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Your week in doom
March 23, 2007

Lots of bad things appearing on the horizon as 2012 investigation continues. Current reading is Apocalypse 2012 by Lawrence E. Joseph (Morgan Road), a scientific look at the (very real) possibility of global catastrophe in 2012. Joseph comes up with a whole slew of unprecedented solar, astral and geophysical phenomena set to come down at about that time -- if not sooner. The yellowstone supervolcano, for instance, is set to pop any day, and when it goes (with the force of "1,000 Hiroshima-style atomic bombs -- per second") it'll take millions of North Americans with it. On top of that, the sun's surface is more active than it's been in the past 11,000 years, and it's only going to get more so (a particularly nasty series of solar storms in 2005 coincided exactly with hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Stan). And on top of that, the earth's protective magnetic field is falling apart.

Yeah, the whole book is like that.

So to break it up a bit I need me some fiction. Apocalypse fiction. Recent reads include:

- Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet (Oppenheimer & 2 other fathers of the atomic bomb get resurrected in 2003 U.S., get adopted by a youngish couple; originally from Soft Skull; it's great)
- Conqueror Worms by Brian Keene (senior citizens are menaced by giant annelids; good not great, with definite appeal for Lovecraft geeks)
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy (doye, it's great)
- The Pesthouse by Jim Crace (just started; so far so good)

The most recent fiction that's really stuck with me, though, is Tom McCarthy's debut novel, Remainder. I'd go so far as to say it's haunting me.

Remainder is a very weird, almost category-defying book --  Jonathan Lethem, former king of strange, calls it "stunningly strange," and NY Times reviewer Liesl Schillinger compares it to Sartre's Nausea. But it's not on this list because it's post-apocalyptic -- it's more like postmodern-apocalyptic, a Saussurean crisis of reality and perception told through the voice of a British man who, after an industrial accident, ends up with brain damage and an 8.5 million-pound settlement. With the money, he decides to recreate his foggy memories down to the very last detail -- including the people in them, played by "reenactors." The spiral of events that follow is hard to describe, and would probably ruin the fun of the book -- and it is fun, despite my Saussure reference. It's also disturbing, uncomfortable and quite affecting. Like I said: haunting.

So I recommend you check it out. The sooner, the better.

 

Posted by Marc Schultz on March 23, 2007 | Comments (0)