Read Maria's responses to popular apocalyptic literature. |
The apocalypse inflicts a plethora of terrors across its literary genre. We have explored reverse evolution, lethal viruses, and bioterrorism, among others. Colson Whitehead’s apocalypse in Zone One has a classic trigger: zombies. While this story brings monsters to life, different apocalypses always include their fair share of figurative demons. The character, Kaitlyn, surmises on page 239 of the novel, “Maybe we can unsee the monsters again.” After reading this comment, I could not help but think of other real and fictional events that have felt like an apocalypse in one way or another. Do people get to a point after experiencing trauma, destruction, and death where they can unsee their monsters? Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, a novel from a previous blogpost, is set two decades after a super-lethal virus wipes out 99.9% of the world’s population. As Jeevan and his friend discuss how their children’s education, the friend supposes that kids may be happier not knowing what was lost from the world before. Would this be possible? Or beneficial? Station Eleven shows that some monsters can be unseen—the monster of loss can disappear as the next generation, accustomed to the new normal, are not aware of the things that made life better or different in the past. Life simply moves on. The farther from real-life apocalyptic events we get in time, the less scary old monsters seem. WWII changed “life as we know it” for nearly every culture and country on earth, with millions upon millions of military and civilian casualties. As a young adult living eight decades later, I can see the aftermath of the war. Borders and treaties, world cultures and even bigotries exist today as a result of WWII. But the terrors of WWII do not currently cause me trauma—I was not alive to experience them. According to History.com, the Black Death killed nearly one third Europe’s population in the 14th century. While this zoonotic spillover still infects 1,000-3,000 people per year, the traumatic stress of this particular apocalypse can hardly be seen, if at all. Society is so removed from the loss of life and medical practices hundreds of years ago. Monsters can be unseen. Time makes them less and less visible. Covid-19 is an apocalypse of cancellations and anxiety, lost jobs and financial crises. The monsters of the virus and quarantines will be unknown to the next generation that will hopefully never experience what we have gone through over the past year. Monsters may be forgotten, but should they be? A good history education will tell you that we must remember the past so that we do not repeat it. And remembering the past brings its monsters with it. Andrea Eidinger writes a fascinating article about how historical trauma can emotional impact her students. It is possible that monsters can be unseen, but I do not think it is best to forget them. It is important to be aware of how they affect individuals over time. However, time seemed to be a rapidly diminishing resource at the end of Zone One, as Whitehead implies, up to the interpretation of each reader, that the zombies destroy humankind. In this case, unfortunately, the minds to remember the monsters cease to exist…so the zombies become unseen after all.
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