila. ‘Uskonto ja arvojen muutos.’ In Uskonto ja nykyaika: yksilö ja eurooppalaisen yhteiskunnan murros, edited by Markku Heikkilä, 59-67. Jyväskylä: Atena, 1999.

Ville Jalovaara 73 __________________________________________________________________ Jalovaara, Ville. Kirkko, Kekkonen ja kommunismi poliittisina kriisivuosina 19581962: Helsinki: SKHS, 2007. Lauha, Aila. ‘The Lutheran Church of Finland and Finnish Society in the 1920´s and 1930´s.’ In Hungary and Finland in the 20th Century, edited by Olavi Vehviläinen, 81-91. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 2002. Lavery, Jason. The History of Finland: Westport: Greenwood Press, 2006. Lehtinen, Eero. ‘Herra tuntee vanhurkasten tien.’ Kotimaa, 22 December 1961. Lehtonen, Esa. ‘Oulun profetia hengellisenä ilmiönä vuosina 1960–1961 ja sen muuttuminen heinoslaisuus-lahkoksi vuosien 1962–1967 aikana’. Marter´s thesis, University of Helsinki, 2002. Nekavi, Jukka. ‘From the Continuation War to the Present.’ In From Grand Duchy to a Modern State A Political History of Finland since 1809, 217-358. London: C. Hurst & Co, 1999. Tarvainen, Olavi. Suomen evankelisluterilainen kirkko vuosina 1957–1961: Joensuu: Piispainkokous, 1963. Ville Jalovaara is Doctor of Theology. He was nominated with the title of Docent of The Finnish and Scandinavian Church History by University of Helsinki in December 2013. Jalovaara works currently as a grant researcher at the University of Helsinki and specialises with the Cold War period.

Part III Literary (Post) Apocalypse

Historicism, Empire and the Apocalyptic in Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick João Félix Abstract Science Fiction has had a long-standing tradition for the grand epic, one with surprising narrative echoes of the historical novel. However, when looking at the influences behind the construction of certain science fictional civilizations, one can find a particular taste for the Roman Empire. It has been widely acknowledged that Isaac Asimov’s Galactic Empire, as narrated in the Foundation series, is loosely inspired by Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Asimov himself referenced this source on numerous occasions. Concurrently, an important portion of Philip K. Dick’s work hinges on the notion that Western civilization is quite factually reliving the decay of the Roman Empire. This specific choice of civilization is an interesting one, particularly due to its usefulness as a model for a crumbling Empire. While attempting to capture the idea of a falling civilization, these texts mainly address the parallelisms with the same narrative that we know from our history. In Lukácian tradition, we, therefore, pose the question of how may these narratives be seen as historical novels themselves, attempting to metaphorically inscribe a decaying view of contemporary civilization through the totality of the historical mode. Consequently, it seems relevant to explore how historicism finds its way into a genre so often characterized as inspired by natural sciences. It shall be argued here that the use of the postapocalyptic as such is an ambivalent trope. While stemming from a technological possibility, the post-apocalyptic essentially addresses cultural interrogations in a given socio-political order. The fact that the historical mode is afforded such prominence in propping these worlds, both within the fiction and around the narrative structure, appears as a good measure for how significant it is to envision the post-apocalyptic as an opportunity to restage history as a totality on a clean slate. Key Words: Science Fiction, Utopia, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, psychohistory, historicism, historical materialism, apocalypse, Roman Empire ***** Much has been said of science fiction as a genre, and Philip K. Dick’s sentiments that science fiction ‘was so looked down upon that it virtually was not there’ or that there was a serious ‘derision felt toward SF writers’ is surely a thing of the past and a fascinating study in itself.1 There is now a wealth of critical production and research that makes it a lively and matured field. Darko Suvin’s

78

Historicism, Empire and the Apocalyptic

__________________________________________________________________ contribution in particular is often taken as the starting point for many discussions in this matter. I am unoriginally mentioning Suvin here since it helps to put in perspective that science fiction was –and to Suvin’s proponents still is– characterized as ‘the literature of cognitive estrangement.’2 This is a loaded concept that, nonetheless, should consolidate the ideas here proposed. Of particular interest is the first part of Suvin’s definition that SF is cognitive, that it pertains to our perceivable reality. This is curious, as SF is not commonly known for its realism. How can a text describing the struggles of mankind in a post-apocalyptic world, for example, possibly be considered realist? There are, however, more than a few instances that suggest the contrary. The activity of historicizing fictions as crumbling future civilizations has more to do with an account of our past and present rather than with the speculation on a possibly apocalyptic future. Here, we shall look at two examples. 1. Cyclical History in Isaac Asimov One of the most recognizable literary works in science fiction is Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. It has been widely acknowledged that the Galactic Empire narrated in the Foundation series is loosely inspired by Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Asimov himself recognizes this on several occasions, along with Thucydides’ The History of the Peloponnesian War: ‘With a tiny bit of cribbin' from the works of Edward Gibbon and that Greek, Thucydides.’3 So, after Gibbon’s image of the Roman Empire, we are presented with a Galactic Empire in Asimov. Similarly to Gibbon, Asimov delineates a sociopolitical structure that is crumbling under its own expansionism. The inspiration goes as far as having certain narrative elements emulate episodes from the Roman Empire. In the segment ‘The General’ that constitutes the first half of Foundation and Empire; the reader is presented with the General Bel Riose, a character that threatens the political equilibrium of the Galactic Empire by being overly effective in his conquests. This character’s resemblance with Roman generals like Belisarius from the early Byzantine Empire, whose military achievements would grant them a political popularity that could be considered excessive, is clear and deliberate. This similarity has been widely acknowledged by now, namely by Patrouch and others critics.4 The question that is posed now is whether or not Asimov was writing science fiction at all, since he so blatantly lifted material from the historical past. To this, Patrouch points out the following: Asimov has defended himself by arguing that history does repeat itself in large sweeping ways and that therefore it is perfectly legitimate to plot stories of the future by referring to the past. 5

João Félix

79

__________________________________________________________________ In fact, throughout the series, Asimov often affords character reflexions on the Galactic Empire that could easily have passed as a consideration on some of the power structures present in the Roman Empire –a weakening, centralized government riddled with power struggles in the face of an unmanageable diaspora. Still, what further underscores the parallel between the Roman Empire and the Galactic Empire is the narrative scope itself. We are looking at an abundantly historicized narrative that could have taken its inspiration from any other historical era. What, in fact, comes clearly across in the Foundation Series is the attempt to record the course of a civilization, as if it were an individual entity. In this regard, Asimov does indeed emulate Thucydides or Gibbon. The view that one can narrate the actions of a society and organize historical events into a structure of cause and effect is at the base of the historical methodology that Asimov tacks onto the Foundation series. Where Gibbon organizes a narrative to explain why the Roman Empire fell and Thucydides set up the causes and consequences of the Peloponnesian War, Asimov offers the events that instigate the shift from a declining Galactic Empire to the subsequent political order. The subject matter in Asimov is, of course, fictional, but the narrative structure and purpose are similar to the historical model, particularly in the frequent didactic diatribes when Hari Seldon appears. Throughout the series, the main plot device that invariably drives the narrative forward is this concept of a crumbling social order under the Galactic Empire and the struggle to minimize the looming apocalypse. More than drawing his inspiration from Gibbon’s structuring of a specific historical narrative, Asimov seems to follow a cyclical theory of History, which is proposed not by Gibbon, but by historians such as Toynbee and Spengler. Spengler in particular, in Decline of the West, states the following: Mathematics and the principle of Causality lead to a naturalistic, Chronology and the idea of Destiny to a historical ordering of the phenomenal world. Both orderings, each on its own account, cover the whole world.6 When Spengler or Toynbee proposes a predictable and cyclical History, the leap towards projecting the same model onto a future History is a small one. One of the purposes behind these popular views on History is precisely to learn from past mistakes, since History tends to repeat itself, which obviously implies a certain degree of belief in causality. Through this general concept, Asimov can articulate the notion of history as an exact science with a very real application to future actions. Although the justification behind a type of sociology that operates as an exact science incarnated in what Asimov calls psychohistory is garbled and questionable at best, one must not forget that Asimov seems to use these sources

80

Historicism, Empire and the Apocalyptic

__________________________________________________________________ freely, without any apparent concern with theoretical accurateness. To quote Barthes on this matter: We know now that a text is not a line of words releasing a single 'theological' meaning (the 'message' of the Author-God) but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash. The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture. 7 Therefore, what is clear by Asimov’s ideal concept of historiography as expressed in the Foundation Series is the possibility to overcome the apocalyptic inevitabilities present in every civilization from our own history. While the Foundation Series seems to use Ancient Rome as a model, threats such as overpopulation, excessive urbanization or the overall crumbling of contemporary political systems are at the heart of what is presented in Asimov’s Galactic Empire. It is suggestive that, in the wake of the actual apocalypse that was Hiroshima and Nagasaki, along with the US entering the Korean War, Asimov should create a fictional empire immersed in the historical inevitability of plunging into chaos and destruction. 2. The End of History in Philip K. Dick One of Philip K. Dick’s most notorious traits is the overpowering nature of his core themes, even in favour of form and content. His interests are very pronounced and marked by a perpetual recurrence from one text to another. It is often the case where tropes, plotlines, relationships and even names are repeated. Therefore, it is no wonder that, while his novels do not follow the tidy pattern of serialization that we see in Asimov, there are strong undercurrents that connect all of Dick’s work. Two of these are apocalypse and the end of history. The first is often seen in his many short stories and novels that address how human beings cope with a world-ending event, usually post-war nuclear fallout. Novels such as The Penultimate Truth or Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb, along with numerous short stories, portray the surviving remnants of humanity. However, what seems to be a cardinal concern for Dick in all of these stories is neither the apocalyptic event in itself nor the harsh conditions that people are subjected to. Rather, what is recurrently emphasized is how these people create narratives that help them cope with their environment. As is often the case with other SF authors, Dick is using the genre to depict his own surroundings: a society craving for consumerism and escapist forms of entertainment. Therefore, apocalypse in Dick is not exactly a fiction connected to any possible threat to our way of life; it is an actual metaphor on how, for him, the end of times is already among us, beneath a layer of trash and everyday life.

João Félix

81

__________________________________________________________________ This can also be seen in his frequent allusions to Ancient Rome, usually as a collation on top of the existing reality. No less than ten of his novels present a reference to this historical period as an empire that is somehow existing between his own reality, with nineteen further developing an alternate, shifting reality over the more mundane one. The relevance of the Roman Empire here lies in a strong thematic connection with Asimov in the sense that both of these authors use historical conceptual models to create their empires. If Asimov shapes his Foundation series after Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the Ancient Rome that Dick so frequently mentions usually represents, by analogy, our own entropy. This is most visible in their extreme representations, when they are superimposed on top of our own reality, but they cannot be disregarded as coincidental when in The Man in the High Castle, for example, Germany is briefly compared to Ancient Rome: Like the joke about Goring... the one where Goring buys Rome and has it shipped to his mountain retreat and then set up again. And revives Christianity so his pet lions will have something to…8 As in other instances in Dick’s case, there is a visible movement from passing reference of this recurrent topic in his early novels into a radicalized notion of a degradation of reality that translates into the overlapping worlds of Ancient Rome and 1960s California. Incidentally, for The Man in the High Castle, Dick made much use of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, A History of Nazi Germany, 9 a reading which seems somewhat parallel to Asimov’s influences for the Foundation series. Aside from the fact that both these research materials take the particular historiographical position of a cyclical sweep to the periods under analysis, it is not circumstantial that this work, among other historiographical narratives mentioned by Dick is the scaffolding for The Man in the High Castle. In fact, this is Dick’s novel where historicity and the historical are most directly problematized. It is often cited as a seminal piece of alternate history, where Nazi Germany wins the war. It is relevant to the discussion of what SF actually is, since the novel does not focus on a possible future at all: The Man in the High Castle looks at our past and rearranges it. History, in the novel, is nothing more than a reassuring construction, a trinket with no intrinsic value. From a science-fictional standpoint, the estrangement lies in the present, not necessarily the future. What needs addressing is our own reality; the alternative is but a means of representing the displaced real. The individual, at its core, is dependent upon whatever narrative needs to be constructed in order for what surrounds him/her hold any meaning; the intrinsic value of these narratives being put into question every step of the way. This is, of

82

Historicism, Empire and the Apocalyptic

__________________________________________________________________ course, the point where the reader, by analogy, might consider that his/her own reality frequently offers such narratives for his/her own sense of identity to be construed. This seems, to a degree, similar to Seldon’s Plan in Asimov’s Foundation. Both instances deal in part, albeit in very different ways and with different endings, with the possibility of harnessing the historical narrative to somehow manipulate or, at least, gear humanity towards a specific path. Here, there is an element of actual social change. Much like More’s Utopia, The Man in the High Castle is read by many as a metaphor for Dick’s own disquiet of the status quo. Suvin assesses that ‘Up to the mid-60s Dick could be characterized as a writer of anti-utopian science fiction in the wake of Orwell’s 1984.’10 Robinson goes further and demarcates Dick as a writer whose ‘fictional worlds were constructed by taking sceptical political metaphors, and making the metaphorical statements literally true in the worlds of his fiction; thus his futures are always of looking at our present.11 In essence, what we are facing in Dick’s texts is a dystopian vision for the end of times, but a dystopia that is actually already here since Ancient Rome. 3. The Historical Science-Fictional Novel According to Lukács, out of the realistic social novel of the eighteenth century, there is a growing concern in staging the historical past, particularly in epic form, in order to conceptualize the present and project action towards the future: ‘The broad delineation of manners and circumstances attendant upon events, the dramatic character of action’.12 Similarly, so is the SF novel, with this kind of dramatization, merely giving form to what are already present and actual concerns. It must be stated at this point that, whether or not Lukács would positively or negatively consider the historical science-fictional novel under these terms is of small concern. In fact, by contrast to the standards Lukács sets with Scott’s historical novels, a respectable amount of elements will fall under what Lukács considers a decline in form and spirit of the historical novel. His tremendous relevance here lies in the fact that, even if negatively, Lukács is effectively delineating the SF novel when addressing the historical novel. Historicity is, in fact, the locus of SF, generally speaking. Its concern with thoroughly registering the facts of the fictionalized world actually place it in the mode of the realist novel: there is an ostensive concern in most SF to be accurate and cohesive within the boundaries of the created reality. Above all, this very prominent preoccupation in SF is representative of how rooted the realist novel is inside the SF novel. Nevertheless, the historical science fictional novel needs not to be regarded as a subset of SF, but the actual mode for its greatest part. Therefore, if we look at SF novels such as those written by Asimov and Dick from a realist perspective, they are effectively producing a dramatic character of action. It seems clear that one of the goals for SF is to produce a totality of a

João Félix

83

__________________________________________________________________ future. However, by contextualizing it within the time when these novels were written, the concerns and threats of the present clearly come through. When Lukács discusses the emergence of a broader historical consciousness as a result of a globalized sense of threat, what is at heart here is the necessity to produce a historical narrative for the individual to make sense of the apocalypse. If, in Lukács’ case, this was represented by the wars stemming out of the French Revolution, in Asimov apocalypse meant the destructive potential of human beings when grossly misusing technological and scientific developments. This even more urgent in Philip K. Dick’s case, when we are presented with texts that were compulsively dedicated to pouring out his own apocalyptic concerns about our time into what he considered to be a realist format. As Dick himself explains in one of his last writings, ‘I see disorder and sorrow, and so I have to write about it; but I’ve seen bravery and humor, and so I put that in, too.’13 Therefore, if not in form, Dick surely follows Lukács considerations on how ideologically bound and a productive expression of social revolution the historical novel is. Therefore, whether past or present, if we are willing to accept the historical mode as a means to cognitively organize our reality, then surely both Asimov and Dick can be seen as historicizing the apocalyptic future in order to present the threats of an apocalyptic now.

Notes 1

Lawrence Sutin, Divine Invasions (London: Gollancz, 2006), 66. Darko Suvin, ‘On the Poetics of the Science Fiction Genre.’ College English 34, no. 3 (December 1, 1972): 372. Doi: 10.2307/375141. 3 Isaac Asimov, ‘The Foundation of S.F. Success.’ In Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1, 1st ed. (New York: Broadway, 1990), 41–43. 4 Joseph F. Patrouch, The Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1974), 84-85. 5 Ibid., 85. 6 Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 6. 7 Roland Barthes, ‘The Death of the Author’ In Image, Music, Text, edited by Stephen Heath, (Hill and Wang, 1978), 186. 8 Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle (London: Victor Gollancz Limited, 2009), 78. 9 Ibid., 8. 10 Darko Suvin, ‘Artifice as Refuge and World View: Philip K. Dick’s Foci.’ In Philip K. Dick, 1st ed., (London: Taplinger Pub Co, 1983), 80. 2

84

Historicism, Empire and the Apocalyptic

__________________________________________________________________ 11

Kim Stanley Robinson, ‘The Novels of Philip K. Dick’ (CA: University of California, 1982). 12 Georg Lukacs, Historical Novel, trans. Hannah Mitchell and Stanley Mitchell (London: Merlin Press Ltd, 1991), 31. 13 Phillip K. Dick, The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings (NY & London: Vintage Books, 1996), 94.

Bibliography Asimov, Isaac. ‘The Foundation of S.F. Success.’ In Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1, 1st ed.. NY: Broadway, 1990. Barthes, Roland. ‘The Death of the Author.’ In Image, Music, Text, edited by Stephen Heath. London: Hill and Wang, 1978. Dick, Philip K. The Man in the High Castle. London: Victor Gollancz Limited, 2009. DiTommaso, Lorenzo. ‘Redemption in Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle.’ Science Fiction Studies 26, no. 1 (March 1, 1999): 91–119. Lukacs, Georg. Historical Novel. Translated by Hannah Mitchell and Stanley Mitchell. London: Merlin Press Ltd, 1991. Nichols, Stephen G., Jr. ‘Georg Lukács: The Problems of Dialectical Criticism.’ Contemporary Literature 9, no. 3 (July 1, 1968): 349–66. Doi: 10.2307/1207807. Patrouch, Joseph F. The Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday, 1974. Robinson, Kim Stanley. ‘The Novels of Philip K. Dick.’ CA: University of California, 1982. Spengler, Oswald. The Decline of the West. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Sutin, Lawrence. Divine Invasions. London: Gollancz, 2006.

João Félix

85

__________________________________________________________________ Suvin, Darko. ‘Artifice as Refuge and World View: Philip K. Dick’s Foci.’ In Philip K. Dick, 1st ed., 73–95. London: Taplinger Pub Co, 1983. João Félix is a PhD candidate at the University of Sussex and an integrated researcher at the University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies. His current research focuses on Science Fiction and Utopia, with a particular interest in the interplay between readership and serial narratives.

After the End: Moral Utopianism in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake Yu-Ching Wang Abstract Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake is a novel that imagines what life may be like in a post-apocalyptic world. The novel not only arouses our attention to the issue of what constitutes humanity by focusing on how the supposedly Last Man lives with other posthuman species that are ignorant of the catastrophe, but also ponders on the possibility of humanity’s retrieving its goodness or merits in a bleak dystopian world. Taking departure from the problematic of the relationship between Snowman and the Crakers, this paper aims to demonstrate that out of his responsibility for the Crakers, and their lack of linguistic sophistication and cultural reference, Snowman has to borrow from old creation myth and invent a brand new narrative in order to quench the Craker’s thirst for the knowledge of the origin and to instruct their daily life in the aftermath of a nightmarish viral catastrophe. This paper argues that Snowman’s storytelling not only creates therapeutic effect upon him, but also forges collective memories between him and the Crakers. With love and respect as the essence of his storytelling, Snowman reveals his moral impulse to begin a new world where species may live in harmony. In this light, the novel resonates with Zygmunt Bauman’s idea of moral utopianism, which lies in taking responsibility for the other rather than exceeding human limits or achieving a totalitarian blueprint. Key Words: Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, post-apocalyptic, responsibility, storytelling, collective memory, transformation, Zygmunt Bauman, moral utopianism. ***** 1. Introduction Oryx and Crake (OC) is widely accepted as a post-apocalyptic dystopian novel. The novel depicts a talented but misanthropic scientist Crake’s utopian project to create a better posthuman species in order to replace Homo sapiens. In a word, Crake despises human race. One reason is that obsessed with the fear of death or desire to transcend our soul into the next generations, we eagerly reproduce children and start wars against the other and set up the boundary between ‘us’ and ‘non us’. We also do everything possible to transcend mortality by developing state-of-the-art science and technology. So, Crake aims to destroy the entire human race. After deliberately releasing deadly virus across the world with the help of the female protagonist Oryx, Crake leaves his creation, the Crakers, to his best friend Jimmy/Snowman because he trusts in Jimmy’s capacity to take care of the Crakers.

88

After the End

__________________________________________________________________ Alternating between narratives of the pre-and post-apocalyptic world, OC vividly portrays a bleak world in which the seemingly sole survivor Snowman and posthuman species gradually cultivate a mutually dependent relationship. The novel not only puts scientific hubris under scrutiny but also interrogates what it is to be human. As Atwood comments on her novel, [I]t invents nothing we haven’t already invented or started to invent. Every novel begins with a what if, and then sets forth its axioms. The what if of Oryx and Crake is simply, What if we continue down the road we’re already on? How slippery is the slope? What are our saving graces? Who’s got the will to stop us?1 It interrogates and warns against the poisonous effect of misuse of biotechnology. Besides, it also intends to speculate the possible saving graces for humans from a post-apocalyptic point of view. As Atwood remarks, ‘Perhaps, by imagining mad scientists and then letting them do their worst within the boundaries of our fictions, we hope to keep the real ones sane.’2 This paper takes departure from the problematic of the relationship between Snowman and the Crakers, and aims to demonstrate that out of his responsibility for the Crakers, and whose inadequate comprehension of the current world, Snowman has to borrow from old creation myth and invent a brand new narrative in order to quench the Crakers’ thirst for the knowledge of their origin and to instruct their daily life in a hostile environment. In this way, Snowman’s storytelling not only creates therapeutic effect upon himself, but also forges collective memories between him and the Crakers. With love and respect as the core essence of Snowman’s storytelling, the novel resonates with Zygmunt Bauman’s idea of moral utopianism. 2. Moral Utopianism: Responsibility as Moral Choice In past decades, the sense of ‘the end’ permeates literary theories, social, religious movements, such as the end of subjectivity, the end of the world around millennium. When technology reaches its highest potential and seems to be able to cope with every possible living problem we encounter, people also doubt the necessity of a totalitarian utopian blueprint and anticipate the end of utopia in a liberal democratic world. However, Bauman’s sociology differentiates itself from the others by offering an alternative perspective of utopia. He severely criticizes the utopia of solid modernity and calls for a different utopia in liquid modernity. As Michael Hviid Jacobsen remarks, Bauman celebrates the unexpected “utopi a human”, the inherently “not-yet” quality of Being, the terminally unfulfilled

Yu-Ching Wang

89

__________________________________________________________________ potential in being-for-the Other. Humanity—and with it human morality—is always something that is in the horizon, something not-yet, never definitely achieved.3 Bauman’s utopianism does not refer to the ‘eternal, conservative, neverchanging or solidified utopia’; rather, it concerns ‘the impulse—ontological as well as moral—that permeates humanity in its endeavours and encounters with others; an impulse that is democratically oriented and responsible for the whole of humanity.’ 4 As Jacobsen elaborates on Bauman’s moral utopianism, ‘To Bauman…utopia cannot end, unless humankind itself was ever to disappear. Instead utopia is an intimate travelling-companion of humanity on the road ahead.’5 The next section will demonstrate how Snowman’s responsibility for the Crakers manifests this utopian impulse. As the novel unfolds, we learn that through Jimmy’s pre-apocalyptic life, he had been weighed down by guilt, shame, pain, remorse and loneliness. For instance, as a child, he was ‘anxious about the animals’ being burnt and hurt at bonfire. Jimmy felt guilty because ‘he’d done nothing to rescue them’. He empathized with the suffering animals: ‘He could see his hair on fire.... He didn’t want to be put in a heap with the cows and pigs. He began to cry.’6 Jimmy was rather incapable of saving the animals since under the context of utilitarianism they had to be burnt to keep the disease from spreading.7 He did not meet his parents’ expectation in his science studies; he was unable to protect and keep his pet friend Killer by his side; he failed to win his mother’s favour and attention; he was struck with guilt in watching the sex video of young Oryx; he was forced to watch the video clip of his mother’s death scene; he could not exceed Crake’s scientific achievement and could not defeat Crake’s logical arguments with his talent in words and love for art; he watched passively Crake kill his beloved Oryx in front of him; he shot Crake to death…. Worst of all, he accused himself of ignorant complicity with Crake’s misanthropic attempt to replace human species with the Crakers by releasing fatal virus to cause pandemic plague. Stricken by unbearable guilt and confronted with drastic change of human civilization, Snowman considers putting an end to his life. Nevertheless, ‘[h]e could imagine Crake’s amused contempt, and the disappointment of Oryx: But Jimmy! Why do you give up? You have a job to do! You promised, remember? Perhaps he failed to take seriously his own despair.’ 8 Oryx’s voice keeps reminding Snowman to look on the bright side of the bleak world and take care of the Crakers—Snowman has promise to keep. Several critics have pointed out the influence of Jimmy’s mother and Oryx in shaping Snowman’s responsibility. For instance, C.A. Howells argues that ‘it is Crake the moral monster who reminds Jimmy of his moral responsibility, in words that echo those of Jimmy’s mother.’9 As S. R. Wilson contends,

After the End

90

__________________________________________________________________ After [Oryx’s] death, [Oryx] is reduced to a voice in Jimmy/Snowman’s head…. It is her voice that reminds Snowman to watch over Crakers, that gives him a reason for being, and must muse-like, inspires his tale.10 According to Natalie Foy, [Jimmy’s mother] leaves to fight for the causes that represent a wider interest than her son’s happiness. Ironically, it is on the very site of absence […] that Atwood constructs hope—through Sharon’s activism. [T]he novel’s bleakness is redeemed by Sharon’s exercising of choice and individual conscience.11 In my point of view, Snowman’s care for the Crakers is also an exercising of choice, as Bauman may suggest. It indicates that his childhood empathy for the suffering animals is reignited. Although Snowman is unable to save the other disintegrating humans, he will not tolerate his passivity in watching the Crakers caught in danger. Here and now, he will take action to protect them. This paper proposes that Snowman’s responsibility for Crakers resonates with Bauman’s moral utopianism. For instance, after the JUVE virus breaks out all over the world and shuts down the regular operation of world systems, Snowman leads them out of the Paradise in case they are starved to death in an artificial ecosystem, which, without proliferative resources or electricity, will fail to sustain itself. Snowman directs them to a place called home. Snowman sees himself as a caretaker now. As Snowman ponders, I could leave them behind… Just leave them. Let them fend for themselves. They aren’t my business. But he couldn’t do that, because although the Crakers weren’t his business, they were now his responsibility. Who else did they have? Who else did he have, for that matter? 12 Jimmy’s renaming himself Snowman after the viral catastrophe is significant in that it brings forth transformative power for him as well as for the Crakers. It also suggests a rite of passage manifesting his attempt to purge himself of the guilty past and fix his eyes upon the here and now. As Jimmy thought, He no longer wanted to be Jimmy… He needed to forget the past—the distant past, the immediate past, the past in any form. He needed to exist only in the present, without guilt, without expectation. As the Crakers did. Perhaps a different name would do that for him.13

Yu-Ching Wang

91

__________________________________________________________________ Snowman, cast in a post-apocalyptic world surrounded by remnants of disintegrating bodies, aggressive animals, and bleak landscape, would have to get a life and think like the Crakers. According to Osborne, ‘Snowman’s acceptance of the past enables him to become more confident in his own strength, particular as the caretaker of the Crakers.’14 Apart from scavenging on things from the past, Snowman also practically trades with the Crakers—one story for a fish, in order to get protein nutrition for survival. 3. Transformative Power of Storytelling The recurrent theme of Atwood’s oeuvre, as S. Hengen sharply observes, is the antagonism between ‘despotism versus decency; obsessive control versus the spectrum of human desire; science and art; reason and the imagination.’15 In OC, these antagonisms are incarnated by Crake and Jimmy. Crake shows his talent in science and transgenic engineering at an early age, whereas Jimmy is slow in learning numbers and better in rhetoric. Crake’s expertise caters to the needs of the highly developed transnational capitalist world. So, Crake is recruited to develop genomic commodities, which will serve human desire for beauty, health and longevity of life, and so on. Jimmy’s love for words and art in a utilitarian world is considered useless since it is irrelevant to profit-oriented corporations. Yet, this paper maintains Jimmy’s talent and love for words seem to find their home in a post-apocalyptic world. After the catastrophe, Snowman has thought about keeping record of his daily life in a post-apocalyptic world. Yet, it is futile. As the novel reveals, He too is a castaway of sorts. He could make lists. It could give his life some structure. But even a castaway assumes a future reader, someone who’ll come along later and find his bones and his ledger, and learn his fate. Snowman can make no such assumptions: he’ll have no future reader, because the Crakers can’t read. Any reader he can possibly imagine is in the past. 16 Snowman suffers from the loss of meanings when everything the words refer to no longer exists. He is so overwhelmed by the apocalyptic scenario that he must intermittently utter some archaic words to calm down himself and think about how to survive. As E. Rao elucidates, Words are also a salvation, a way to remind him that he is still human and alive; they become like stones fastened to his body in order to prevent him from falling down into the abyss of nonsense.17

92

After the End

__________________________________________________________________ Yet, only the signifiers remain. The connection between the signifiers and the signified is broken. He can see the word, he can hear the word, but he can’t reach the word. He can’t attach anything to it. This is happening too much lately, this dissolution of meaning, the entries on his cherished wordlists drifting off into space.18 As H. Mundler remarks, Snowman’s wordlists are ‘free-floating signifiers without signified, referentless language.’ 19 Besides, there is no audience. The Homo sapiens is nearly extinct. At first, Snowman also feels frustrated in communicating with the Crakers and thinks there is no hope to leave his knowledge to them. Indeed, Snowman’s knowledge of the old world does not apply to the Crakers’ perception of the postapocalyptic world. He must figure out words that are intelligible to the Crakers; the words he utters must be linked to concrete objects. As C. Osborne lucidly observes, He cannot depend on the old narrative; it is not enough to parrot what has come before. Instead, he must create the future through telling his own stories, fashioning new myths to guide the Crakers because they lack the cultural context of the old world, he must invent anew, gleaning from, but not repeating, the past.20 In this way, Snowman demonstrates his talent in words and telling stories. In telling the Crakers stories about creation, Snowman now has listeners. As Rao points out, ‘Snowman’s narration also signifies hope for the future, since it implies a “you”’.21 Snowman gradually comes to enjoy this language game. By inventing the creation myth of the Crakers, Snowman nevertheless deifies Oryx and Crake. Snowman is now the prophet of both Oryx and Crake: That, or nothing. And he couldn’t stand to be nothing, to know himself to be nothing. He needs to be listened to, he needs to be heard. He needs at least the illusion of being understood.22 Although Snowman feels pathetic in his shameless invention, his words nonetheless turns out to produce unintended consequences. The Crakers appreciate Crake’s suffering on their behalf. They also bear in mind the teachings of Oryx and show respect for Nature. They learn to recycle the unnecessary objects. As Snowman’s stories go, ‘In the beginning, there was chaos’23; ‘Crake is watching over you… Oryx loves you.’24 In my point of view, by telling stories, Snowman also transforms the bleak post-apocalyptic landscape into something understandable and pleasant for the Crakers. Out of his responsibility for them,

Yu-Ching Wang

93

__________________________________________________________________ Snowman creates a world full of love and respect out of a horrible catastrophe. In this way, the Crakers who lack a common linguistic sophistication and cultural frame of reference will begin to cultivate a shared memory of the stories. As he gradually develops a communal relationship with the Crakers, Snowman also experiences transformation. After Snowman returns from his journey 25 back to the Paradise in search of food and weapons, the Crakers try to heal Snowman’s injury by purring. ‘Soon he’s lying on the ground and they’re purring over him. The pain lessens…’ 26 This is a symbolic scenario. The distance between them gradually dissolves. Snowman begins to see himself in a different light—not just a sole survivor suffering from a traumatic past, but a shepherd watching over the Crakers. They are waiting for him to come home. As they say, ‘We made a picture of you, to help us send out our voices to you.’27 After Snowman returns, they tear down the component parts of the image and plan to return them to the beach. In Osborne’s nuanced observation, Symbolically represented by the dismantling of his effigy, Snowman has been transformed through his therapeutic journey, and when he ventures into new territory not anticipated by Crake, he removes his sunglasses altogether, signifying a new perspective on the future, one of his own making. 28 Differentiating itself from the Extinctathon game and the freak MaddAddam scientists who named the extinct species, Snowman’s storytelling has a reviving power to bring life into the dead world. In a hostile environment, the Crakers demonstrate more adaptability than Snowman; they are immune from contagious disease; their smell wards off cannibalistic animals such as pigeons and wolves; they eat mostly grass and leaves and roots. Yet, they learn about their origin from Snowman’s stories. They learn about their relationship with the environment through Snowman. To quote Howells, Crake may have had the power of death over [Oryx] but it is Snowman who resurrects Oryx when he mythologises her as Earth Mother in the creation myth he devises for the Crakers.29 Snowman’s storytelling not only serves as a therapeutic tool for him to comprehend the world, but also serves as a bridge between him and the Crakers. As G. Cooke contends, ‘Given time, even the Children of Crake may come to count as human, as their language develops, as they mythologize and epigeneticize.’30 Cooke holds a positive attitude toward the learning capacity of the Crakers. In his point of view, as they begin to share the same cultural memory with Snowman, they may become to develop human characteristic. Like Cooke,

94

After the End

__________________________________________________________________ Osborne holds a positive attitude toward the Crakers potential in approximating humanity: As the Crakers, in their desire for stories and their emerging use of symbolic systems, seem to be moving more toward human characteristics, Snowman is beginning to adopt some of their customs.31 In this light, what the Crakers inherit from Snowman will be love and respect. The legacy of Snowman’s storytelling also leads us to think about the saving graces of humanity. 4. Conclusion As Francis Fukuyama points out, ‘the most significant threat posed by contemporary biotechnology is the possibility that it will alter human nature and thereby move us into a posthuman stage of history.’32 OC also engages us with this problem. Yet, in the novel, the prospect for a futuristic solid utopia seems less obvious than the concern for moral choice here and now. By portraying a postapocalyptic world and depicting the co-dependence between Snowman and the Crakers, I think Atwood also reminds us that responsibility for the Other — or rather moral utopianism—may be our saving graces.

Notes 1

Margaret Atwood, ‘Perfect Storms: Writing Oryx and Crake’. Oryx and Crake. Accessed on 1 January 2014, http://www.oryxandcrake.co.uk/perfectstorm.asp. 2 Margaret Atwood, ‘Of the Madness of Mad Scientists: Jonathan Swift’s Grand Academy’. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination. (New York: Doubleday, 2011), 211. 3 Michael Hviid Jacobsen, ‘Liquid Modern “Utopia”: Zygmunt Bauman on the Transformation of Utopia’, Utopia: Social Theory and the Future, ed. Michael Hviid Jacobsen and Keith Tester (Burlington: Ashgate, 2012), 89. Emphasis in original. 4 Ibid., 91. 5 Ibid., 92. 6 Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake. (NY: Anchor Books, 2004), 18-19. 7 The pre-apocalyptic world is filled with utilitarianism and utopian desire to transcend biological limits of human body, i.e., enhancement of health, transplantation of organs, erasure of disease and suffering, extension of lifespan, anti-aging, eugenics, and so on. In this sense, animals are usually sacrificed for genetic engineering experiments. 8 Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 344.

Yu-Ching Wang

95

__________________________________________________________________ 9

Coral Ann Howells, ‘Oryx and Crake’. Margaret Atwood, ed. Coral Ann Howells (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 178. 10 Sharon R. Wilson, ‘Frankenstein’s Gaze and Atwood’s Sexual Politics in Oryx and Crake.’ Margaret Atwood: The Open Eye, ed. John George Moss and Tobi Kozakewich (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2006), 398. 11 Natalie Foy, ‘The Representation of the Absent Mother in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake’, Margaret Atwood: The Open Eye, ed. John George Moss and Tobi Kozakewich (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2006), 417. 12 Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 350. Emphasis added. 13 Ibid., 348-349. 14 Carol Osborne, ‘Mythmaking in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake’. Once Upon a Time: Myth, Fairy Tales and Legends in Margaret Atwood’s Writings, ed. Sarah A Appleton (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008), 35. 15 Shannon Hengen, ‘Margaret Atwood and Environmentalism’. The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood, ed. Coral Ann Howells (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 72. 16 Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 41. 17 Eleonora Rao, ‘Home and Nation in Margaret Atwood’s Later Fiction’. The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood, ed. Coral Ann Howells (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 111. 18 Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 39. 19 Helen E. Mundler, ‘Heritage, Pseudo-Heritage and Survival in a Spurious Wor(l)d: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood’. Commonwealth Essays and Studies 27.1 (2004): 96. 20 Carol Osborne, ‘Mythmaking in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake’. Once Upon a Time: Myth, Fairy Tales and Legends in Margaret Atwood’s Writings, ed. Sarah A. Appleton (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008), 39-40. 21 Eleonora Rao, ‘Home and Nation in Margaret Atwood’s Later Fiction’. The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood, ed. Coral Ann Howells (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 111. 22 Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 104. 23 Ibid., 102. 24 Ibid., 367. 25 Carol Osborne reads this journey as a therapeutic journey, in the process of which Snowman gradually accepts his guilty past. 26 Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 362-363. 27 Ibid, 361. 28 Carol Osborne, ‘Mythmaking in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake’. Once Upon a Time: Myth, Fairy Tales and Legends in Margaret Atwood’s Writings, ed.

96

After the End

__________________________________________________________________ Sarah A. Appleton (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008), 35. 29 Coral Ann Howells, ‘Oryx and Crake’. Margaret Atwood, ed. Coral Ann Howells (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 180-181. 30 Applying Bernard Stiegler’s conception of epigenesis and epiphylogenesis, Cooke focuses on the function of language as technics in shaping our memory. As Cooke remarks, ‘Stiegler’s formation of epigenetic memory refers to the cultural memories, inscription, programs, and codes that we are not born with but that we are born into’ (emphasis in original). In this sense, memory is not exclusive genetic or biological. Rather, it is also cultural and collective. The exteriority of memory thus enables us to pass on our crafts, oral tradition or knowledge. Nevertheless, Cook does not elaborate on what kind of collective memory it is between Snowman and the Crakers. In my point of view, their collective memory is forged through the stories created by Snowman as elaborated in the previous section. 31 Carol Osborne, ‘Mythmaking in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake’. Once Upon a Time: Myth, Fairy Tales and Legends in Margaret Atwood’s Writings, ed. Sarah A. Appleton (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008), 41. 32 Francis Fukuyama, Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of Biotechnology Revolution (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002), 7.

Bibliography Atwood, Margaret. ‘Of the Madness of Mad Scientists: Jonathan Swift’s Grand Academy’. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination. New York: Doubleday, 2011, 194-214. ———. Oryx and Crake. New York: Anchor Books, 2004. ———. ‘Perfect Storms: Writing Oryx and Crake’. Oryx and Crake. Viewed on 1 January 2014, http://www.oryxandcrake.co.uk/perfectstorm.asp. Cooke, Grayson. ‘Technics and the Human at Zero-Hour: Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake’. Studies in Canadian Literature 31.2 (2006). Viewed on 1 January 2014, http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/10216. Foy, Natalie. ‘The Representation of the Absent Mother in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake’. Margaret Atwood: The Open Eye. Edited by John George Moss and Tobi Kozakewich, 407-419. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2006.

Yu-Ching Wang

97

__________________________________________________________________ Fukuyama, Francis. Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of Biotechnology Revolution. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. Hengen, Shannon. ‘Margaret Atwood and Environmentalism’. The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood, edited by Coral Ann Howells, 72-85. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Howells, Coral Ann. ‘Oryx and Crake’. Margaret Atwood. Edited by Coral Ann Howells, 170-184. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Jacobsen, Michael Hviid. ‘Liquid Modern “Utopia”: Zygmunt Bauman on the Transformation of Utopia’. Utopia: Social Theory and the Future, edited by Michael Hviid Jacobsen and Keith Tester, 69-96. Burlington: Ashgate, 2012. Mundler, Helen E. ‘Heritage, Pseudo-Heritage and Survival in a Spurious Wor(l)d: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood’. Commonwealth Essays and Studies 27.1 (2004): 89-98. Osborne, Carol. ‘Mythmaking in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake’. Once Upon a Time: Myth, Fairy Tales and Legends in Marg aret Atwood’s Writings, edited by Sarah A. Appleton, 25-46. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008. Rao, Eleonora. ‘Home and Nation in Margaret Atwood’s Later Fiction’. The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood, edited by Coral Ann Howells, 100113. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Wilson, Sharon R. ‘Frankenstein’s Gaze and Atwood’s Sexual Politics in Oryx and Crake.’ Margaret Atwood: The Open Eye, edited by John George Moss and Tobi Kozakewich, 397-406. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2006. Yu-Ching Wang is a Ph.D. student in Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at National Taiwan University.

Part IV Cinematic Apocalypse

The End of Pluralism in Béla Tarr’s Apocalyptic A torinói ló/The Turin Horse Phil Mann Abstract Béla Tarr’s final film, A torinói ló/The Turin Horse focuses on the struggle of a stableman and his daughter against their increasingly hostile environment. Natural elements slowly begin to consume their very existence, until ultimately they are cast into apocalyptic darkness. Tarr’s movies have long been analysed through their striking formal characteristics (András Bálint Kovács) or as universal studies of human degradation and struggle (Jonathan Rosenbaum) but are seldom examined as national texts. This lack of national context I find rather problematic and, as such, propose to examine The Turin Horse as a Hungarian film with strong ties to national issues. I consider the film’s descent into nothingness to be an allegorical foretelling, prophesying the repercussions of the Fidesz government’s controversial Constitutional amendments and changes to the nation’s media laws, which have led to wide-scale fears over the integrity of media pluralism in Hungary. In The Turin Horse, Tarr strips his characters of their basic human rights. They are detained within their small farmhouse due to the ferocious and ceaseless gales and we focus on their immobility through long passages of stasis. I argue that this sense of forced containment can be understood as an allegorical representation of the Fidesz government’s attempts to silence dissidents through the centralisation of Hungarian media. Key Words: Béla Tarr, The Turin Horse, Hungarian cinema, Hungary, Fidesz, allegory, pluralism, democracy. ***** 1. Situating Béla Tarr as a Hungarian Director Over the past thirty-six years, Béla Tarr has emerged as one of the most internationally acclaimed auteurs in global art cinema, championed by some of the most prominent scholars in western film studies such as Jonathan Rosenbaum, David Bordwell and Susan Sontag. These critics applaud the artistry of Tarr’s work, predominantly focusing on the director’s post 1987 output in which he established, what András Bálint Kovács describes as, the ‘Tarr style’.1 This style is profoundly antithetical to the norms of commercial cinema. Through the use of long takes, deep focus photography and stark, low contrast black and white imagery Tarr presents a liminal world, one void of spirituality and sentiment. The use of heavily choreographed cinematography and elegant, lyrical monologues in favour of natural dialogue bestow upon his films a weight of existentialism. It is perhaps unsurprising, given this fact, that his work has been chiefly examined

102

The End of Pluralism in Béla Tarr

__________________________________________________________________ through the established canons of Bordwellian art cinema.2 However, I would argue that Western academic interest in Béla Tarr, demonstrates what Paul Willemen describes as, ‘projective appropriation,3 in which an ‘assumed universality of film language’4 is given ascendancy in response to a lack of specific socio-historiographical context to situate analysis. For example, in his much cited article, A Bluffer’s Guide to Béla Tarr, Jonathan Rosenbaum perceptively highlights the difficulties Western scholars face when addressing Eastern European cultural products, stating: One reason that Eastern European films often don't get the attention they deserve in the West is that we lack the cultural and historical contexts for them. If Eastern Europe's recent social and political upheavals took most of the world by surprise, this was because most of us have been denied the opportunity to see the continuity behind them: they seemed to spring out of nowhere. The best Eastern European films tend to catch us off guard in the same way, and for similar reasons. 5 While Rosenbaum brings the matter of national context to the fore, he is quick to sidestep the issue, claiming: I believe that these problems are less serious than we tend to make them out to be; rather than pretend they don’t exist, it seems more honest and useful to acknowledge them – in the process of showing how and why they don’t matter much. 6 Rosenbaum’s article then proceeds to fall back on established internationalist art cinema discourse. Willemen describes this variety of analysis as ‘evasive cosmopolitanism’,7 which results, inadvertently, in a form of cultural imperialism owing to the ascendency of Western film scholars over their non-western counterparts in the international field of film studies. In reaction to such universalism, I address the national void in the current literature on Tarr. I examine his final film, A torinói ló/The Turin Horse (2011) in light of significant socio-political events occurring in Hungary at the time of the film’s production; namely, changes made to Hungarian media regulations by the Fidesz government and their impact on media pluralism. Tarr has, on numerous occasions, vocalised his belief that his films made in the ‘Tarr style’ are indeed Hungarian. In an interview with Phil Ballard (2004), Tarr stated: ‘Yes, we make Hungarian films, but I think the situation is a little bit the same everywhere.’8 On the subject of his 2000 release, Werckmeister harmóniák/Werckmeister Harmonies, Tarr affirmed:

Phil Mann

103

__________________________________________________________________ [I]f you watch this film and you understand something about our life, about what is happening in middle Europe, how we are living there, in a kind of edge of the world.9 Again, when asked in an interview why his films are full of mud, dirt, and people getting drunk and falling over, Tarr’s answered thusly: ‘This is our nation. This is our role. This is what I see.’10 Tarr’s national inclinations are unsurprising given that his earlier, pre-1987 films, all displayed a sincere social-conscience; focusing on issues pertinent to socialist Hungary such as the housing crisis and other communist failings. In spite of the stylistic developments made in the late 1980s, Tarr has maintained ties to his native Hungary and has become an advocator of art and culture therein. Such is Tarr’s commitments to the integrity of Hungarian art cinema that during the 32nd Hungarian Film Week (Magyar Filmszemle) in 2001 he refused to exhibit Werckmeister Harmonies in a multiplex.11 Tarr has also aided the development of the next generation of Hungarian filmmakers, producing Johanna (Kornél Mundruczó, 2005) A halál kilovagolt Perzsiából/Death Rode Out of Persia (Putyi Horváth, 2005), Magyarörszag 2011/Hungary 2011 (various, 2011) and Final Cut: Hölgyeim és uraim/Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen (György Pálfi, 2012). In 2010 Tarr was elected as President of the Hungarian Filmmakers' Association, a position he continues to hold to this day. His appointment roughly corresponded with the wide-scale restructuring of the Hungarian media following the Fidesz government’s majority electoral victory in 2010, which allowed them to make amendments to the nation’s Constitution. On January first, 2011 two controversial statutes came into law, namely Act CIV of 2010 on the Freedom of the Press and the Fundamental Rules of Media Content and Act CLXXXV of 2010 on Media Services and Mass Media. These controversial legislations have led to public protests and have incurred the disapprobation of the European Parliament and the OSCE: Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, as well as non-governmental organisations such as Amnesty International, Article 19 and Human Rights Watch. What, then, was the precise nature of the new media laws that led to such wide-scale protest? Allow me to clarify. 2. Fidesz and the Threat to Hungarian Human Rights The controversy surrounding the media laws lies in what the bill’s aforementioned detractors see as an infringement of basic human rights. As part of a radical overhaul of the media industry, the previously autonomous broadcast, print and Internet sectors have been amalgamated under a single regulatory system, the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (A Nemzeti Média és Hírközlési Hatóság, NMHH). Concerns over the independence of the Media Authority have come to the fore due to the fact that Hungarian Prime Minister,

104

The End of Pluralism in Béla Tarr

__________________________________________________________________ Viktor Orbán appoints the NMHH’s president and whose members are elected by parliament; of which the Fidesz-Christian Democratic (Kereszténydemokrata Néppárt, KDNP) coalition holds a two-thirds majority. As Article 125 (1) of the Media Law state: The President of the Authority appointed by the President of the Republic shall become a candidate for the President of the Media Council by virtue and from the moment of appointment.12 This was another bone of contention given that the Media Council’s remit includes enforcing media laws and granting broadcasting licenses. Human rights organisation, Article 19, voiced concerns over the autonomy of the Media Council due to the fact that ‘[a]ll members were exclusively nominated and appointed by the Fidesz-KDNP MPs.’13 Another cause for concern has been the changes to the Hungarian Criminal Code, in which heavy fines and up to three years imprisonment have been sanctioned as punishment for the circulation of potentially offensive broadcast or printed material. The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović said the following in response: These amendments to the penal code can further restrict media freedom. The penalties for publishing defamatory recordings are disproportionate and may lead to the silencing of critical or differing views in society.14 Many of the new media laws also raise questions over interpretation. Article 14 (1), for example, states: ‘The media service provider shall respect human dignity in the media content that it publishes.’15 Human Rights Watch believes that, as a consequence of ambiguous laws, ‘[i]ndependent media outlets… now conduct selfcensorship as a result of unclear regulations.’16 In this brief assessment of the changes to the Hungarian media laws what becomes evident is the considerable threat to media pluralism. The Hungarian film industry, too, was bound to the laws of the Media Council, and restructured in the light of the NMHH’s monopolistic policy, creating a schism between the Hungarian Filmmakers' Association and the newly established cinematic infrastructure. 3. The Effect of the Media Law on Hungarian Cinema Under the wing of the NMHH, the Hungarian National Film Fund (Magyar Nemzeti Filmalap, MNF) was established in 2012, replacing the long-standing and self-governing Hungarian Public Film Foundation (Magyar Mozgókép Közalapítvány, MMKA), dissolved by government in 2011.

Phil Mann

105

__________________________________________________________________ Conceived by government-appointed commissioner, Andrew G. Vajna, the MNF claims to support both art and entertainment-oriented cinema via finance raised through tax revenue from the National Lottery. Through its continuous submission system, development and production finance is allocated on a selective basis. However, due to the centralisation of the system fears have raged over political bias in the allotment of funds. One such detractor is Béla Tarr, who claimed the MNF was ‘established by sheer political will and without referring to representatives of the field’17 and as such, is both ‘unacceptable and illegitimate.’18 The MNF has also sparked fears that the autonomy of film art will be compromised under a structure that Eastern European film critic, John Nadler believes more closely resembles ‘a streamlined Hollywood studio… than the artistic workshop approach that governed the industry in the past.’ 19 The anxieties of Hungarian filmmakers are not unfounded and since the formation of the NMHH there has been a visible lack of state support for the industry, practically driving production to a halt. The film, Hungary 2011 highlights the extent of this decline. Produced by Tarr, the film consists of a series of shorts made by an assemblage of Hungarian filmmakers.20 The necessity of the anthology format is directly linked to the current state of the Hungarian film industry. Hungary 2011 is a compromised response to the silencing of the cinematic arts through the withdrawal of state funds. At Berlinale 2012, Tarr said the following about the film: In the situation that evolved around Hungarian film we see no other possibility to prove our existence than with the help of a video series calling the viewers’ attention to the fact that we are still capable of working and expressing our thoughts, reflections and feelings. These films are produced on virtual cents. The creators accepted to work without receiving any kind of payment and to use the most inexpensive technique possible.21 The effects of the government stranglehold on the national film industry are not just visible in film production. In 2011, the Hungarian Film Week was initially cancelled due to parliamentary budget cuts. The festival was resurrected in May but was largely limited to exhibiting films released the previous year. Films no longer competed for prizes during the 2012 Film Week due to budgetary limitations, as the festival was no longer backed by the state. Yet, as an act of solidarity, Tarr and his associates made sure the event took place, albeit in skeletal form. The 2012 Hungarian Film Week defiantly demonstrated, as Tarr himself proclaimed, that ‘Hungarian film is alive.’22 Unfortunately for Hungarian cinema, the 43rd annual Hungarian Film Week of 2012 was, as of this date, the last time the festival took place. In both 2013 and 2014 the event was cancelled because, as Tarr himself declared: ‘THERE IS NOTHING TO SCREEN! THERE IS NOTHING

106

The End of Pluralism in Béla Tarr

__________________________________________________________________ TO CELEBRATE!’23 (author’s capitalisation). Perhaps the most infamous conflict between Tarr and the Film Fund occurred following Tarr’s Jury Grand Prix success at the Berlinale in 2011. Having won the Silver Bear for The Turin Horse, Tarr was interviewed by German daily newspaper, Der Tagesspiegel. When questioned about the state of the arts in Hungary Tarr stated that Hungarian artists were in the midst of a ‘culture war’ 24 with the government. Tarr was quoted as saying: ‘the government hates intellectuals because they are liberal and oppositional. It has insulted us as traitors.’25 As a result of this public statement, Mokép, Hungary’s national film distributor, now under the control of the MNF, cancelled both the Hungarian premiere of The Turin Horse and the film’s nationwide distribution. In response to these actions, Tarr was forced to disassociate himself from the interview. Yet in a later interview in 2013 Tarr acknowledged: The situation in Hungary is horrible and I feel that democracy is in danger… We’re fighting a losing battle. If people want to make films they have to compromise with the system. 26 4. The Turin Horse and the End of Pluralism Tarr is somewhat exempt from the compromises that bind fellow Hungarian filmmakers due to his global reputation and established links with international producers. The Turin Horse was co-produced by Tarr’s now defunct, T.T. Filmmuhely, alongside production companies from Switzerland, Germany, France and the USA. The Turin Horse is a minimalist film focusing on the struggle of a stableman, Ohlsdorfer (János Derzsi), and his daughter (Erika Bók) against the increasingly hostile natural environment. Over the course of the narrative’s six-day structure, unprompted events slowly begin to consume their very existence, until ultimately they are cast into apocalyptic darkness. The film opens as Ohlsdorfer returns to his daughter at their remote farmhouse on the back of a horse and cart. The wind howls ferociously, kicking up leaves and other debris as the pair silently return the horse to its stable. The daughter then proceeds to undress and clothe her invalid father before preparing their meal, consisting of a single boiled potato each. This opening scene serves as an indicator as to what will follow. Over the course of the subsequent five days we see the daily routines of the father and daughter repeated in unflinching detail. These scenes are meticulously depicted, drawn-out to reveal a creative and poetic void, where artistic expression is non-existent. On the second day, the horse refuses to move, prompting the first of a number of unknown external occurrences that ultimately lead to the apocalypse. What follows is a series of unexplained and unprovoked happenings that includes the sudden drying of the well, which necessitates they leave their home and find refuge

Phil Mann

107

__________________________________________________________________ elsewhere, their mysterious return to the farmhouse as a result of the relentlessly harassing winds that obstruct their flight and finally, the apocalyptical darkness; the ultimate vision of containment. This sense of forced containment and stasis can be understood as a metaphorical representation of oppression. The lack of freedom the stableman and his daughter endure as a result of these external factors mirrors that of the Hungarian film industry, whose freedom of expression is compromised by the external force of the restructured Hungarian media laws. The spontaneous nature of these strange incidents parallels the sudden and unforeseen nature of Fidesz’s media amendments, which had not been part of their 2010 election campaign and was thus not offered for public consent. The lack of diegetic dialogue in the film is particularly striking. Gone are the lyrical monologues synonymous with the ‘Tarr style’ and instead, protagonist interaction is kept to a minimum. The silencing of the poetic dialogue has obvious connotations to the stifling of art. This lack of expression is echoed through camera movement. András Bálint Kovács acknowledges a marked decline in the rate of motion in comparison to Tarr’s previous work.27 When examining the films of the ‘Tarr style’ Kovács affirms that the camera is in motion for no less than sixty percent of the time. This figure drops remarkably to under thirty percent in The Turin Horse. Immobility, like silence, functions as a metaphor for government oppression of cultural articulation. On the second day the farmhouse receives a visit from Bernhard (Mihály Kormos) who wishes to buy some pálinka from Ohlsdorfer. This scene is noteworthy for having the only diegetic monologue in the entire film, and significantly, is key to understanding the film’s agenda. When asked why he didn’t go into town Bernhard replies ‘the wind has blown it away.’ Bernhard goes on to blame a nameless ‘they’, stating: …everything has been debased that they’ve acquired and since they’ve acquired everything in a sneaky, underhand fight, they’ve debased everything. Because whatever they touch – and they touch everything – they’ve debased.28 Bernhard’s tirade is, for me, a condemnation of the legitimacy of the Media authority, which, as Tarr has publicly proclaimed, acquired control of the national media in a similarly underhanded manner. Bernhard then goes on to declare: Because for this perfect victory it was also essential that the other side… That is, everything that’s excellent, great in some way and noble should not engage in any kind of fight. There shouldn’t be any kind of struggle, just the sudden disappearance of one side, meaning the disappearance of the excellent, the great and the noble.29

108

The End of Pluralism in Béla Tarr

__________________________________________________________________ Such a statement can be read as a criticism of the unethical process of centralisation, which eliminates political debate and public discussion by eradicating alternative voices; the dearth of Hungarian film production since the establishment of the Film Fund, serves as a prime example of this. On the fifth day, as Ohlsdorfer sits in front of the window, darkness descends upon the farmhouse. This is not the dark of the night but an unnatural blackness, which consumes the light of day in a matter of moments. The daughter attempts to light the lamps but they refuse to maintain a flame and extinguish shortly after. The embers of the stove then go out, leaving the pair in absolute darkness. The storm, which, throughout the film, has obstructed their daily tasks and impeded their passage beyond the farmhouse, has stopped and a deadly silence now consumes the house. Unsure of how to proceed, Ohlsdorfer suggests they go to bed. The following day they awake to the persisting blackness and silence, but the daughter now refuses to eat. The film ends. Through a socio-political framework one can understand The Turin Horse’s vision of the apocalypse as a damning prediction of the future of pluralism under the Fidesz government’s centralised media system. The empty imagery of the apocalypse invites comparisons to the blank front pages published by a number of Hungarian newspapers in December 2010 in protest of the adopted media laws. The film offers no hope of reprise; the blackness transforms the image into an empty screen, symbolically representing the end of artistic expression.

Notes 1

András Bálint Kovács, The Cinema of Béla Tarr: The Circle Closes (London and New York: Wallflower Press, 2013), 1. 2 See David Bordwell ‘The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice’ in The European Cinema Reader, ed. Catherine Fowler (London, New York: Routledge, 2002), 94-102. 3 Paul Willemen, ‘The National Revisited’ in Theorising National Cinema ed. Valentina Vitali and Paul Willemen (London: BFI Publishing, 2006), 36. 4 Ibid., 35. 5 Jonathan Rosenbaum, ‘A Bluffer’s Guide to Béla Tarr’, The Chicago Reader, May 24 1990, Viewed March 6 2014. http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/a-bluffers-guide-to-belatarr/Content?oid=875723. 6 Ibid. 7 Willemen, ‘The National Revisited’, 34. 8 Béla Tarr in Phil Ballard, ‘In Search of Truth: Béla Tarr Interviewed’, Kinoeye, March 29 2004, Viewed February 28 2014. http://www.kinoeye.org/04/02/ballard02.php.

Phil Mann

109

__________________________________________________________________ 9

Béla Tar in Eric Sclosser, ‘Interview with Béla Tarr about Werckmeister Harmonies (Cannes 2000, Director's Fortnight), Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 30, October 2000, Viewed February 28 2014. http://brightlightsfilm.com/30/belatarr1.php#.U3N34CjjfaQ. 10 Jonathan Romney in Kovács, 2013, p.174. 11 John Cunningham, Hungarian Cinema: From Coffeehouse to Multiplex (London and New York: Wallflower Press, 2004),156. 12 ‘Act CLXXXV of 2010 on Media Services and Mass Media*’, Hunmedialaw.org, 2010, Viewed May 6 2014. http://hunmedialaw.org/dokumentum/153/Mttv_110803_EN_final.pdf. 13 Article 19, ‘Hungarian Media Laws Q&A August 2011’, Article 19, September 1 2011, Viewed April 22 2014. http://www.article19.org/data/files/medialibrary/2714/11-09-01-REPORThungary.pdf. 14 ‘Higher Prison Sentences for Defamation May Restrict Media Freedom in Hungary, Warns OSCE Representative’, OSCE: Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, November 6 2013, Viewed May 1 2014. http://www.osce.org/fom/107908. 15 ‘Act CIV of 2010 on the Freedom of the Press and the Fundamental Rules of Media Content∗’, Hunmedialaw.org, 2010, Viewed May 6 2014. http://hunmedialaw.org/dokumentum/152/Smtv_110803_EN_final.pdf. 16 Human Rights Watch, Wrong Direction on Rights: Assessing the Impact of Hungary’s New Constitution and Laws (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2013), 1. 17 Béla Tarr ‘To The Friends of Hungarian Cinema’, Fiprecsi, September 4 2012, Viewed April 21 2014. http://www.fipresci.org/news/archive/archive_2012/hungarian_cinema.htm. 18 Ibid., 19 John Nadler, ‘Hungarian Film Org Protests Funding Reforms’, Variety, February 3 2013, Viewed February 28 2014. http://variety.com/2013/more/news/hungarian-film-org-protests-funding-reforms1118065578/. 20 The filmmakers featured were Benedek Fliegauf, Péter Forgács, Miklós Jancsó, András Jeles, Ágnes Kocsis, Márta Mészáros, György Pálfi, András Salamon, Simon Szabó and Ferenc Török. 21 ‘Magyarország 2011’, Berlinale Shorts, 2012, Viewed February 27 2014. http://www.berlinale.de/external/de/filmarchiv/doku_pdf/20127375.pdf. 22 John Nadler, ‘Hungarian Helmers Host Film Week’, Variety, February 11 2011, Viewed February 28 2014.

110

The End of Pluralism in Béla Tarr

__________________________________________________________________ http://variety.com/2012/film/news/hungarian-helmers-host-film-week1118050078/. 23 Béla Tarr ‘Statement of the Hungarian Filmmakers’ Association’ Fiprecsi, January 25 2013, Viewed April 21 2014. http://www.fipresci.org/news/archive/archive_2013/tarr_hfa.htm. 24 David Hudson, ‘Hungary Cancels Premiere and Distribution of Béla Tarr's The Turin Horse’, Notebook, March 08 2011, Viewed February 28 2014. https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/hungary-cancels-premiere-and-distribution-ofbela-tarrs-the-turin-horse. 25 Stefan J. Bos, ‘Hungarian Intellectuals Face Government Pressure’, Deutsche Welle March 10 2011, Viewed May 9 2012. http://www.dw.de/hungarian-intellectuals-face-government-pressure/a-14903314. 26 Béla Tarr in Huw Nesbitt, ‘A Home for the Brave: Béla Tarr’s Film Factory’, Dazed and Confused, December 2013, Viewed May 10 2014. http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/18014/1/a-home-for-the-bravebela-tarr-s-film-factory. 27 Kovács, The Cinema of Béla Tarr, 93. 28 A torinói ló [The Turin Horse], dir. Béla Tarr. 2011; London: Artificial Eye, 2012, DVD. 29 Ibid.

Bibliography Article 19, ‘Hungarian Media Laws Q&A August 2011’, September 1 2011, Viewed April 22 2014. http://www.article19.org/data/files/medialibrary/2714/1109-01-REPORT-hungary.pdf. A torinói ló [The Turin Horse]. Directed by Béla Tarr. 2011; London: Artificial Eye, 2012, DVD. Ballard, Phil. ‘In Search of Truth: Béla Tarr Interviewed’, Kinoeye, March 29 2004, Viewed February 28 2014. http://www.kinoeye.org/04/02/ballard02.php. Berlinale Shorts, ‘Magyarország 2011’, 2012, Viewed February 27 2014. http://www.berlinale.de/external/de/filmarchiv/doku_pdf/20127375.pdf. Bordwell, David. ‘The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice.’ In The European Cinema Reader, edited by Catherine Fowler, 94-102, London, New York: Routledge, 2002.

Phil Mann

111

__________________________________________________________________ Bos, Stefan J. ‘Hungarian intellectuals face government pressure’, Deutsche Welle March 10 2011, Viewed May 9 2012. http://www.dw.de/hungarian-intellectualsface-government-pressure/a-14903314. Cunningham, John. Hungarian Cinema: From Coffeehouse to Multiplex, London and New York: Wallflower Press, 2004. Hudson, David. ‘Hungary Cancels Premiere and Distribution of Béla Tarr's The Turin Horse’, Notebook, March 08 2011, Viewed February 28 2014. https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/hungary-cancels-premiere-and-distribution-ofbela-tarrs-the-turin-horse. Human Rights Watch, ‘Wrong Direction on Rights: Assessing the Impact of Hungary’s New Constitution and Laws’ New York: Human Rights Watch, 2013. Hunmedialaw.org, ‘Act CIV of 2010 on the Freedom of the Press and the Fundamental Rules of Media Content∗’, 2010, Viewed May 6 2014. http://hunmedialaw.org/dokumentum/152/Smtv_110803_EN_final.pdf. Hunmedialaw.org, ‘Act CLXXXV of 2010 on Media Services and Mass Media*’, 2010, Viewed May 6 2014. http://hunmedialaw.org/dokumentum/153/Mttv_110803_EN_final.pdf. Kovács, András Bálint. The Cinema of Béla Tarr: The Circle Closes, London and New York: Wallflower Press, 2013. Nadler, John. ‘Hungarian Helmers Host Film Week’, Variety, February 11 2011, Viewed February 28 2014. http://variety.com/2012/film/news/hungarian-helmershost-film-week-1118050078/. ———. ‘Hungarian Film Org Protests Funding Reforms’, Variety, February 3 2013, Viewed February 28 2014. http://variety.com/2013/more/news/hungarianfilm-org-protests-funding-reforms-1118065578/. Nesbitt, Huw. ‘A Home for the Brave: Béla Tarr’s Film Factory’, Dazed, Viewed May 10 2014. http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/18014/1/a-homefor-the-brave-bela-tarr-s-film-factory.

112

The End of Pluralism in Béla Tarr

__________________________________________________________________ OSCE: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, ‘Higher Prison Sentences for Defamation May Restrict Media Freedom in Hungary, Warns OSCE Representative’, November 6 2013, Viewed May 1 2014. http://www.osce.org/fom/107908. Rosenbaum, Jonathan. ‘A Bluffer’s Guide to Béla Tarr’, The Chicago Reader, May 24 1990, Viewed March 6 2014. http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/abluffers-guide-to-bela-tarr/Content?oid=875723. Sclosser, Eric. ‘Interview with Béla Tarr about Werckmeister Harmonies (Cannes 2000, Director's Fortnight), Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 30, October 2000, Viewed February 28 2014. http://brightlightsfilm.com/30/belatarr1.php#.U3N34CjjfaQ. Tarr, Béla. ‘To The Friends of Hungarian Cinema’, Fiprecsi, September 4 2012, Viewed April 21 2014. http://www.fipresci.org/news/archive/archive_2012/hungarian_cinema.htm. –––, ‘Statement of the Hungarian Filmmakers’ Association’ Fiprecsi, January 25 2013, Viewed April 21 2014. http://www.fipresci.org/news/archive/archive_2013/tarr_hfa.htm. Willemen, Paul. ‘The National Revisited.’ In Theorising National Cinema edited by Valentina Vitali and Paul Willemen, 29-43, London: BFI Publishing, 2006. Phil Mann is a first year PhD student at the University of St Andrews. He completed his Undergraduate degree with the Open University, studying film history, media studies and twentieth century art. He undertook his MA at the University of Warwick.

Siren, Mother or Divinity: An Exploration of Femininity in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Deep Impact Bronwen Welch Abstract Classic Hollywood cinema supports and maintains particular social norms of behaviour and sexuality. A traditional Hollywood movie usually figures a heterosexual romance and a closure in the form of familial unification. Thus such films keep the narrative patriarchal.1 Men, in such films, tend to be the active agents behind the film’s narrative, but women are confined to a space which, rather than active, establishes her in a passive supporting role. Yet, two films which, at least on the surface, appear to transgress Hollywood’s depiction of normative gender roles are Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Deep Impact. Apart from their apocalyptic subject matter, each of these films makes an attempt at reframing traditional female gender roles, yet, interestingly, they serve only to maintain social order. .

Key Words: Gender, femininity, apocalypse, classical Hollywood, heroism, family, unity, society, order ***** 1. Introduction In their 1985 work The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960, authors Jay Bordwell, Janet Kay Staiger and Kristin Thompson point out that classic Hollywood cinema functions, in part, to support and maintain particular social norms of behaviour and sexuality. Thus, a traditional Hollywood movie, the authors argue, usually figures a heterosexual romance and a closure in the form of marriage and/or familial unification. Moreover, the authors continue, such films tend to keep the narrative patriarchal, in that characters maintain relationships that rely upon an unequal distribution of power between men and women.2 Men, in such mainstream films, tend to be the active agents behind the film’s narrative, but women are confined to, as Susan Hayward points out in her work Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts, ‘an ideology of gender, whereby women are depicted as feminine, maternal, or eternal.’3 Thus, a woman is confined to a space which, rather than active, establishes her in a set role: ‘either siren, mother or divinity.’4 Consequently, bearing these explanations/definitions in mind, I wish to examine two films which, at least on the surface, appear to transgress Hollywood’s depiction of normative gender roles: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Deep Impact. Each of these films seems to make an attempt at reframing traditional female gender roles. Both portray single, ambitious television

114

Siren, Mother or Divinity

__________________________________________________________________ journalists who appear, in a number of ways, to flout established notions of female beauty and behaviour; yet at the end of both films, the characters of Sam Sparks and Jenny Lerner serve merely to reaffirm the limited roles female characters can occupy in classical Hollywood cinema: their heroism lies, not so much in action, but in reuniting the family and thus maintaining social order in the face of disaster. 2. Sam Sparks Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is situated as Flint’s narrative, as opposed to Sam’s. The film begins with Flint’s voice-over of his flashback and, as Susan Hayward explains, we recognize a filmic flashback as a cinematic convention that represents subjective truth and time.5 Thus, viewers tend to respond to flashbacks as more authentic truth than a chronological tale. Since the film is Flint’s subjective point of view, the viewer’s gaze is masculinised. Because the film is from Flint’s perspective, Sam Spark’s character remains on the periphery of the story. Susan Hayward writes, ‘[i]n mainstream cinema, the female is a stationary site (that is, passive object) to which the male character travels and upon which he acts (that is, he is the active subject).’6 She further emphasizes that ‘the male protagonist must forge an identification with the father and an objectification of the mother’ if he is to achieve social stability.7 Consequently, Sam becomes not only Flint’s romantic interest, but also the instigator behind the unification of the nuclear family. Before I look at the question of the unification of the nuclear family, I want to look first at how Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs fails to subvert traditional gender norms in Sam. First of all, Sam’s body is drawn in such a way to highlight her small waist, large breasts, long legs, and long blonde hair. Susan Hayward explains how ‘[f]etishism refers to the notion of over-investment in parts of the body, most commonly the female body. In films, women’s legs or breasts are often “picked out” by the camera and are, thereby, over-invested with meaning.’8 Moreover, Laura Mulvey explains how there are three filmic ‘looks.’ Firstly, there is the camera’s ‘look,’ and this is an inherently voyeuristic look that is usually male. Secondly, the look of men within film narrative usually positions women as objects of the look. Finally, the look of the male spectator imitates and occupies the same positions as the two other forms of the look. 9 Mulvey’s points regarding male voyeurism and spectatorship are doubly important considering that Sam’s body is not a real -as in corporeal- female body; rather, she has been illustrated to fit particular -excessive and fetishised- notions of femininity. Such fetishisation takes on a number of different layers: she is fetishised first by the -male- lead animator, Tom Kluyskens; secondly by the male- directors; thirdly by the camera, camouflaged as Flint’s -male- gaze; and finally, by the audience -viewing her through a masculinised gazeSince Sam’s Spark’s body is so over-invested with meaning, the film’s attempt to create her as a brilliant meteorologist who is forced to capitulate to social norms

Bronwen Welch

115

__________________________________________________________________ of beauty and personality falls rather flat. Arguably, the film gestures towards a feminist or at least divergent notion of beauty when Sam decides to embrace her nerd persona. However, she does so at Flint’s insistence, and it is Flint, rather than Sam, who places the horn-rimmed glasses on her face. It is also Flint who pulls her hair into a ponytail. Flint’s avowal of ‘you were fine before, but now you’re ... beautiful’ relegates Sam back to her position of a masculinised aesthetic object. While this moment seems to be the film’s attempt to add depth to Sam’s character, it actually serves merely to reassert the notion that female beauty is still determined by men, and that it remains the most important female commodity. Yet, the film positions Sam her as an intern with dreams of becoming a television meteorologist. Sam confesses to Flint that her whole life she had been fascinated by weather and it is Sam who realizes that a potentially apocalyptic spaghetti tornado is heading for Swallow Falls. Yet it is nevertheless Flint’s actions that save the town. Meanwhile, Sam, after her initial warning, serves mainly as the film’s comic relief and romantic support. Instead, Sam’s heroism lies in reuniting the family. Even before we are aware of Flint’s survival, Sam turns to Tim Lockwood with the words, ‘[y]our son was a wonderful man;’ thus she linguistically fills that place of approval and love once occupied by Flint’s mother. In the climactic scene between father and son, Sam rips off Steve’s ‘Monkey Thought Translator,’ fastening it to Tim’s chest and head, allowing his love for his son to pour out. Sam is, once again, filling in the role of Tim’s wife and mother, as she is mediating the relationship between the two men. Sam and Flint’s relationship becomes concretely romantic once they kiss, serving as part of the reunification of the nuclear family. The final credits emphasize this, as Flint, Tim Lockwood, and Sam all take their positions together over and amongst the credits, celebrating the world’s escape. Sam has mended the breach between father and son, and the family united. Despite Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ attempt to subvert female gender norms the film ultimately conforms to them. A more complex role is that of Jenny Lerner in the apocalyptic Hollywood blockbuster, Deep Impact. Like Sam Sparks, Jenny Lerner is an ambitious television journalist, but unlike Sam, Jenny’s character seemingly flouts many more gender norms. 3. Jenny Lerner In Susan Sontag’s article, ‘The Imagination of Disaster,’ the author argues that the male hero in mainstream disaster films is almost always the agent of action, although he is often supported by female significant other. This female character is often in need of rescue throughout the film.10 Thus, in a traditional Hollywood blockbuster we expect these stock characters to take on their traditional gender roles. Sontag points out that traditional gender roles are aligned with a plot that follows particular and anticipated plot lines: the hero often prevails and he and his female counterpart ‘embrace cheek to cheek and scan the skies sturdily.’11

116

Siren, Mother or Divinity

__________________________________________________________________ Yet what if such a film subverts these traditional stock characters and plot lines? Where does this leave the filmic audience in terms of our thwarted expectations? Jenny Lerner’s character does not, seemingly, fit into either the above scenario or its -gendered- character delineation. Unlike Sam Sparks, Jenny is never aligned with a romantic partner; instead, the film emphasizes Jenny’s unfeminine pursuit of ruthless ambition. Indeed, the film introduces Jenny by situating her in a newsroom, attempting -and failing- to convince her female supervisor to put Jenny on camera. Jenny’s response, while dissatisfied, nevertheless keeps her within the feminine sphere when she wryly asks, ‘[a]re you holding me back or trying to protect me?’ She apparently recognizes that her supervisor has her best interests at heart. Moreover, their discussion over Jenny’s career aspiration ends with her supervisor, while picking up her young daughter from day-care, asking Jenny ‘[d]o you want to come over for dinner tonight?’ This above exchange serves three simultaneous purposes: one, it demonstrates Jenny’s ambition; two, it establishes the emotional bond between the two women; three, it underlines Jenny’s single status. Jenny is thus established as a deviant woman in terms of our gender expectation in this otherwise fairly typical Hollywood blockbuster. In Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts, Susan Hayward points out that with its ‘naturalizing heterosexual coupledom,’ the Hollywood film ‘also makes the point that all else must be (potentially) be read as deviancy.’12 Unlike Sam, Jenny’s character defies our gendered expectations of her, and so, because of her ‘deviancy’ must be ‘punished’ because of her ‘[transgression of] the patriarchal order.’13 Moreover, Jenny’s transgressions are emphasized throughout the film. Furthermore, throughout the film Jenny pursues a story that she believes revolves around marital infidelity. Once she realizes ‘Ellie’ is, in fact, not a woman but an acronym for Extinction-Level Event (ELE), she manipulates the United States president into giving her the first question at the president’s media address. In agreeing to Jenny’s conditions, the president emphasizes that Jenny must tell no one, a provision that requires Jenny to keep her supervisor -and friend- in the dark, resulting in their temporary estrangement. Yet, this rupture in the friendship does not, as we half expect it to, impede Jenny’s ambition to break the story. Jenny thus privileges her ambition over her friendship, again subverting our expectations of normative female behaviour. Moreover, Jenny’s transgressive behaviour is mirrored by her costuming. Throughout the film, she is dressed professionally, and does not appear at any point in traditionally sexually appealing clothing. Instead she appears in button down shirts, slacks, and knee-length skirts. Consequently, her clothing emphasizes that she is not meant to be viewed as an erotic object. Thus she is not made into what Laura Mulvey, in her essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,’ calls a figure ‘coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.’14

Bronwen Welch

117

__________________________________________________________________ Leoni’s performance also de-emphasizes her femininity. Not only does she actively pursue her own ambitions, at the cost of her relationship to her friend, but her mannerisms negate her femininity. Rather than smiling, laughing and frolicking, Jenny remains non-emotive throughout the narrative. Her face stays reasonably neutral; she responds to crisis, not with tears or gestures, but with calm, wooden, exterior, physically aligning her to what we expect from traditional male characters. Her character disrupts our expectations, and we spend the film uncomfortable with this character who continues to upset our notions of femininity. Furthermore, Jenny blames her father for the end of his marriage to her mother due to his infidelity. Her nuclear family is depicted as fractured, but rather than attempting to grasp her family’s new status, Jenny severs her relationship to her father, uniting with her mother instead. Arguably, Jenny turns her back on the patriarchal system, telling her father, ‘I feel like an orphan,’ thus transgressing the dominant social order. The fragmentation of Jenny’s nuclear family occurs alongside, through the use of cross-cutting, the potential end of the world. This cross cutting serves two purposes. Firstly, it serves to suspend our reality of time, and secondly, through our suspension of reality, cross-cutting indicates the primacy of both stories. As Hayward writes, [C]ross cutting- is an example of how, despite its lack of realism, the reality-effect works. Cross-cutting enables us to see two separate sets of action in different spaces but juxtaposed in time—normally with a view to creating suspense.15 Familial dissolution, cross-cut with apocalyptic events, implies that both stories are connected. The end of the world is paralleled with the end of the nuclear family. So, despite the fact that the film’s linearity is disrupted by the cross-cutting, we nevertheless suspend our disbelief and grasp that the two narratives are meant to be unfolding simultaneously. Furthermore, as we conjoin both stories, we subconsciously associate one narrative as causing the other. If the world is to survive, it must survive with the family unity intact. Thus, Jenny’s rejection of her father seems, at least filmically, a betrayal of the family unit, but also a potential threat to the world’s survival. Jenny defies her feminine obligation to unite the family and thus her actions implicate her in the world’s demise. Jenny must thus be punished for her transgressions before the film ends. Annette Kuhn writes in her work Women’s Pictures: Feminism and Cinema that a mainstream film often closes with the unification of a heterosexual couple as well as the reintegration of the ‘transgressive’ woman back into the dominant social hierarchy.16 In order for the film to appeal to mainstream audiences, we must not only witness Jenny’s punishment, but also her familial reunification.

118

Siren, Mother or Divinity

__________________________________________________________________ Consequently, the film’s close depicts Jenny frantically searching for the family photographs. These photographs -taken by her mother- demonstrate the closeness that Jenny’s family once experienced. For Jenny to begin to forgive her father, she must first acknowledge the love she once felt for him. Once Jenny has retrieved the photographs, she begins her journey of heroism, ending with her recuperation into the dominant social ideology and her punishment -death-. Jenny begins her recuperation into the social order by subconsciously recognizing her own transgression as a single, childless woman. She begins by rescuing her female supervisor and her child from certain death. Finding her supervisor in the news station’s day-care -symbolically demonstrating the supervisor’s maternal and nurturing personality-, Jenny insists that her supervisor and her child take Jenny’s place in the underground refuge set aside for a privileged million. In giving up her place in the refuge, Jenny acknowledges the primacy of the family unit over her own single life. In the moment of parting, Jenny and her supervisor exchange a poignant look. Jenny has saved the mother/child duo, recuperating the friendship between the two women. Arguably, Jenny has -partially- reclaimed her position of a typical Hollywood female character in that she has sacrificed her -childless- individual life for a mother and child, but also because she is asserting her nurturing, female self. Yet, arguably Jenny still remains on the fringes of the dominant social order, and thus remains transgressive. Consequently, the last moments of Jenny’s life are spent with her father on the beach where the wife/mother took the photographs. Interestingly, these moments also resurrect not only the happy moment between father and daughter, but also resurrect the figure of the dead mother behind the camera. Jenny’s mother is symbolically present as Jenny and her father clutch one another -and the photographs- gazing out at the incoming, cataclysmic tsunami and the family is reunited for one moment before it is destroyed. Additionally, Jenny’s last word is a plaintive whimper for her father. ‘Daddy,’ she whispers, right before they are swept away to their death. Her final word represents both her acknowledgment of her role of a woman and daughter in the dominant social system, as well as her own acceptance of her transgression and subsequent punishment. Interestingly, Deep Impact, was directed by a woman, Mimi Leder, and so one wonders if the sex of the director played any part in Jenny’s character. Certainly, when it comes to the decisions regarding Téa Leoni’s un-emotive performance style as well as her clothing, we can argue that Mimi Leder is making an attempt at re-casting femininity. Yet, ultimately, Leder fails in her attempt, as in the end Jenny dies, punished for her transgressive femininity. But why? Simply put, Jenny complicates the typical Hollywood blockbuster pattern by her very existence; viewers cannot predict her; they cannot even recognize her, and in the end it is simpler to have her die, as this is a simpler conclusion to the end of the movie than allowing her to live and complicate the world’s future. Unlike Sam Sparks, Jenny

Bronwen Welch

119

__________________________________________________________________ must die because how are we meant to visualize her solitary, ambitious figure taking part in the world’s rehabilitation and reconciliation? Sam lives because she does not challenge mainstream ideals. Jenny dies because she does. Thus, one can certainly argue that for the world to survive -at least in such a way that it is recognizable to viewers- women are not meant to figure as stalwart action figures; heroic as their actions might be, women are recognized as heroes only if they can manage to maintain or re-establish patriarchal social orders.

Notes 1

Jay Bordwell, Janet Kay Staiger and Kristin Thomson, The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985), 16. 2 Ibid., 16. 3 Susan Hayward, Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (London and New York: Routledge, 2001), 126. 4 Ibid., 126. 5 Ibid., 133. 6 Ibid., 262. 7 Ibid., 126. 8 Ibid., 447. 9 Caroline Bainbridge, A Feminine Cinematics Luce Irigaray, Women and Film (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008), viewed 28 June 2013, http://ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/login?url=http://www.palgraveconnect.com/doifinder /10.1057/9780230583689, 34. 10 Susan Sontag, ‘The Imagination of Disaster,’ Against Interpretation (New York: Dell Publishing, 1966), 42-43. 11 Ibid., 43. 12 Hayward, Cinema Studies, 66. 13 Ibid., 66. 14 Laura Mulvey, ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,’ Critical Visions in Film Theory: Classical and Contemporary Readings, ed. Timothy Corrigan, Patricia White and Meta Mazaj (Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011), 719. 15 Hayward, Cinema Studies, 67. 16 Annette Kuhn, Women’s Pictures: Feminism and Cinema (London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985), 34.

120

Siren, Mother or Divinity

__________________________________________________________________

Bibliography Bainbridge, Caroline. A Feminine Cinematics Luce Irigaray, Women and Film. London: Palgrave MacMillan. Viewed on June 23 2013. http://ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/login?url=http://www.palgraveconnect.com/doifinder /10.1057/9780230583689 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Los Angeles: Columbia Pictures, 2009. DVD. Deep Impact. Directed by Mimi Leder. Los Angeles: Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks, 1998. DVD. Hayword, Susan. Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. London and New York: Routledge, 2001. Jay Bordwell, Janet Kay Staiger, and Kristin Thomson. The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985. Kuhn, Annette. Women’s Pictures: Feminism and Cinema. London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985. Mulvey, Laura. ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.’ Critical Visions in Film Theory: Classical and Contemporary Readings, edited by Timothy Corrigan, Patricia White, and Meta Mazaj. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2011. Sontag, Susan. ‘The Imagination of Disaster. ’ Against Interpretation. New York: Dell Publishing, 1966. Bronwen Welch completed her graduate work at the University of Victoria. She has been teaching English literature at Camosun College, in Victoria B.C., Canada since 2005.

Language Use and Instruction after the Apocalypse Jason D. Hendryx Abstract After the end, be it by meteor, volcanic explosion, plague, climate change, famine, collapse of social order, nuclear war, or what have you (zombies and alien invasion included), some portion of humanity will continue to survive, if only briefly. For those who remain after the end, which kinds of languages will continue to be utilized and learned by survivors and why those languages? How will those languages change and adapt to their new environments? What will the primary functions of those languages be for the people using them? In an attempt to better understand the possible answers to these questions, a selection of movies, TV programs, and books, primarily in the English language, which have been produced and written over the last 60 years dealing with the topic of the Apocalypse, be that global, regional, or individual, will be examined. The review of these materials will be done with an eye toward unpacking the kinds, uses, and functions of the languages being portrayed in those sources after the end has come, while not losing sight of the artistic as well as entertainment origins of these materials. In addition, faculty, students, and staff at a research university in the United States will be surveyed regarding their views about the possible functions and uses of language after the world as we know it has ended. After the data from the various sources identified above have been collected, they will be examined through the lens of sociocultural theory. With this analyzed information in hand, a set of tentative statements about language use and language learning after the Apocalypse will be presented. It is hoped that by critically examining such questions and their possible answers, new imagined spaces for further inquiry into language use, learning, and change might emerge. Key Words: Language, language learning, language change, specialized languages, language death. ***** 1. Introduction In this chapter an initial attempt at identifying and framing some basic understandings of how language use and instruction might occur after the apocalypse will be presented for discussion and reflection. Such discussions and reflections, it will be argued, are fruitful in that they allow for the close examination of relatively uncharted intellectual spaces. Detached from actual existing environments, these endeavours demand creative explorations into ‘what language might be or become’ and bring to light the difficult, if not impossible, task of striving to step outside one’s current linguistic realities and imagine the

122

Language Use and Instruction after the Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________ unimaginable. It is hoped that such investigations can provide for new orientations toward the topic at hand which might prove beneficial. Certainly there will be those who believe such musings are nothing but folly of the worst kind, entertainments that cloud the real issues and add nothing either substantial or applicable to existing understandings about language. Opinions which may well be correct. However, with both a great deal of literature concerning the apocalypse, and strata within society which have developed interesting and unique attachments to apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic thought, investigations like these should not be casually dismissed. To drive home both the importance and relevance of such research, one only has to visit a local supermarket, where one might find a host of survival magazines, books and magazines about zombies (even a knitting magazine on how to knit zombie dolls), zombie card and dice games, and survival gear and equipment. Online a person can come across a myriad of survival preparedness guides and WebPages that rank the best areas to potentially survive various kinds of apocalypses. So what about language use and learning after the apocalypse? Where should our investigations begin? Perhaps the best place to start is where things ended, or at least, where it has been suggested or imagined that the end might come. 2. Methods For this chapter the content of 17 movies spanning a period of over 50 years (1959-2013), 2 recent television programs, several books of fiction, documentaries about language, as well as academic articles were all analyzed with an eye toward unpacking what post- apocalyptic linguistic realities they forwarded, or how the content they provided might possibly contribute to post-apocalyptic discussions about concerns of language use and learning. To complement the information identified in these sources, 32 staff, students, and faculty at a research university in the western central part of the United States were surveyed about their views concerning the same topic. The 18 questions in the survey were a combination of multiple-choice and short-answer questions (See Appendix A). Because research was conducted with human subjects, permission was obtained by the researcher from the Institutional Review Board to administer the survey, and present the data which were collected. With this information in hand, it was then grounded in a sociocultural theoretical framing to provide a touch point with which to embed and orient the findings. 3. Results An examination of the sources consulted for this chapter revealed eight primary themes concerning post-apocalyptic language use and learning (a. intergroup language variation, b. primacy of oral language, c. creation of alternative linguistic realities, d. tension between purely functional and artistic language use, e. re-

Jason D. Hendryx

123

__________________________________________________________________ establishment of previous language realities, f. playful language learning and maintenance, g. the ultimate randomness of linguistic survival after the apocalypse, and h. the intentional inclusion of French as a foil for showing the Apocalypse reaches France) each of which will now be examined in turn. A. Intergroup Language Variation In the television program The Walking Dead (2013), and movies like Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Waterworld (1995), and World’s End (2013) we find numerous examples of language variations between groups that derives from either unique explanative language creation or incomplete understandings of older language. For example, in the Walking Dead one group calls zombies ‘walkers’ another group ‘skin eaters’. In Mad Max a group of children survivors make reference to an airplane as a ‘skyraft’. Meanwhile, in World’s End an excellent example of group language creation is provided when a group of drinking buddies discovers that the earth is being invaded by aliens and goes about trying to name these invading entities. Perhaps Hoban, in explaining how to better understand his own work on a fictional post-apocalyptic reality, Riddley Walker, captured this feature best when he remarked that, ‘…language doesn’t stand still, and words often carry longforgotten meanings’.1 From the survey data 19/32 or 59% of those surveyed felt language would change after an apocalypse with the introduction of new language and new meanings applied to older, previously existing, language. These new and old uses of language would be merged together according to those surveyed with a response rate of 25/32 or 78%. In addition, 21/32 of those surveyed or 66% believed that if two groups who originally spoke the same language met after being separated for 10 years after an apocalypse they would have some difficulty communicating because of language variation which had emerged between groups. B. Primacy of Oral Language Oral traditions play a predominant role in the sources consulted for this chapter. In Mad Max the children survivors retell their histories orally, and in The Time Machine (2002) the automated holographic library system teaches children through storytelling. Meanwhile, in the Reign of Fire (2002) children orally recite a prayer which reminds them of their post-apocalyptic realities. The Road (2009) offers a journey of survival in which a father attempts to teach his son his values orally. Furthermore, Scarlet Plague (1915/1912) and the Last Man (1965/1826) also both have strong oral components. An interesting twist on this premise can be found in Book of Eli (2010) in which Eli has embarked on a journey to save the final copy of the Bible but his version is in Braille and he must recite it orally for it to be transcribed and printed. In the survey data collected to complement consulted sources, the greatest number of respondents 13/32 or 41% identified speaking as

124

Language Use and Instruction after the Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________ the most important aspect of language needed after an apocalypse, closely followed by gesturing (9/32, 28%). In short answer responses on the survey instrument five respondents (16%) mentioned the importance of oral communication in a post-apocalyptic world. C. Creation of Alternative Linguistic Realities Alternative linguistic realities suggested in post-apocalyptic sources come in a variety of forms. In a Boy and his Dog (1975) a boy can communicate telepathically with his dog after a nuclear war. Oblivion (2013) has an alien force manipulate existing human language realities for its own purposes of control and to provide a semblance of normalcy for the clones being manipulated. In Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) emotional expression is a sign of humanity and used by the invading aliens as a means to identify humans who have yet to be converted. Meanwhile, and interesting example of alternative linguistic realities can be found in Waterworld, where people get ‘landsick’ (play on seasick) when standing on land too long as the earth in this film is almost completely covered in water. All of the survey respondents reported that language use after the apocalypse would depend on the environments which were created by the apocalypse. D. Tension between Purely Functional and Artistic Language Use In the film After the Dark (2013) a series of thought experiments force high school students to grapple with how they would choose what to value after a nuclear apocalypse. While the first several thought experiments end in failure despite students making rational, pragmatic choices, in terms of who lives and dies, the final thought experiment succeeds in allowing the students to retain their humanity and linguistic enjoyments even though their choices doom humanity to extinction in the experiment. Survey respondents only reported that language would need to be more practical and or oriented purely for survival (11/32 or 34%). E. Re-Establishment of Previous Language Realities This theme was best exemplified in The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959) in which one of the main characters was constantly engaged in collecting and saving previous language realities, artefacts, and norms in an effort to keep them alive. A similar theme can be found in the television series Survivors (2008-2010) in which one group having a government representative as one of its members attempts to re-establish governmental order and control over the survivors. F. Playful Language Learning and Maintenance In Logan’s Run (1975) the last human survivor found outside the dome displays rhythmical speaking habits which might be hypothesized to be a form of language used to aid in memorization taught to him by his parents. In I am Legend (2007)

Jason D. Hendryx

125

__________________________________________________________________ the main character has memorized entire dialogues of comedies on DVDs which he can still access and play. This could suggest that with limited input, any input that was available would be fully mastered and or internalized through memorization and techniques which facilitate memorization. Only one survey respondent reported that artistic language would be lost for a time after an apocalypse. G. Ultimate Randomness of Linguistic Survival In both 2012 (2009) and Day After Tomorrow (2004) characters in those films choose certain written literature to be rescued while other works are not so fortunate. Also, in Day After Tomorrow when a female member of the group trapped in a library is injured, other group members go aboard a Russian ship looking for drugs which can save her. It is pure luck that has the name of the drug they need written in both English as well as Russian. Again, all of the survey respondents reported that language use after the apocalypse would depend on the environments which were created by the apocalypse and those who survived. H. Intentional Inclusion of French A number of post-apocalyptic films make reference to French language. In Mad Max the record that a child was carrying turns out to be a record to teach French language. At the conclusion of both 28 Weeks Later (2007) and Happening (2008) the spread of what is destroying the world has reached France and you can hear French being spoken as the films end. On a somewhat more upbeat note, at the end of Reign of Fire survivors just outside of London are contacted on the radio by a group of French-speaking survivors. No survey respondents reported a ‘French connection’ to any form of apocalypse. Let us now turn our attention to what these primary themes might mean when viewed through a sociocultural framing. 4. Discussion and Presentation of Tentative Statements A. Language Death In terms of the sources consulted for this chapter there will undoubtedly be some concern as to why some items where included at the expense of others. With so many possible sources to choose from, researching this topic was constantly an exercise in keeping items being scrutinized for inclusion at a reasonable number. There was no intentional attempt at leaving out certain sources while including others. However, the situation of source selection has a direct bearing on the content of this chapter and so before presenting the sociocultural framing to be employed a brief aside into ‘language death’ is required. The sources not included in this chapter could be interpreted as having ‘died’, and unless the reader has some knowledge of these unutilized sources, it will be as

126

Language Use and Instruction after the Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________ if they never existed. Language deaths will certainly occur because of an apocalypse. In the survey data 26/32 or 81% of respondents believed a ‘great deal of language knowledge…will be lost after an apocalypse.’ Languages which we may have never heard or known will be gone as if they never existed. Even without an apocalypse languages are currently being lost at an alarming rate.2 The seriousness of such deaths cannot be stressed enough. Indeed, as we lose languages we lose ways of understanding being human.3 Thomason (2001) puts it very directly by stating, ‘Every loss of a language deprives us of a window into the human mind and the human spirit; every language that dies deprives us of a unique repository of human experience and thought’. 4 Readers should be cognizant to the fact that such losses in languages inflict a terrible toll on what it means, and can mean, to be human, just as to a much lesser extent failure to include a broad range of relevant sources severely limits how and what claims a chapter can make. B. Sociocultural Framing The primary themes identified in the results section will now be modified and adjusted to fit within the three overarching sociocultural systems identified by Elwell as ‘material, structural, and ideational’. 5 The contents of which can be understood as referencing, 1) observable facts, technology and population, 2) all human groups and organizations, and 3) values, norms, and religious beliefs. The resulting themes will be framed as operating across all three sociocultural systems simultaneously and presented as tentative statements which are offered for discussion and reflection concerning language use and learning after the apocalypse. These statements are not intended to be definitive, but merely exploratory in nature. The tentative statements are, a. Consolidation and management of linguistic resources existing after an apocalypse by survivors will occur at some level b. It is impossible to predict with any certainty the linguistic environments an apocalypse might create or the initial linguistics abilities of the survivors which inhabit these environments c. New language will be generated concerning the new realities introduced by an apocalypse d. Old language understandings will evolve and take on new meanings e. Language will ‘flex’ in ways that allow it and its users to survive (in both pragmatic and playful directions) f. Language will return to an oral focus

Jason D. Hendryx

127

__________________________________________________________________ It should be noted that these statements, while tentative, set the stage for many possible discussions about their validity. If and when an apocalypse was to occur, humanity would have a great deal of knowledge about language in place from which to work with. Aitchison’s maxims about language evolution, ‘nothing comes out of nothing, multiple births are the norm, changes are unidirectional, more of the same’ 6, would certainly be a start. Aitchison’s thinking of change in language over time as ‘giant expressioncompacting machines’7 would also be useful as would Fischer’s view that, ‘…language is not something that is permanent, stable and fixed’.8 Such understandings find useful linkages with some of the more current chaos and dynamic system theories employed for describing language like those found in Larsen-Freeman and Cameron (2008) with their interesting proposals of ‘soft assemblies’ or ‘co-adaptations’ which one might surely entertain existing in a postapocalyptic linguistic environment. All of these strands would find purchase within Dixon’s (1997) language model of punctuated equilibrium, originally used for biology. Meanwhile, the tremendous pressures for change put upon languages could be unpacked by the many domains identified in Fishman (1965) which would be impacted as well as the many forces for language change mentioned by Cohen (1968) like social change, technological, economic, conflict, mal integration, adaptation, ideational, and cultural interaction. In terms of language learning Lier offers a good place to start with the understanding that ‘…agency is shaped by our historical and cultural trajectories…’.9 This coupled with his continuum of agency types from six extracts of diverse classrooms ranging from passive, obedient, participatory, inquisitive, autonomous, and committed could have excellent explanatory power in postapocalyptic linguistic environments. There is nothing that can truly prepare us for contemplating an apocalypse. The closest we may be able to experience such an event is to perhaps be trapped in a mine, or building, maybe even on an island. Shelly (1965/1826) however, disabuses us of any such haphazard comparisons we may choose to make from these experiences: For a moment I compared myself to that monarch of the waste— Robinson Crusoe, We had both been thrown companionless—he on the shore of a desolate island: I on that of a desolate world…Yet he was far happier than I: for he could hope, nor hope in vain—the destined vessel at last arrived to bear him to countrymen and kindred, where the events of his solitude became a fire-side tale. To none could I ever relate the story of my adversity; no hope had I.10

128

Language Use and Instruction after the Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________ So what hope have we? From those surveyed nuclear war is still seen as the most likely end awaiting us as reported by 32% of respondents. With this knowledge we might be reminded of Henry’s (1965) ‘culture of death’ which engages the best and brightest among us in pursuing how to most effectively and efficiently destroy us. Whether the interest in the apocalypse is a new phenomenon or something more ancient, whether it is a way to release tension at the increased rate of change exhibited in society or something else entirely it is difficult to say. But for those surveyed with their zombie weddings, post-apocalypse parties (where they shoot their dresses for authenticity), zombies walks and sewer crawls, brain-mazing races, and survival lectures on the topic of the apocalypse, the subject has taken on new and powerful meanings. 5. Conclusion This chapter set out to identify and present a set of tentative statements concerning language use and instruction after an apocalypse for the purpose of discussion and reflection. Hopefully such statements can inspire productive engagement in what is an interesting and potentially very informative topic. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the materials presented in this chapter provided enough intellectual momentum to propel readers outside of their normal linguistic realities and imagine the unimaginable when it comes to what language use and learning might be after an apocalypse. But then again perhaps the seeds have been planted in the minds of the readers, which, with a little further intellectual stimulation, might flower into more complete and robust understandings of what such environments could be, and more importantly mean, for humanity in our never-ending struggle to understand ourselves and our realities, both real and imagined.

Notes 1

Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker (Bloomington, IL: Indiana University Press, 1998), 225. 2 David Crystal, Language Death (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). 3 Voices from the World: The Extinction of Language and Linguistic Diversity (Films Media Group, 2006); Why Do We Talk? The Science of Speech (Films Media Group, 2009). 4 Sarah Thomason, Language Contact: An Introduction (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001), 223. 5 Frank Elwell, Socio-Cultural Systems: Principles of Structure and Change (Edmonton, AB: AU Press, 2013), 13. 6 Jean Aitchison, The Seeds of Speech: Language Origin and Evolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 215.

Jason D. Hendryx

129

__________________________________________________________________ 7

Jean Aitchison, Language Change: Progress or Decay (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 119. 8 Steven Fischer, A History of Language (London: Reaktion, 2001), 219. 9 Leo van Lier, ‘Agency in the Classroom,’ in Sociocultural Theory and the Teaching of Second Languages eds. James P. Lantolf and Matthew. E. Poehner (London: Equinox, 2008), 164. 10 Mary Shelley, The Last Man (London: Hogarth, 1965), 326.

Bibliography After the Dark. Directed by John Huddles. 2013. Indonesia & United States: Phase 4 Films and All Media Company. Film. Aitchison, Jean. The Seeds of Speech: Language Origin and Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. ———. Language Change: Progress or Decay. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Book of Eli. Directed by the Hughes Brothers. 2010. United States: Alcon Entertainment and Silver Pictures. Film. Boy and His Dog. Directed by L. Q. Jones, L. Q. 1975. United States: LQ/JAF. Film. Cohen, Percy. Modern Social Theory. New York: Basic Books, 1968. Crystal, David. Language Death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Day after Tomorrow. Directed by Roland Emmerich. 2004. United States: Centropolis Entertainment and Lions Gate. Film. Dixon, Robert. The Rise and Fall of Languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Elwell, Frank. Socio-Cultural Systems: Principles of Structure and Change. Edmonton, AB: AU Press, 2013. Fischer, Steven. A History of Language. London: Reaktion, 2001.

130

Language Use and Instruction after the Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________ Fishman, Joshua. ‘Who Speaks What Language to Whom and When?’ La Linguistique 1, no. 2 (1965): 67-88. Happening. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. 2008. United States and India: Spyglass Entertainment, Blinding Edge Pictures, and UTV Motion Pictures. Film. Henry, Jules. Culture against Man. New York: Vintage. 1965. Hoban, Russell. Riddley Walker. Bloomington, IL: Indiana University Press, 1998. I Am Legend. Directed by Francis Lawrence. 2007. United States and United Kingdom: Village Roadshow Pictures, Weed Road Pictures, Overbrook Entertainment, Heyday Films, Original Film. Film. ‘Indifference’. Season 4, episode 4 of The Walking Dead. Directed by Tricia Brock. 2013. New York, NY: AMC. Television Series. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Directed by Philip Kaufman.1978. United States: United Artists. Film. Larsen-Freeman, Diane and Lynne Cameron. Complex Systems and Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Lier, Leo. ‘Agency in the Classroom.’ In Sociocultural Theory and the Teaching of Second Languages. Edited by James P. Lantolf and Matthew. E. Poehner, 163-186. London: Equinox, 2008. Logan’s Run. Directed by Michael Anderson. 1975. United States: MetroGoldwyn-Mayer. Film. London, Jack. The Scarlet Plague. New York: Macmillan Company, 1915. Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Directed by George Miller and George Ogilvie. 1985. Australia: Warner Bros. Film. Oblivion. Directed by Joseph Kosinski. 2013. United States: Relativity Media, Chernin Entertainment, Monolith Pictures, &Radical Studios. Film. Reign of Fire. Directed by Rob Bowman. 2002. United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland: Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment. Film.

Jason D. Hendryx

131

__________________________________________________________________ The Road. Directed by John Hillcoat. 2009. United States: 2929 Productions. Film. Shelley, Mary. The Last Man. London: Hogarth, 1965. Survivors. 2008-2010. Television Series. London: BBC One. Thomason, Sarah. Language Contact: An Introduction. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001. The Time Machine. Directed by Simon Wells and Gore Verbinski. 2002. United States: Parkes/MacDonald. Film. Voices from the World: The Extinction of Language and Linguistic Diversity. 2006. Films Media Group. DVD. Waterworld. Directed by Kevin Reynolds. 1995. United States: Gordon Company, Davis Entertainment, Licht/Mueller Film Corporation. Film. 28 Weeks Later. Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. 2007. United Kingdom and Spain: Fox Atomic, DNA Films, UK Film Council, Figment Films, Sociedad General de Cine, S.A., Koan Films. Film. Why Do We Talk? The Science of Speech. 2009. Films Media Group. DVD. The World, the Flesh and the Devil. Directed by Ranald MacDougall. 1959. United States: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Film. World’s End. Directed by Edgar Wright. 2013. United Kingdom: Relativity Media, Working Title Films, Big talk Productions. Film. 2012. Directed by Roland Emmerich. 2009. United States: Centropolis Entertainment. Film. Jason D. Hendryx is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Secondary Education at the University of Wyoming where he teaches courses on language teaching methodology as well as second language acquisition.

132

Language Use and Instruction after the Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________

Appendix A: Survey Instrument 1.

After the apocalypse (some people are still alive), language will most likely: A) Remain the same B) Change with the introduction of new language and the new understandings of current language C) Other_______

2.

After the apocalypse, language will be… A) Narrower in scope and use B) Purely for communication C) Purely for expressing emotion D) Just like it was before E) Other______

3.

After the apocalypse, two groups who originally spoke the same language meet after 10 years. When these two groups communicate with one another they find that… A) They can communicate fully without a problem B) They have difficulty communicating as they have different vocabulary and language structures C) They can no longer communicate as they now speak languages that are totally different D) Other______

4.

After the apocalypse language speakers will try to… A) Rebuild and recreate old language uses and understandings B) Embrace new use and move forward C) Combine old and new language uses together D) Other_____

5.

After the apocalypse, what aspect of language will be most important (circle one) Speaking Listening Reading Writing Gesturing Translating

6.

After the apocalypse, how important will learning an additional language be? Very important Somewhat important Not important or unimportant Somewhat unimportant Very unimportant **Please agree or disagree with the following statements (circle your response)

Jason D. Hendryx

133

__________________________________________________________________ 7.

Depending on who survives the apocalypse, this will determine the kind of language that will become a prestige o9r common language Agree/Disagree

8.

New language will be created because of the apocalypse Agree/Disagree

9.

A great deal of current language knowledge and word meanings will be lost after the apocalypse Agree/Disagree

10. Children will learn language like we did (assume technology is not a requirement) Agree/Disagree 11. Language will change more rapidly and violently because of the apocalypse than it normally does Agree/Disagree 12. The ways humans will use language will depend on the types of environment the apocalypse creates Agree/Disagree 13. The social order established after the apocalypse will determine how languages are used, learned, and valued Agree/Disagree 14. Language learners after the apocalypse will always frame their language use through the apocalyptic event that has occurred Agree/Disagree 15. What are three ways you think language might change, be used, and or be learned after the apocalypse 1. 2. 3. 16. Every time you learn the language of a new technology (i.e., a new phone app, new operating system, and so on), are you experiencing a form of language apocalypse? Yes/No, why?

134

Language Use and Instruction after the Apocalypse

__________________________________________________________________ 17. Why do you think apocalyptic thought is so popular now? (as evident from the many books, television shows, movies, games, magazines, and so forth dealing with this subject matter) 18. What kind of apocalypse do you believe is most likely to occur?

Part V Marketing the Apocalypse

Fear and Consumption in the Face of Disaster Jennifer Drissel Abstract The growing prominence of post-apocalyptic based film and television in America as well as the real life natural disasters that have occurred recently throughout the world, such as the 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan, and the detrimental impact of Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast of the United States, have contributed to an up rise in media revolving around ‘prepping.’ Television shows such as Doomsday Preppers and Doomsday Bunkers display hyper paranoid individuals that relentlessly prepare for their perceived visions of the apocalypse. These shows place a strong correlation between preparedness and the purchasing of items to maintain personal safety. Whereas filmic depiction of zombies were created as a metaphor to critique America’s obsession to consume in the 1960s, the increased media attention surrounding post-apocalyptic scenarios has contributed to extreme and abundant consumption in recent years. Through exploring the impact of more frequent real life natural disasters, combined with the increased media attention on emergency preparedness and post-apocalyptic scenarios, I will convey how these factors work to create an environment of hyper-active consumerism and paranoia within the American public. Furthermore, through analysing shows such as Doomsday Preppers and Doomsday Bunkers, I will explore how these shows become infectious to the spectator and encourage the viewer to embrace the idea that one can never be too prepared, and that the only way to do such is to overindulge in consumer products. Through binding factors of fiction and reality together, I will argue that the fear mainstream media elicits through both news media and entertainment ultimately provides a persuasive message to consume. Key Words: Prepping, apocalypse, consumerism, paranoia, media. ***** Over the past five years there has been an inflation of media focused on postapocalyptic scenarios and more recently, self-preparedness. The combination of more frequent and violent weather, along with the media attention dedicated to covering such events has left many Americans fearful of the future and in many cases unsure how to prepare. Government institutions such as FEMA have recently launched campaigns to encourage Americans to prepare for the unexpected, especially in the aftermath of catastrophic events such as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. Although increasingly, Americans are striving for self-reliance and preparedness, this once positive message to prepare has become tarnished through both corporate and political agendas in the mainstream media. Harnessing the fears

138

Fear and Consumption

__________________________________________________________________ and anxieties of Americans, recent shows such as Doomsday Preppers (2011) and Doomsday Bunkers (2012) have used the concept of prepping as a means to encourage excessive overindulgence on behalf of the spectator. Through comparing the concerns and preparations of real life American preppers, as noted through reviewing prepping media resources such as the American Prepper Network website, to those featured on prepping television shows, I will explore the disconnect between the two and how this creates a skewed perception of the prepping community. Likewise, in assessing the casting and structure of Doomsday Preppers, I will exhibit how the series uses fear as a selling tool to encourage viewers to consume. 1. TV Preppers vs. Actual Preppers The majority of the preppers featured on Doomsday Preppers are all preparing for the same thing, the collapse of the American economy. Upon viewing all of the episodes featured in all three seasons of Doomsday Preppers, at least one prepper featured per episode is shown preparing for an economic collapse, whereas natural disasters are a much less prominent fear of those featured on the show. Secondary to economic collapse is the threat of a terrorist attack/another world war, in which those featured on the series pointed to events such as 9/11 and the Boston bombings as main driving points for preparedness. Those who are prepping for natural disasters are mostly concerned with solar flares, super volcanoes and mega earthquakes. Although each of the preppers featured are preparing for different scenarios, they are all evaluated and sometimes graded on five categories: water, food, shelter, security and x-factor. In season two and the beginning of season three of Doomsday Preppers, the preppers featured were not only assessed, but also given a grade out of 100 as well as an expected survival time. Ironically, although the majority of preppers featured on Doomsday Preppers anticipate and prepare for an economic collapse, in actuality, the majority of American preppers are much more concerned with natural disasters as climate change becomes ever apparent, bringing more frequent severe weather. According to a poll featured on the Center for Disease Control’s website, ‘9 out of 10 Americans expect a world disaster to occur in the next quarter century and 56% said they aren’t prepared for it.’1 In an attempt to probe more Americans to actively participate in preparedness, the CDC launched a preparedness campaign titled ‘America’s Prepareathon’ which focused exclusively on how to prepare for natural disasters such as wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods. Similarly, a survey done by National Geographic further goes on to state that 32% of Americans are more concerned that a natural disaster will hit their community than in prior years.2 Even more telling of the actual prepper community is the American Preppers Network website, which rationalizes its philosophy for preparedness in stating:

Jennifer Drissel

139

__________________________________________________________________ Preppers are “Ready for anything.” We don’t prepare for just one thing, as some TV shows would have you believe. The Prepper philosophy dictates that you prepare for anything that might come your way. As such, one of your first steps is an assessment of your situation. What kind of things happen in your region? If you live in Louisiana, you have a high chance of having (another) hurricane hit you. If you’re in Maine, you have a very high chance of winter ice storms that knock power out. If you live in California, you have a high chance of an earthquake.3 Rather than relish over one specific scenario, that in most cases seems completely unrealistic to one’s region (such Steve from rural Missouri fearing EMP’s will cripple his community) the actual community of preppers aims at teaching people to be self-reliant based on what obstacles they may encounter in their specific geographic location. In comparing the mentality of those featured on Doomsday Preppers compared to individuals of the prepping community, one can note a clear disconnect. Whereas most of those who appear on Doomsday Preppers state they are preparing for one, concrete disaster, those of the actual prepping community are more concerned with self-reliance and expecting the unexpected in general. Likewise, although outlets such as The American Prepper Network have information about financial preparedness in the event of a financial disaster, its main focus revolves around general preparedness linked to natural disasters. The fact that individuals featured on Doomsday Preppers do not accurately represent the actual prepping community is one reason why agencies such as the American Preppers Network outright reject the show. In an article featured on the American Preppers website titled, ‘The Consequence of Doomsday Preppers,’ author Phil Burns critiques the series, stating that ‘the show severely skews Preppers in an effort that can be summed up as “making good television”.’4 Similarly, in The New York Times article, ‘Doomsday Has Its Day in the Sun,’ author Neil Genzlinger questions the rationale for wanting to survive the end of the world, stating: What is the attraction of continuing to live in a world that will almost certainly not have television or the Internet, depriving doomsday types of the shows and Web sites that fuel their paranoia and sell products exploiting it? 5 Thus, in dissecting shows such as Doomsday Preppers, it becomes apparent that spectators are not being given insight into the actual prepping community, but rather are being presented with often extreme, unrealistic, and therefore uncongenial information regarding preparedness and self-reliance. The show thus

140

Fear and Consumption

__________________________________________________________________ becomes a tool to heighten viewer paranoia meant to drive viewers to indulge through the unachievable scoring system displayed on the show. 2. Who are the Preppers and How Are They Portrayed? Although the Doomsday Preppers website describes its featured preppers as ‘otherwise ordinary Americans who prepare for the end of the world as we know it,’6 the series itself portrays the majority of its preppers as anything but normal, and often relishes on the extreme and sometimes absurd acts that these preppers undergo while featured in an episode. For example, the episode ‘Disaster Doesn’t Wait,’ in season one of Doomsday Preppers, we meet Steve Pace, a retired army sergeant who served the United States for three decades who currently resides in a small town in Missouri. Although Steve’s segment initially focuses mostly on positive things, such as the fact that Steve’s community is very small and close knit, and that he is extremely active in getting his entire community prepared, the segment quickly becomes campy and outlandish. Firstly, we see Steve identify himself as a ‘redneck prepper,’ and later goes on to state that, ‘the groups/gangs coming out of the cities… they’re offensive people, they’re looking to take our stuff, our assets.’ Steve’s town of Campbell, Missouri has a population that is 96.3% white, with the two closest big cities to Campbell being Memphis, Tennessee which has a population that is 62.1% African American, and Jonesboro, Arkansas, which has a population that is 18.3% African American. 7 Although Steve does not directly make a stereotypically racist comment, it is insinuated that black civilians from nearby big cities will infiltrate the small, white community in which Steve lives. After several minutes of Steve shooting guns, the segment then moves on to reveal Steve’s final prep, that of filtering and drinking his own urine. As the stunt plays out on camera, we see Steve walk out of the bathroom with a wine glass full of amber urine. Steve then runs his urine through a charcoal filter, and Steve and his wife Martha cheers as they both consume the filtrated urine. This stunt was so popular that it was even spoofed in the 2013 movie This is The End, in which actor Craig Robinson drinks a full glass of his urine and says that it tastes great. The viral nature of Steve’s segment works not only to highlight the popularity of Doomsday Preppers, but also to convey the cultural stigmas associated with prepping as a result of the stunts featured on the show. Consequently, the outlandish and extreme light in which most people are portrayed in on Doomsday Preppers insinuates that all, real life preppers exhibit the same odd behaviours. Although the show does have some positive qualities, mainly being that it addresses the idea of self preparedness in general, the over-thetop nature in which preppers and their preps are presented not only suggests that these individuals are overly paranoid and ludicrous, but likewise works to convince the viewer that they need to buy products that are not necessarily essential for survival.

Jennifer Drissel

141

__________________________________________________________________ 3. National Geographic As a Paranoia Hub In viewing the programing on National Geographic over the past several years, one can note a substantial increase in shows revolving around post-apocalyptic scenarios. The first season of Doomsday Preppers aired in June 2011, and was met with great popularity, eventually becoming Nat Geo’s highest rated program ever. 8 Shortly after, in March 2012, Discovery Channel attempted to profit off of the success of Doomsday Preppers, and released a rebuttal show dedicated to prepping called Doomsday Bunkers. Being unable to generate the same popularity as Preppers, Doomsday Bunkers was short lived and only lasted three episodes. In March 2013, National Geographic released series revolved around prepping, the much less popular show Apocalypse 101, and shortly after in August 2013 released a spin-off of Doomsday Preppers, featuring one of the prepper families featured in Season called Doomsday Castle. Although Doomsday Castle revolves around a family featured on Doomsday Preppers, Doomsday Castle abandoned the structure and format of Preppers, and functions more as a prepper soap opera. More recently, National Geographic released a series titled How to Survive the End of the World, which features three ex-military members showing people how to improve their preps, and subsequently released the television movie called American Blackout (2014), which revolves around a group of preppers as their fears for prepping begin to come true. In exploring the recent programs featured on National Geographic, one can note a definite trend towards survivalist themed shows after the success of Doomsday Preppers. Although television has been increasingly embracing apocalyptic themed shows in general, as seen through dramas such as The Waking Dead (2010), Falling Skies (2011), Revolution (2012), and The Strain (2014), National Geographic has differentiated itself from other networks through mainly focusing on reality television and programming that is directly linked to prepping in general. Likewise, whereas television shows like The Walking Dead and Falling Skies are primarily focused on developing a long term story arc and plot, Nat Geo programming is mostly confined to self-contained episodes of which focus mainly on brief moments of spectacle and depict a strong correlation between survival and money. Whereas in The Walking Dead, money no longer has any value in the postapocalyptic world, in Doomsday Preppers, Doomsday Bunkers, and Doomsday Castle, money is presented as being absolutely essential to survival, and usually preppers are encouraged to spend more money as to increase their chances at survival. 4. Prepper Evaluations and Survival Time Although preps were heavily critiqued in Season 1 of Doomsday Preppers, the series did not take on the actual scoring and survival time evaluation until season two of the series. During season two, the ‘experts at Practical Preppers’ were brought in to assess each preppers survival time, based on the following factors:

142

Fear and Consumption

__________________________________________________________________ water, food, shelter, security and X-factor, with each category being given twenty points for a total score of 100. Within each category, the prepper receiving the assessment is told how to improve the category and why further monetary investments are necessary. Although season two of Preppers features numerous individuals who have spent vast amounts of time and money on their preparations, it is nearly impossible to achieve a score above an eighty let alone a perfect score. Out of the fifty prepper groups featured in season two of Doomsday Preppers, only two were able to achieve a score of eighty or above, with both of them being given a survival time of no more than 17 months. One of these preppers was John Adrian in season two episode five. As a wealthy inventor preparing for ‘the unexpected,’ John’s total investment in preps is almost inconceivable and easily ranges in the millions. Part of John’s preps include: a $20,000 steel pivotal gate to protect the entrance to his house, twelve high definition cameras with facial recognition software positioned outside of his house, coated windows to prevent shattering, an infra-red motion detector that sprays out pepper spray inside of his home, also with facial recognition software, two years of food and five thousand gallons of water, a police grade vehicle with an automatic machine gun built into it, an AR-15, and bimonthly tactical defence training with a specialist. Suggestions made by Practical Preppers to improve John’s preps include: stocking up on additional food and raising his own livestock and obtaining a third water resupply plan. Similarly, although John has spent vast amounts of money on technological innovations to secure his home, Practical Preppers critiqued John’s for having subpar security because he lives alone with his two dogs and relies solely on himself for implementing his preps. John responded to the evaluation, stating that he found it to be fair and that he would take the necessary steps to improve his improve his chances for survival. Despite already spending a massive amount of money on his preps, John is portrayed as eager and willing to spend even more money in order to increase his survival time. Similarly, in viewing prepper Brian Murdock, who received the lowest ranked score featured on Doomsday Preppers, one can note the extreme lengths individuals go to while prepping, and how the prepping system often becomes a bottomless money pit. Fearing the outbreak of World War III, Brain sold all of his belongings, totalling over $75,000, and bought a motor home and 50 acres of land in upstate New York. Having spent all of his life savings on a bug out location fearing the aftermath of a nuclear attack, Brian received a prep score of only 43, giving him only eight weeks to survive a catastrophe. Being heavily critiqued for having an insufficient food and water supply as Brian only stores 30 days of food and water, Brian openly admitted that he was out of money and could not afford any more preps. Likewise, Brian stated that the assessment from Practical Preppers acted as a wakeup call and expressed his intentions of improving his preps. In a follow up clip featured on the episode, Brian states that he is in the process of

Jennifer Drissel

143

__________________________________________________________________ permanently moving to his bug out location and is putting all of his money into expanding his preparations. In viewing both John and Brian’s segments one can note how preppers are portrayed as paranoid and somewhat obsessive, but also the show functions as a vessel to promote hyper-active consumerism among those featured as well as towards spectators. Although not every high assessment granted on Doomsday Preppers is directly linked to money, there is a certain amount of highlighting and praising higher-priced preps and products. To beginner preppers, such as Brian, who stated he has only been prepping for around a year, this means that according to Practical Preppers, one needs to invest in multiple and diverse products for each category featured in order to have a fair chance at survival, which would be extremely pricey for the average American. Similarly, the fact that Practical Preppers have never implemented any assessment even close to perfect emphasizes the connection the series has with over-consuming. Even the most prepared and experienced preppers face harsh critiques that encourage them to further invest in their preps. To the spectator, Doomsday Preppers functions as an overzealous prepping catalogue that aims on selling individuals expensive products that they are now convinced are vital to their survival. 5. National Geographic As a Subsidiary of 21st Century Fox As noted prior, there are extensive differences between the preppers portrayed on shows such as Doomsday Preppers, and those of the actual prepping community. In viewing shows such as Doomsday Preppers as a vessel that encourages viewers to spend through exploiting paranoia, one must also look at the larger corporate ideals involved in such practices. 21st Century Fox and the endeavours of owner Rupert Murdock have long-term been critiqued as promoting a right wing agenda. The reflections of such media bias can be seen through the tensions between Fox News and The White House under the Obama Administration. For example, Fox commentators such as Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity have grown a reputation for continuously critiquing the Obama Administration on their television programs, with programs such as these becoming signatures of the Fox brand. Furthermore, in 2009, White House officials stated that Fox News was, “Not a news network,” because of their ideological bias and reflection of such in their reporting.9 Thus, with 21st Century Fox being one of the owners of National Geographic, it is not surprising that Doomsday Preppers reflects some of the principles of its parent company. The fact that the overwhelming majority of preppers featured on Doomsday Preppers are preparing for an economic collapse can be interpreted as an intentional tool to undermine the economy and promote fear under the Democratic Obama Administration. In viewing this fission through Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model, one can derive how the expression of ideological bias and use of scare tactics among viewers becomes profitable for 21st Century Fox. Rapid globalization and the

144

Fear and Consumption

__________________________________________________________________ consolidation of the media industry since the 1990s has led to the rise of 21st Century Fox as one of nine super companies with cross media platforms and a very large influence on culture, media, and politics.10 The mainstream media’s rigorous focus on commercialism allows large companies to see a profit through add spots and product placement. The social, political, and economic anxieties expressed in Doomsday Preppers work not only in attempt to weaken the credibility of the Democratic White House, but also to profit off of these fears through sponsorship, product placement and so on. With Doomsday Preppers being National Geographic’s most popular show in the networks history, one can assume that the cost of such advertisements are likely to be expensive and extremely profitable for National Geographic and 21st Century Fox. 6. Conclusion In viewing the recent trend towards post-apocalyptic programing in the United States, one can note both the real-life anxieties expressed by the general public in the wake of more violent and frequent natural disasters, and also the mainstream media’s attempt to profit off of these anxieties by using fear as a selling tool. With preparedness becoming an increasingly mainstream concept, as seen through FEMA’s Preparathon, one can note that having a plan and remaining self-sufficient are positive precautions in the event that an emergency situation may arise. On the other hand, the profit driven intensions of the mainstream media, as seen through shows such as Doomsday Preppers, works to elicit the notion that Americans should live in constant fear, that no preparations are ever good enough, and the only way to survive in the face of disaster is to continuously buy overzealous items. With the casting of Doomsday Preppers being almost exclusively upper class white men who have large expendable incomes and can afford to overindulge in preps, one can assert that from watching Doomsday Preppers, it would appear that the show’s definition of ordinary Americans actually means paranoid and wealthy white conservatives.

Notes 1

‘Public Health Matters Blog,’ Public Health Matters Blog RSS. CDC, 24 Apr. 2014, viewed 16 May 2014, http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2014/04/spring_prepareathon/. 2 Amanda Kondolojy, ‘National Geographic Survey Reveals What Americans Really Want This Holiday Season is to Survive Doomsday,’ TVbytheNumbers, 17 Dec 2013, viewed 11 May 2014, http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/12/17/national-geographic-survey-revealswhat-americans-really-want-this-holiday-season-is-to-survive-doomsday/223270/.

Jennifer Drissel

145

__________________________________________________________________ 3

Phil Burns, ‘Getting Started in Prepping!’ American Preppers Network, viewed 13 April 2014, http://americanpreppersnetwork.com/getting-started-in-prepping. 4 Phil Burns, ‘The Consequence of Doomsday Preppers,’ American Preppers Network, March 12, 2012, viewed 18 May 2014, http://americanpreppersnetwork.com/2012/03/the-consequence-of-doomsdaypreppers.html. 5 Neil Genzlinger. ‘Doomsday Has Its Day in the Sun.’ The New York Times, March 11, 2012, viewed 15 May 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/arts/television/doomsday-preppers-anddoomsday-bunkers-tv-reality-shows.html?_r=0. 6 ‘Doomsday Preppers,’ National Geographic Channel, viewed 4 May 2014, http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/. 7 ‘Jonesboro, Arkansas,’ USA.com, viewed 18 May 2014, http://www.usa.com/jonesboro-ar.htm. 8 Amanda Kondolojy. ‘National Geographic Channel Marks Most-Watched Year in Network’s History Across All Key Demos, Garnering Double-Digit Increases,’ TVbytheNumbers. 13 December 2012. Viewed 18 May 2014. http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/12/31/national-geographic-channel-marksmost-watched-year-in-networks-history-across-all-key-demos-garnering-doubledigit-increases/163381/ 9 Jim Rutenberg, ‘Behind the War between White House and Fox’ The New York Times, 22 October 2009, viewed 22 September 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/us/politics/23fox.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1 411318816-Tp/Ad1oF4D2gPj7195E7hw 10 Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon, 2002. Xiv. Print.

Bibliography Burns, Phil. ‘About the American Preppers Network: American Preppers Network.’ American Preppers Network. Viewed on 18 May 2014. http://americanpreppersnetwork.com. Burns, Phil. ‘The Consequence of Doomsday Preppers: American Preppers Network.’ American Preppers Network. Viewed on 18 May 2014. http://americanpreppersnetwork.com/2012/03/the-consequence-of-doomsdaypreppers.html. ‘Doomsday Preppers.’ National Geographic Channel. Viewed on 4 May 2014. http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/.

146

Fear and Consumption

__________________________________________________________________ Genzlinger, Neil. ‘Doomsday Has Its Day in the Sun.’ The New York Times, March 11, 2012, viewed on 15 May 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/arts/television/doomsday-preppers-anddoomsday-bunkers-tv-reality-shows.html?_r=0. Herman, Edward S. and Noam Chomsky. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon, 2002. Print. ‘Jonesboro, Arkansas.’ USA.com. Viewed 18 May 2014. http://www.usa.com/jonesboro-ar.htm. Kondolojy, Amanda. ‘National Geographic Survey Reveals What Americans really want This Holiday Season is to Survive Doomsday.’ TVbytheNumbers, Dec. 17, 2013. Viewed on 11 May 2014. http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/12/17/national-geographic-survey-revealswhat-americans-really-want-this-holiday-season-is-to-survive-doomsday/223270/. Kondolojy, Amanda. ‘National Geographic Channel Marks Most-Watched Year in Network’s History Across All Key Demos, Garnering Double-Digit Increases.’ TVbytheNumbers, Dec. 31. 2012. Web. Accessed May 18. 2014.http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/12/31/national-geographic-channelmarks-most-watched-year-in-networks-history-across-all-key-demos-garneringdouble-digit-increases/163381/. ‘Public Health Matters Blog.’ Public Health Matters Blog RSS. CDC, April 24, 2014. Viewed on 16 May 2014. http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2014/04/spring_prepareathon/. Rutenberg, Jim. ‘Behind the War between White House and Fox’ The New York Times, 22 October 2009, viewed 22 September 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/us/politics/23fox.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1 411318816-Tp/Ad1oF4D2gPj7195E7hw Jennifer Drissel is a graduate from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with an MA in Cinema Studies. Jennifer earned her BA in Media Studies at CUNY Hunter College, where she completed an undergraduate thesis on New French Extremism. Her broader research interests are American media and pop culture, cult television and the complex narrative, and the horror film genre.

Sirince, 2012: Apocalypse and Its Interpretations around the Globe Melis Mulazimoglu Erkal Abstract In December 2012, Sirince, a small village in Ephesus-Izmir-Turkey was crowded by a huge number of visitors – Doomsday believers, New Age spiritualists, cultists, hippies, students, tourists, researchers, media people, police and health care organizers – coming from all around the world. Convinced by the Mayan belief that the world would come to an end on 21st December 2012, people believed the site would survive the expected Doomsday as being one of the two preserved places on Earth, the other, Bugarash, France. The next day, the apocalyptic anxiety was over leading to ironic disappointment as they survived the night in peace. In the frame of this case study, it is seen that due to media’s substantial role in transforming the universe into a global village, the masses are affected by the same cultural trends and thoughts which give them the will to survive and an identity to cling to. With their mesmerizing power, rituals, mythology and religion help people acknowledge codes of social life and allow people to practice continuity as well as sense of belonging, exemplified by the Sirince case. In this respect, this chapter aims at re-locating Sirince example in a cultural and political context that deciphers the codes of the Western ideology of Apocalypse and globalization, as well as interpreting it as a discursive practice not only in contemporary Western societies but also in the Eastern parts of the World. Key Words: Apocalypse, capitalism, consumerism, globalization, media, 2012 phenomenon. ***** 1. Introduction Apart from the eschatological dimension of the Apocalypse, 1 the word is symbolically used as an ideological construct in socio-political contexts.2 Symbolic, religious or natural, apocalyptic thought has dominated Western thinking for long and in the scope of this paper, apocalypse will be exemplified as a product of globalization and consumerism in the frame of Sirince phenomenon that took place in Turkey in 2012. On the 21st of December, Sirince usually a silent and peaceful village located about three kilometers southwest of Ephesus-Izmir, was crowded by a huge number of visitors coming from all around the world. Convinced by the Mayan belief that the world would come to an end on the 21th of December 2012, people regardless of religion, race, gender, class and nationality rushed into the small town of Sirince thinking that the site would survive the catastrophe. Hosting more than

148

Sirince, 2012

__________________________________________________________________ 60,000 people in a couple of days at hotels booked months before, along with an apocalyptic craze of consumption of popular products, ordinary town of Sirince was on air throughout Turkey and the phenomenon was broadcasted on international media for days. If not a catastrophe, it was certain that the expected apocalypse has opened a new dimension in marketing tendencies and media manipulation which brings into mind that apocalypse always sells. Perhaps that is the reason why the end scenarios are constantly revisited in different contexts. 2. Different Interpretations of Apocalypse The end theory is nothing new. Concerns related to the end of the world, end of history, end of ideology, end of theory and end of many things have become a part of the Western culture for so long. Especially, the increase in the number of end scenarios after 2000s is remarkable and Sirince is one of them. Sirince phenomenon might be viewed in a variety of ways such as humanity’s answer to loss of wisdom, anxiety towards rapid changes and humans’ need to understand a world where media and technology provide new alternatives instead of old definitions for a perfect society. According to Lyotard, society has been founded upon metanarratives such as Christianity, Islam, Capitalism, Marxism to name only a few, which legitimate the social bond and the relationship of science and knowledge to it. 3 Religion, next to science and technology provides as a fundamental vehicle that helps one society maintain status quo via development and change. In this frame, the eschatological meaning of apocalypse feeding from essentialist discourses and strengthening the status quo, may point to the need of destruction for re-creation for a new world order. Thus, the gathering at Sirince might point to the late loss of faith in contemporary societies and additionally suggests the necessity of returning to old forms of spirituality and ascetics otherwise the world is believed to surrender to chaos and anarchy. Apocalypse would also mean the unraveling of individual/ collective fears of a person/community at a specific time. This works on two levels as technological and political.4 From a technological aspect, 2012 phenomenon can be interpreted as mankind’s unease towards increasing speed and technology as more humans are zombificated each day through technology and overdose internet usage. Extreme access to internet not only reduces literal human contact –however increases worldwide communication via web- but also threatens individual spaces which are reachable on a virtual level. As people/information are constantly on-line, privacies are no longer existent and knowledge belongs to all so in a way, this is the end of individuality and knowledge is not a matter of power anymore. On a political level, 2012 gathering might underline a collective anxiety or unrest felt towards ruling ideologies. At this point apocalyptic spirit works against the status quo and points to the unveiling of counter voices against the dominant ideology in one society.5 It can be argued that more people in the States and in

Melis Mulazimoglu Erkal

149

__________________________________________________________________ Turkey -or around the globe, concerning financial crises in Europe and America as well as the so-called Springs in the Eastern parts of the world- are endowed with a feeling of insecurity felt towards ruling ideologies and the government at the moment. Fearful that the nation is getting worse and the world is leading to decay either culturally or politically, masses are affected by an apocalyptic spirit which triggers them. Thus, apocalyptic sense might become a necessity and an end in overthrowing the ruling ideology. While it would be over-generalization to classify the gathering at Sirince in such political way as the heterogeneous group of people had different beliefs, purposes or no purpose at all for coming together, it can also be true for some part of the Sirince crowd that the gathering provided as a common ground for minority voices and silenced identities to discuss their discontent with the ruling ideology. From another angle, apocalypse is interpreted as the traumatic past of one society which is reflected on traumatic personal narratives of a given culture. 6 Likewise, according to James Berger, apocalyptic gatherings are somewhat the realization of one culture’s confrontation with its suppressed collective consciousness;7 at that point apocalyptic sense becomes one culture’s confrontation with its other. In that case, 2012 gathering at Sirince, triggered by a non-Western prophecy, that is Mayan, might suggest Western culture’s fascination with its other and its yearning for meaning in Eastern locations like Sirince in Turkey. Taken together, apocalypse is not only related to the maintenance of status quo, neither is limited to counter-politics or confrontation with the other. Interpretations of apocalypse are varied in different contexts. For instance, the Mayans perceived the end as a transformation to a new phase, a new cycle. Indians believed apocalypse to be the arrival of white man on their land. The millennialists conceived it as the essential confrontation between good and evil. Muslim philosopher Ibn Khaldun early in the fifteenth century claimed that the end was a matter of progress in civilization, meaning that the world will lead to decay as civilizations continue to develop.8 Some Western thinkers considered the end as a problem of ethics, claiming that the Enlightenment thinking caused many ills like social decadence and moral decay.9 The New Age people assumed the end as a kind of dissolving of negative energies and regeneration. Recently in 2000, apocalypse was meant to be a computer bug, Y2K. Baudrillard in his 2002 essay The Spirit of Terrorism interpreted the end in the context of 9/11 as global destruction, representing ‘triumphant globalization battling against itself.’10 According to O’Bryne and Hensby, Baudrillard saw 9/11 as the turning point of globalization; hence the idea of becoming one world, operating under a single consciousness and mode of exchange was unquestionably challenged.11 It was in a way more people were wishing for the world to come to an end. Oliveira comments on the situation as follows:

150

Sirince, 2012

__________________________________________________________________ The world is indeed changing, the global economy is on the brink of a huge recession, there is famine, disease and massive poverty throughout the whole planet and, last but definitely not least, war between Israel and Iran is imminent. No wonder so many wish for some kind of flushing. 12 As it is seen, mankind’s fascination with possible end scenarios has been multiple depending on generational anxieties. In the next part, Sirince phenomenon will be discussed in relation with the Zeitgeist of 2000s. 3. 2012 Sirince Phenomenon The 2012 Sirince phenomenon depended on a variety of beliefs related to Mayan accounts, Biblical Apocalypse and New Age practices along with a strong support of capitalism and globalization. Before 21 December 2012, some groups had already started gathering around Sirince. Each of these groups had a specific reason for the gathering. The first group was that of The New Age mystics who primarily aimed at constructing a temple for their own practices at the site. Some members of this group believed Sirince to be the source of positive energy and adding to this belief, some interpreted the day of December 21 st as the time when the earth would transform into something new and positive either spiritually or physically and Sirince as a chosen site would have a significant role in such transformation.13 Other predictions related to the apocalypse theory included earth changes, global flood, a super volcano, dramatic magnetic or physical shift of the Earth’s poles, the arrival of Planet X, visits from extraterrestrials, an increase in telepathy, and a shift in negative attitudes and metaphysical revelations. 14 According to Mayan practices, 2012 would be the date commemorating the end of Earth’s 5000 year-long cycle and eventually this would transform the Earth into a new phase. 15 However, on the night of 21 December 2012, it was realized the end wish did not come true in the form of a physical catastrophe. The New Age group, believing that the world now entered a new phase continued constructing their temple in Sirince. In the first step, the New Age gathering was perhaps beyond apocalypse meeting, but the end theory helped them realize their purpose in a more effective way. Some claimed that the myth beyond end theory gave the group members a meaning for sense of belonging or a reason to practice their ritualistic existence. The second group gathering at Sirince was that of Christians, who were familiar with the region long before 2012 phenomenon had appeared. Sirince is located three kilometers south of Ephesus, the site famous for its Christian heritage. Ephesus has been regarded as a holy place for Christian pilgrims as it is believed to be the home to Virgin Mary as well as including the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Early in the nineteenth century, it was stated that an Augustan nun, St Anne Catherine Emmerich was claimed to have seen

Melis Mulazimoglu Erkal

151

__________________________________________________________________ visions on the location of Blessed Virgin Mary’s home. Her visions were then recorded by a monk-poet named Clemens Brentano. At the turn of the century, another monk receiving those records of St Anne and searching the site in Ephesus, finally ended up in a cave, which would be the supposed home of Virgin Mary. He also found out the Basilica of St John, the Apostle whom was then believed to look after Virgin Mary for a long time. It took for more than ten years for the place to be recognized as a holy site. Since that time of the late nineteenth century, according to millennial beliefs, Ephesus was believed to be the place where the second coming of the Messiah would occur. In contemporary time, as the hearsays about the Earth’s collision with the so-called planet Marduk or the planet X were dispersed, Sirince became the center of attention once more. Additionally, on December 21, 2012, Christians gathering around Sirince, lit their candles and made their prayers either for the end or for a messiah to come 16. It was not only Christians gathering at Sirince with the Biblical apocalypse on their minds but also some Muslims who believed in the idea of Kıyamet/the end as stated in Quran, the holly book of Islam. Islamic interpretation of apocalypse is somehow a different concept, however it reinforces the idea of Armageddon and the Last Judgment stated in Revelation. In Quran, it is argued that there are some signs before the end times and Kıyamet points to the one and only last time on earth when all the dead and the living will come together before the final assessment by Allah begins. Nevertheless, Muslim population in Sirince was interested in the 2012 gathering in their own way. The Imam of the town made remarks that apocalypse is not likely to happen in Sirince on the 21st of December nor in a place that people can predict earlier as no one can know when the world ends but only God. Muslim folks were more like being a part of the heterogeneous crowd, rather than praying and waiting for the end to come. In a way, 2012 phenomena gave local people a meaning and a purpose to be a part of a globalized gathering. This can be further explained by the claims of O’Bryne and Hensby who interpreted globalization as a process of becoming, which could occur at multiple levels: On an economic level where globalization survives as a particular marketing strategy like free trade; on a personal level where free individual choices can go beyond one’s national and racial state and on a socio-cultural level where global empathy is noticed in identification with the world and heightened by particular ‘global events’ such as the Live Aid concert, the 2004 tsunami, or the terrible events of September 11, and Apocalypse 2012. All these events serve to bring us closer to the ‘one world’ we all share. 17 Thus, global events lead to globalized awareness. In addition, the multicultural gathering at Sirince can be considered as a collective response to humanity’s confrontation with disaster. Contrary to what Baudrillard has claimed on global unity, 2012 Sirince phenomenon pointed to the formation of a huge homogeneous society with shared values.

152

Sirince, 2012

__________________________________________________________________ The third group gathering at Sirince was composed of ordinary people such as hippies, students, families and some other folks interested in the idea that the world would transform into a new stage rather than coming to an end on the 21st of December, 2012. Paradoxically, these people were mostly interested in the fun side of the end theory like having a bonfire, festivity and shopping. In a way, apocalypse rather than causing fear has created negative pleasure.18 Following Baudrillard who underestimated apocalypse with his claim that the end/bomb was only a metaphor now,19 2012 phenomenon –from a postmodernist perspectiveimplied mankind’s ease with death and decay in contemporary era. 20 How? Through media’s verisimilitude of a new, alternative reality where everything would be sterile and perfect than ever. Likewise, Zygmunt Bauman commented on ‘the unique role of the media as the principal vehicle of culture production and distribution.’21 In that sense, popular media and Internet helped 2012 phenomenon to be disseminated and become a part of social reality. Gathering at Sirince was in a way an opportunity to test global media’s victory all around the world. Nick Couldry quoting from Kellner’s work, Media Culture and Media Spectacle stated in his article that ‘media culture is a central organizing force in the economy, politics, culture and everyday life,’ 22 a force which increasingly flows beyond television and film into computers and the Internet.23 Media culture is the stage on which social conflicts unfold and social reality is constructed.24 In that respect, the expected apocalypse again did not happen, but the idea beyond the end theory helped marketing tendencies gain momentum. December 21st will always be remembered as a peak time for Sirince shopkeepers when sales reached the top. For instance, Sirince wine was sold in bottles with new covers on them, like the Apocalypse Wine together with Apocalypse Mugs, Apocalypse Magnets and Apocalypse T-shirts. As seen on every TV channel, the motto was: Buy something before the end comes. Would consumption be a catharsis for contemporary societies? Perhaps. In short, it was quite interesting to observe how materialism went together with spiritual practices. The 2012 Phenomenon, apart from the other definitions showed that apocalypse of our time was media’s testing its surveillance and power all around the globe. To put it in Marshall McLuhan’s phrase, it was medium more than the message that mattered. 4. Conclusion The 2012 phenomenon was a wonderful marketing of religion, capitalism and globalization. In terms of globalization of religion, it was interesting to see how a Pagan practice like that of the Mayan belief in the end theory worked together with that of Christian -Biblical Apocalypse as stated in Revelation- and Muslim beliefs Kıyamet Gunu as stated in Quran- in a new discourse suitable for contemporary Zeitgeist. Apart from the infusion of monotheistic religious beliefs, merging of Western spiritual practices with that of Eastern ones created a multicultural ground

Melis Mulazimoglu Erkal

153

__________________________________________________________________ open to everyone. In reality, the gathering at Sirince was beyond its religious purpose. Most of the people, who were waiting for something to happen on the night of December the 21st, did not expect a new messiah, neither a transformation nor a catastrophe. They were only trying to continue a ritual that gave meaning to human existence and created a possibility for sense of belonging. As the myth beyond the apocalypse theory was as antique as humanity itself, the gathering in a way was all about human suffer and struggle for meaning and belonging to a world that is constantly changing. Other than giving meaning to human existence, the globalized idea of apocalypse reduced the whole world into two villages, as Sirince and Bugarash, reinforcing the idea of McLuhan’s global village. Marshall McLuhan, who popularized the phrase in his 1962 work The Gutenberg Galaxy, suggested that developments in communications and information technology would create a single, interconnected world. Perhaps it was the workings of media rather than apocalyptic sense that brought people together at Sirince. In a metaphoric way, through Sirince and Bugarach, Western civilization was revisiting the city upon a hill. Preserved, plain and pure, these two villages were a remaking of heaven on earth however; the contemporary feeling of redemption was at odds with the inherent meaning of the Puritan ideal. The gathering at Sirince was more like a feast of shopping for images and rehab tourism. To conclude, 2012 Sirince phenomenon included different interpretations of the Apocalypse not only for Western people but for the entire globe at contemporary time. Apart from its eschatological meaning, apocalypse is best understood as an ideological construct in socio-political contexts. Feeding on religion and technology, apocalypse of our time indicated the growing surveillance of media in a globalized context. With the Sirince example, it is seen that masses are affected by same cultural trends and thoughts which give them meaning to survive and an identity to cling upon. In that sense, apocalypse whether imaginary or real, plays a prominent role in a globalized context.

Notes 1

The Holy Bible, Revelation 20: 1–6; The Book of Daniel 7–10. Lee Quinby, Anti-Apocalypse: Exercises in Genealogical Criticism (Minnesota: Minnesota UP, 1994), 16; Richard Dellamora, Apocalyptic Overtures: Sexual Politics and the Sense of an Ending (New Jersey: Rutgers, 1994), 25; James Berger, After the End: Representations of Post-Apocalypse (Minneapolis: Minnesota UP, 1999), 5; Daniel Wojcik, The End of the World as We Know It: Faith, Fatalism, Apocalypse in America (NY: NY UP, 1997), 11–12. 3 Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, trans. Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993). 2

154

Sirince, 2012

__________________________________________________________________ 4

Fredric Jameson ‘Progress versus Utopia or Can We Imagine the Future?’ in Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions (1982), (UK: Verso, 2005), 37-38, 289. Jameson handles likewise issues mainly focusing on science fiction and speculative fiction. 5 Jacques Derrida, ‘Of an Apocalyptic Tone Recently Adopted in Philosophy’, trans. John Leavey. The Oxford Literary Review 6.2 (1984): 21. Apocalypse, in the context of postmodernism, is interpreted as counter-discourse, mainly working against status quo and questioning ruling ideologies, subverting reductionist metanarratives. In that respect, apocalypse as a concept can be handled as the way Derrida has interpreted it as the ‘unveiling of suppressed desires, unknown truths related to human sex; the uncovering of mysticism, death, decay, illness, mainly AIDS in a given context.’ Derrida also handles apocalypse on a textual base as a part of a textual structure, saying ‘nuclear condition is fabulously textual’ meaning nuclear war is not only a threat for mankind but more importantly a threat for the eradication of literary archive of human writing. For further reading: ‘No Apocalypse, Not Now (Seven Missiles, Seven Missives)’ Diacritics 14.2 (1984): 20-31. 6 Richard Dellamora, Apocalyptic Overtures, 31-32. 7 James Berger, After the End, 7-17, 52, 130. 8 Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, trans. by Franz Rosenthal (1390). Viewed on 12 March 2014. http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/Muqaddimah/TransIntro/TheMuqaddimah.h tm 9 Matei Calinescu, Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence,Kitsch, Postmodernism (Durham: Duke UP, 1987), 151; Sigmund Freud, ‘The Origins of Culture.’ The Modern Tradition II, eds. Richard Elmann and Charles Feidelson. (NY: Oxford UP, 1965), 581-585; J. J. Rousseau, A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, trans. by Maurice Cranston (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984), 24-25; Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, trans. by Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale (NY: Vintage, 1968), 56, http://www.geocities.com/thenietzschechannel/zarapro.htm; Theodor Adorno and M. Horkheimer, ‘The Concept of Enlightenment’ in Dialectic of Enlightenment (1979) (London: Verso, 1997), 35-36. http://www.arasite.org/adhkdofe.htm; Michel Foucault, ‘Discipline and Punishment’ in Literary Theory, edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan (NY: Blackwell, 1998), 464–88; Oswald Spengler, ‘The Organic Logic of History’ in The Modern Tradition: Backgrounds of Modern Literature, eds by Richard Elman and Charles Feidelson (NY: Oxford UP, 1995), 485–496. 10 Jean Baudrillard, ‘The Spirit of Terrorism: Requiem for the Twin Towers,’ trans. Rachel Bloul, in Le Monde, November 2001,11.

Melis Mulazimoglu Erkal

155

__________________________________________________________________ 11

Darren J. O’Bryne and Alexander Hensby, ‘Globalization: The Global Village’ in Theorizing Global Studies (NY: Macmillan, 2011), 1-30. Viewed on 12 March 2014, http://www.us.macmillan.com. 12 Ivo Oliveira, ‘The 2012 Phenomenon: The End of the World?’ 24 February 2012. Viewed 12 April 2014. http://www.fairobserver.com/360theme/2012-phenomenon-end-world. 13 Radikal Haber, ‘22.12.2012’ Viewed on 12 April 2014, http://www.radikal.com.tr/hayat/kaybeden_sirince_oldu. 14 Qtd from Joseph, 2007 and Stray, 2009 by John W. Hoopes in ‘A Critical History of 2012 Mythology’, Oxford IX International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy, Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 278, 2011. 15 Robert K. Sitler, ‘The 2012 Phenomenon: New Age Appropriation of an Ancient Mayan Calendar’ in Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 9.3 (2006): 24-38. 16 At this point, I would like to thank my student Cahit Kaya for letting me share his grand knowledge of the site and informing me about the Christian heritage embedded in Ephesus and Sirince. 17 O’Bryne, Darren J and A. Hensby, ‘Globalization’, 1-30. 18 The phrase is originally used by Immanuel Kant and Edmund Burke discussing it in the context of sublime. 19 Jean Baudrillard, ‘The Anorexic Ruins’ in Looking Back on the End of the World, eds. Dietmar Kamper and Christopher Wulf (NY: Semiotexte, 1989), 29– 49. 20 Frederick Buell, From Apocalypse to Way of Life (NY: Routledge, 2004), 214215. His claims are similar to Baudrillard’s views on the end as metaphor. Derrida also points to same issue in ‘No Apocalypse, Not Now’ (1984), 20-31. 21 Zygmunt Bauman, Intimations of Post modernity (Cambridge: Polity, 1992), 31. 22 Nick Couldry, ‘Television and the Myth of the Mediated Centre: Time for a Paradigm Shift in Television Studies’ (May 2003). Viewed on 12 April 2014, http://cmsw.mit.edu/mit3/papers/couldry.pdf. Couldry quotes from Kellner’s work, Media Spectacle, (2003), vii. 23 Media Spectacle, (2003), ix. 24 Ibid., 89.

Bibliography Adams, Tony E. ‘Global Village.’ Encyclopedia of Identity. Vol. I., 315-316. New York: Sage, 2010. Viewed 12 April 2014. http://www.neiu.edu/aeadams/.

156

Sirince, 2012

__________________________________________________________________ Adorno, Theodor and M. Horkheimer. ‘The Concept of Enlightenment.’ Dialectic of Enlightenment. London: Verso, 1997. Viewed 2 July 2008. http://www.arasite.org/adhkdofe.htm. Baudrillard, Jean. ‘The Anorexic Ruins.’ Looking Back on the End of the World, edited by Dietmar Kamper and Christopher Wulf, 29–49. NY: Semiotexte, 1989. ———. The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. Translated by Chris Turner. London: Sage, 1998. ———. ‘Hystericizing the Millennium.’ Translated by Charles Dudas. 1992. Viewed 12 July 2010. http://www.ctheory.net ———. The Illusion of the End. Translated by Chris Turner. Stanford UP, 1994. ———. Sessiz Yığınların Gölgesinde: Toplumsalın Sonu. Translated by Oğuz Adanır. İstanbul: Ayrıntı, 1991. ———. ‘The Spirit of Terrorism: Requiem for the Twin Towers.’ Translated by Rachel Bloul. Le Monde, November 2001. ———. ‘The Violence of the Global.’ Translated by Francoix Debrix. Viewed 2 July 2010. http://www.ctheory.net. Bauman, Zygmunt. Intimations of Postmodernity. Cambridge: Polity, 1992. ———. Globalisation: The Human Consequences. Cambridge: Polity, 1998. Berger, James. After the End: Representations of Post-Apocalypse. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP, 1999. Best, Steven and Douglas Kellner. The Postmodern Adventure at the Third Millennium. NY: Guilford, 2001. Brinks, Jan Herman, Edward Timms and Stella Rock, eds. Nationalist Myths and Modern Media: Cultural Identity in the Age of Globalization. NY: Tauris Academic Studies, 2006. Viewed on 12 April 2104. http://www.google.com.tr/books. Buell, Frederick. From Apocalypse to Way of Life. NY: Routledge, 2004.

Melis Mulazimoglu Erkal

157

__________________________________________________________________ Calinescu, Matei. Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism. Durham: Duke UP, 1987. Couldry, Nick. ‘Television and the Myth of the Mediated Centre: Time for a Paradigm Shift in Television Studies.’ May 2003. Viewed 12 April 2014. http://cmsw.mit.edu/mit3/papers/couldry.pdf. Dellamora, Richard. Apocalyptic Overtures: Sexual Politics and the Sense of an Ending. New Jersey: Rutgers, 1994. ——— ed. Postmodern Apocalypse: Theory and Cultural Practice at the End. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania UP, 1995. Derrida, Jacques. ‘Of an Apocalyptic Tone Recently Adopted in Philosophy.’ Translated by John Leavey. The Oxford Literary Review. Vol.6 (2). 1984. ———. ‘No Apocalypse, Not Now.’ Translated by Catherine Porter and Philip Lewis. Diacritics, 1984. Foucault, Michel. ‘Discipline and Punishment.’ Literary Theory. Edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, 464–88. NY: Blackwell, 1998. Freud, Sigmund. ‘The Origins of Culture.’ The Modern Tradition II. Edited by Richard Elmann and Charles Feidelson, 581-585. NY: Oxford UP, 1965. Hall, Stuart, David Held and Tony McGrew, eds. Modernity and Its Futures. Cambridge: Open UP, 1992. Hoopes, John W. ‘A Critical History of 2012 Mythology.’ Oxford IX International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 278, 2011. Viewed April 2014. https://www.academia.edu/791540/A_Critical_History_of_2012_Mythology_2011 Jameson, Fredrick. ‘Progress versus Utopia or Can We Imagine the Future?’ Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. UK: Verso, 2005. Viewed 28 February 2009. http://www.books.google.com Kellner, Douglas. Media Culture. London: Routledge, 1995. ———. Media Spectacle. London: Routledge, 2003.

158

Sirince, 2012

__________________________________________________________________ Ketterer, David. New Worlds for Old: The Apocalyptic Imagination, Science Fiction and American Literature. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1974. Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Translated by Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. Viewed on 12 April 2014, http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/Lyotard-PostModernCondition15.html McLuhan, Marshall. Yaradanımız Medya. Translated by Unsal Oskay. Istanbul: Merkez Kitapcilik Yayincilik, 1996. Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Will to Power. Translated by Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale. NY: Vintage, 1968. Viewed 20 September 2007. http://www.geocities.com/thenietzschechannel/zarapro.htm. O’Byrne, Darren J and Alexander Hensby. ‘Globalization: The Global Village.’ Theorizing Global Studies. 1-30. NY: Macmillan, 2011. Viewed April 2014. http://www.us.macmillan.com. Oliveira, Ivo. ‘The 2012 Phenomenon: The End of the World?’ 24 February 2012. Viewed April 2014. http://www.fairobserver.com/360theme/2012-phenomenonend-world Quinby, Lee. Anti-Apocalypse: Exercises in Genealogical Criticism. Minnesota: Minnesota UP, 1994. Rousseau, Jean Jacques. A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. Translated by Maurice Cranston, 24-25, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984. Scherpe, Klaus, R. ‘Globalization of Culture and Values: Myth or Reality?’ Aletria. 2003-2004. Viewed April 2014. http://www.letras.ufmg.br/poslit/08_publicacoes_pgs/Aletria%2010.11/Klaus%20 R.%20Scherpe.pdf. ‘Sirince 2012.’ Viewed 12 April 2014. http://www.radikal.com.tr/hayat/kaybeden_sirince_oldu-1113277.22.12.2012. Spengler, Oswald. ‘The Organic Logic of History.’ The Modern Tradition: Backgrounds of Modern Literature. Edited by Richard Elman and Charles Feidelson, 485–496. NY: Oxford UP, 1995.

Melis Mulazimoglu Erkal

159

__________________________________________________________________ Walmsley, Chris Snipp. ‘Postmodernism.’ Literary Theory and Criticism. Edited by Patricia Waugh. UK: Oxford UP, 2006. Wojcik, Daniel. The End of the World as We Know It: Faith, Fatalism, Apocalypse in America. NY: NY UP, 1997. Melis Mulazimoglu Erkal is a Hacettepe graduate of American Studies of 2000. She has been working as a Research Assistant at American Culture and Literature Department of Ege University since 2000. She has earned her PhD degree in 2010.