With the release of Stray Magic this week (woohoo! Welcome to the Faerene Apocalypse!) I’ve been thinking about post-apocalyptic fiction and how ancient it is.
The story of Noah’s Ark is even older than the Bible, being recounted in the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. The enduring power of the story is due to it getting to grips with how we survive the end of our world.
Because our worlds do end more often than we prefer to admit.
Our worlds end when someone we love dies, when we lose our job, when we can’t pay the mortgage on our home and the bank forecloses. Our worlds end when a certainty in our life proves false – this can be the trust we’ve placed in a person, relationship, or institution (religion, government, military, social cause). Our worlds end when life slams us into the dirt and all we can do is cry.
Being human means enduring the end of our world, but it also means surviving to build the new world – and this is the power of the story of Noah’s Ark.
Here is Noah. He gathers the people important to him to prepare for the end of the world. He ignores his neighbours and strangers who mock him. He works. He gathers what he needs to build his new world and he protects it. He endures the end of the world. He waits in hope, through darkness and storm. He acts with hope, sending out a dove for a sign that his and his family’s new life can begin.
This is the template for how we survive the end of our world. First, we accept that our world can end. Then we ensure that those we love survive with us. We gather and protect the seeds of hope for the new world. And when that chance to rebuild is before us, we seize it.
Post-apocalyptic tales are stories of human resilience. They might be terrifying, but they are also inspiring.
New Release: Stray Magic (Book 1 of The Faerene Apocalypse) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N5ZVNLY
10 responses to “Let’s Build an Ark!”
Perhaps the lack of hopeful vision that would fuel them past their personal apocalypse instead causes the self-centered conflagrations mass murderers create– a mockery of an ark that instead of carrying them into a new future, sends them to Oblivion.
Lianne, that’s a fascinating point. I hadn’t considered that hope makes you look outward, moving away from self-centeredness.
I never considered the story of Noah’s Ark to be an apocalyptic one. What an interesting perspective.
It’s a different perspective, isn’t it? I have a vague memory of learning the song for it at school – the animals went in two by two, hurrah, hurrah! – but this take on the ark, looking at it as a story of surviving tough times, that explains for me why it continues to appeal to adults millennia later.
A story you have in mind? Sounds intriguing. 🙂
LOL no more plot bunnies! Darn things are hopping everywhere!
re: Post-apocalyptic tales are stories of human resilience. They might be terrifying, but they are also inspiring.
Well said! That’s why I love good end of the world stories. It gives me hope.
Yes! that’s what some people don’t get. The stories aren’t depressing, they’re hopeful! You’d be one of the people I’d want with me in the event of an apocalypse … maybe I should move to Texas? 🙂
Thanks, Dani. I’ve been thinking about this a lot! Glad it resonated with you.
Awesome and insightful post – I hadn’t really analyzed why I’m drawn to post-apocalyptic stories.