After watching the video for ‘Duck and Cover’ and about half of the movie, I did what I figured would be the most accurate thing to fully understand the thought of a nuclear catastrophe from this older viewpoint.
I asked my mother.
Tag Archives: Apocalypse
Weekly Response #3: Duck and Cover
Watching the Duck and Cover in contemporary times is quite humorous, but when thinking about the time period it was created, it is saddening.
Children and the Apocalypse
As the idea of “childhood” evolved during the last 150 years, special apocalyptical media has been developed to appeal to youth in the hopes of protecting and/or manipulating them.
Last class, we briefly talked about the existence of children at the end of the the world, in the context of the Shakers not having any. The Apocalypse is often portrayed as an adult problem to be dealt with by mature men and women. Children, when not born to sun-ladies and Jewish whores, are not native to the apocalyptical landscape but when they are they are shown to become its most innocent sufferers and pawns. Continue reading
Apocalyptic Paranoia
In this week’s reading, Strozier says the paranoia is the pathology of the gifted. I found this very interesting and very telling of how paranoia and the spread of apocalyptic belief connect. Throughout history, strong apocalyptic ideas have been perpetuated by individuals that garner a following.
A History of the End of the World (2nd Half)
One of the most important concepts in the second half of this book is interpretation. Kirsch shows numerous examples of people throughout history that argued over whether the Book of Revelations should be read “spiritually” or “carnally”. Whichever way one chooses to read it, however, the result will amount to an interpretation of the text. Continue reading
Weekly Response #1: The Book of Revelation and 666
What interested me most in the first three chapters of Jonathan Kirsch’s A History of the End of the World is what was referred to as St. John’s cryptogram. While reading the Book of Revelations, it was difficult not to notice the abundance of numerical references throughout the texts. Not just to be taken literally, I knew that the numbers had other meanings. The number 666 was most interesting because it is referred to as the number of the beast. Beyond that, many have tried to decipher the value behind 666, which corresponds to a name in Latin, Hebrew, or Greek. The number can be deciphered in so many different ways so there is not necessarily one right answer. Several names fit the puzzle, but varieties in spelling must also be put into account. Furthermore, the number of the beast is sometimes depicted as 616 in earlier manuscripts, which adds to the dilemma of solving the puzzle.
St. John’s cryptogram is only an example of one of the many ways that different people can interpret the Book of Revelation as a whole. Based solely on one example, I can finally understand why the Book of Revelation would be the inspiration of so many who predict the apocalypse. There is so much material in the Book of Revelations that can be interpreted in so many ways. If one prophet’s interpretation of the apocalypse turns out not to be true, another prophet can easily come by and interpret the text in a novel way.
