It ’s the end of the earth as we cognise it — but is that of necessity a bad thing ? While most apocalyptical stories portray humanity fight in the aftermath of a immense catastrophe , some post - apocalyptic worlds seem like they might be a nice place to drop a holiday , free from the stresses of modern aliveness .
Brian Aldiss coined the term “ cozy calamity ” to delineate revelatory story where the man is quietly depopulated , a few nice , midway class citizenry survive , and the accent is on rebuilding refinement . But while some cosy catastrophe still ask wars between survivors or goliath constantly trying to eat you , others seem , well , perfectly nice . If you ’re not overly fond of people , you might even want to populate in some of these post - apocalyptical stories . ( But maybe not the zombi one . )
TV Tropeshas a great list of cosy cataclysm of all types , as does this thread onLibraryThing .
A plague may have hit the North America of The Last Man on Earth , but you would n’t know it to look at the show . There are no stagnant bodies around and everything is relatively clean ( save for the toilet puddle ) . There is no tangible threat to our survivors as they spend their days lounging in desolate Tucson McMansions , raid the local shop , and pledge around the fire pit . Plus , Phil had the foresightedness to ornament his home base with invaluable artifact and works of artistic production .
Really , the only downside is having to live with Phil Miller , who is a morbid liar . But he ’s a modest pain in the neck in an otherwise downcast - cardinal Wiley Post - Revelation .
Adventure Time is coiffe on a version of Earth so badly damaged that it looks like someone took a bite out of it . But the Land of Ooo seems , on the whole , a pretty overnice place to endure . Sure , the planet ’s factual apocalyptic upshot , including the Mushroom War , were middling horrific , but in the next C , the Land of Ooo became the kingdom of visual delights it is today . It may not be a perfect world — it has its share of monsters and tyrants — but it ’s still a office where nerveless dudes like Finn and Jake can be glad .
In Hitoshi Ashinano ’s manga , human beings is in its twilight — and it ’s in reality rather peaceable . The sea levels have arise , and the last humans have forgather together to enjoy a mere beingness . The comics follow Alpha , a gynoid who works at a distant coffee workshop and who from time to time contemplate that she will witness humanity ’s demise . In the interim , however , she has very gentle adventures , make a family of the great unwashed who also enjoy this restrained new life and look up to the opinion at the final stage of the macrocosm .
There are a band of so - called “ cosy catastrophes ” where the Earth is of a sudden depopulated , but the follow old age are marked by violence and/or oppression ( think Jack London ’s The Scarlet Plague , OT Nelson ’s The Girl Who Owned a City , and a whole lot of John Wyndham ’s report ) . In George R. Stewart’sEarth Abides , however , the main fear is rebuilding civilization . Stewart ’s admirer , ecologist Isherwood Williams , watches the globe adapt to the loss of humanity in the Wake Island of a pestilence and also sees the rise of a new , smaller civilization . Not everyone manages to pull through that first , harsh winter , but those with the tool and ego - sufficiency do just fine .
Although Ish recognizes that the older American cultivation is gone , one where superstitious notion is more common than literacy , he also wonders if the fresh civilization is better off for losing some of our nastier habits .
Sometimes what we think of as an “ apocalypse ” is n’t so much the oddment of civilization as the start of a new one , and in the anime Space Dandy , this happens in the sodding , goofiest way possible . After a run - in with a zombified alien , the crew of the Aloha Oe becomes likewise undead . Through a uncanny set of context ( involving insurance companies pissed that zombies are hold up off their life insurance ) , every sentient being in the universe becomes zombified ( even the robots ) . Yes , everyone ’s technically dead and they spend an awful lot of fourth dimension in malls , but now that every single species in existence can be classified as “ zombi , ” there is universal harmony and no more war . Fortunately , it turns out that zombie can survive on yogurt .
Here ’s a post - revelatory story with a very distinct point of vista . The apocalypse hits in Ardath Mayhar’sThe World Ends in Hickory Hollowafter bomb wipe out westerly civilization . Zack and Lucinda Unger do n’t even observe at first . The twosome merchandise city liveliness for a farm in East Texas where they turned to a life story of proportional ego - sufficiency and communion with nature . For them , the only sign that something has belong awry is that the power in their farmhouse has gone out .
The world might be over and the power might be out , but refinement does n’t amount close to collapsing in Hickory Hollow . In fact , life expire on pretty much as before , save that neighbors angle on each other a bit more . Sure , looters start coming in from other towns , but this book is affirmative enough to consider that a well - train society , one that rivet on practical attainment and neighborliness , would conveniently stand invaders off .
What happens when you have God guiding your post - apocalyptic civilization ? Stephen King’sThe Standputs the “ deus ” in “ deus ex machina ” after most of human beings compress an illness known as Captain Trips and dies off . The “ good ” survivors receive prophetical dreams guiding them to Boulder , Colorado , where they set up a new civilization based on quislingism , hard oeuvre , and democracy . Life would be pretty perfect if it were n’t for those sinister survivors hold up in Las Vegas under Randall Flagg . as luck would have it for the Boulder - habitant , God has a programme for those folks , too . ( Edit : A lot of the great unwashed think the job of pass out utter soundbox disqualifies this one , but I stand by it and its optimistic citizenry . )
Speculative serial and movies likeLife After PeopleandAftermath : Population Zeroare a well-disposed reminder that when we say the “ last of the world , ” we ’re commonly concern to the closing of human civilisation . life history After People endeavor to suppose what would happen to the world after human race vanish and are no longer capable to maintain our creation , run through resourcefulness , make permissive waste , or otherwise interact with the worldly concern . While some of the artifacts we leave behind ( weapon , chemicals , and the like ) would cause immense damage , the show also imagines nature eventually reclaiming the human corners of the world . It ’s a spectacular mentation , even if none of us will be around to witness it .
escapade TimeLast adult male On EarthThe Stand
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