I love Post Apocalyptic books and movies. Creepy...perhaps. I love Margaret Atwood, Cormac McCarthy, and I just started to read the Susan Beth Pfeffer books. It freaks my sister out. We were in my favorite bookstore today, Inkwood, and they had a table set up titled, "Dystopia". I was in heaven. My sister physically recoiled from the table.
My friends laugh at me and my "End of Days'' pill stash. I didn't take much of the pain meds I was given after my back surgery. It is ridiculous how much they give you. I had a root canal 6 months ago. More hoarding. I have them (along with my post divorce Xanax stash with convenient refills) hidden away.
Years ago I went to Germany with a couple of nurse friends. One sane. One crazy. We went to Dachau. I can still see the sign over the gate that read "Arbeit macht frei", which translates to "work makes free". It made my stomach turn back in 1994 and it makes me feel sick thinking about how no grass grew in that place. I was walking through Dachau with my friends and we had just seen the gas chambers. I was crying and my one travel companion (the crazy one) said, "Dude, if that was me I would have killed myself before it got to that." She continued to make weird comments about death and what happened to the Jewish people. Long crazy story...let's just say The Punisher™ was alive and well in Germany in 1994. She pissed me off and I went off on her at 0300 a.m. in Munich.
Here I am 16 years later and I don't think I am the forage for canned goods, survival type. My Mom told us that my Dad was going to build a underground shelter during the Cuban Missile Crisis. That is so 60s. It always made me laugh (in a nervous way). I watched Book of Eli recently. I can't imagine living in fear every moment of the day. It brings out the ugly side of humans. That's what makes the books and movies entertaining to me. I lived in Louisiana during Katrina. People acted like animals. It is the creepy side of humans that comes out when survival is threatened. The book I am reading now--Life As We Knew It is meant for young adults. It is pretty mild compared to Margaret Atwood et al. It is written from a 16 year old girl's perspective. I read about the things that scare me--no electricity, no cell phone, no way to get food and it makes me appreciate things. I know it sounds like fucked up logic, but it does. Today I got pissed that my cable remote was not working. What an asshole.
I'm not stocking up on canned pears and kindling or buying ammo. One thing I do know is that if anything happens, the people that rummage through my house will be in oral hygiene heaven. When I worked for Johnson and Johnson one of the benefits was the "Company Store". You could order J&J products at a super discount. Dental Floss was a quarter. I have enough floss under my bathroom sink to last until the second coming...
Hey, at least you have your priorities straight! I'm thinking that by the time you finish the Pfeffer trilogy, you might just consider a stash of canned goods. It made me think twice, that is for sure.
ReplyDeleteI've been to Auschwitz. It does make one think about the evil of man and our own mortality.
I applaud your choice of reading material and I love Margaret Atwood's, "The Handmaid's Tale" and have read it a few times since the mid-80s. While it did not orginally "scare" me in the traditional sense, it frightened me because of the alignment of current events at that moment in time. Having re-read this book in the past year, I could see more reality in what has transpired since 1985 when the book was published, within our current societal norms. For instance, extremism, the religous right trying to dictate and achieve power through revivalism, and this is touted as "Americanism" whereas there is an undercurrent in our social structure right now that points to anything less than the extreme as "non-American" (it used to be called tolerance). If we think the subjagation of females and stripping away of rights of women or any other race/class/religion cannot happen here, then I urge the reading of this book. I personally stockpile female products (because it will be just MY luck that even during this crisis, I will need monthly female products) and hand sanitizer, because the thought of not having running water in a end of days scenario, to wash my hands, makes me queasy. Not like I will have food to eat, so why bother washing my hands --- except it will make me feel better.
ReplyDeleteI read "The Road" last year by Comac McCarthy. Very intense, poignant, sad.
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