Apocalypse...Over?

The Apocalypse.  It holds a fascination for all of us for some unknown reason.  Maybe it’s because it’s seen as some kind of culminating event, the apex of history.  But even beyond the Apocalypse, we seem to want to know what comes after the Apocalypse.  How do people handle the end of time?  Books like World War Z, I am Legend, and The Road catch our attention like few others.  They stand the test of time, becoming classics we return to over and over.  It’s one of the reasons writers tend to write stories like that, and continue to do so.

However, after the recent Coronavirus event, I wonder how possible it will be to maintain that kind of genre.  No, this wasn’t The Black Death or a Carrington Event, but it has affected, and will continue to affect, millions of people worldwide as we try to cope with shutdowns on an unprecedented scale.  With that in mind, what will the public’s appetite be for post-apocalyptic struggles?

I liken it to the tales of avarice in the 1980s and 1990s regarding those who cheated and stole their way to mass fortunes.  Gordon Gecko was great to read about, a savvy villain some of us secretly wished to be like…right up until the 2008 crash and recession.  Suddenly reading about a greedy Wall Street wasn’t so satisfying.  It was as if such events personally impacting us quelled that hunger.

Perhaps this Coronavirus event will be similar.  People coming face-to-face with their own mortality, real or perceived, as well as some of the discomforts it creates in real life, may dampen the enthusiasm many have for the end of the world.  Personally, I’ve always said that most folks who envision themselves as the great survivor while everyone else perishes would, in all actuality, die pretty quickly themselves, and current events give me no reason to doubt that.

Since I think there will be little excitement for more “OH MY GO EVERYONE IS DYING” stories, I wonder what the next big thing in genre fiction will be.  Who knows…we don’t have a lot of stories about mankind creating new worlds instead of discovering them – perhaps that’s next.