End of the World Religions

I've been reading too much Philip K. Dick lately, and I've got religion on the brain. There is a short story called "The Little Black Box" where he first introduced Mercerism and the empathy box. I'm not sure if it is supposed to be the same world that Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? takes place in, but either way it's worth reading. In my mind, Mercerism is much more palatable than some of the gnostic ideas he put together in Valis et al. The pre-nuclear war Mercerism in "The Little Black Box" seems more noble than what we see of it in DADES, and that may be because things have yet to fall apart. In an "end of the world" scenario, I'd imagine that there would be a huge upswing in religious beliefs, mainly in traditional, fundamentalist beliefs. Of course, when the White Rider doesn't show up and the initial shock wears off, there will be a secular resurgence and the development of new belief systems (either created whole-cloth or amalgams).

I'm trying to think of examples of religions in a post-apocalyptic settings, and am having some trouble. I know that in A Canticle for Leibowitz, the Catholic Church has become a major power in the U.S. by reverting to a Medieval way of operating. There's an Orson Scott Card short story where the Mormon Church has done essentially the same thing. World War Z has the Orthodox Church take on the role of killing those infected to prevent the sin of suicide from being committed. But other than those examples (and Mercerism - after all, DADES takes place in a world that is slowly dying from radiation poisoning), I'm having trouble.

Well, I know what my next research project will be: Look for more examples of religious mutations. Just as societies would have to adapt and change, religions would too.

Edit: Duh. I forgot The Book of Dave, which, once you get the hang of the modified Cockney slang, is a fantastic read. The religion of Dave starts out fairly innocuous, but gets pretty fucked the more you learn about it.

Falling lights are fading... (updated)

Apparently, Dr. Suess wrote The Cat in the Hat using around 240 first grade level words. Tonight I'll be working on doing the same, only about the post-apocalypse.

I know it's a bad idea, but that's why I'm going to do it.

---
Here's what I scribbled down before I passed out.

The Night Is Not Nice

My name is Alex. I have a big brother who is named Sam.
We were in our house, the night the animals came.
It was right after that rain quit and the air went bad.
And for a week we hadn't seen our mom or dad.
The animals knocked on our door, and said they were going to have some fun with us.
My brother said "No!"
The animals kicked the door.
Again and again, they kicked the door.
And soon it came down.
My brother said to me, "You go that way, and I'll go this way.
Go to the school. 'I can always help,' that's what Teacher used to say."
I ran and ran and ran, and made it to the school.
But the animals saw me and came to school, too.
I went to Teacher's room. She had a boy and a girl with her.
Teacher saw me, and said, "Who are you?"
"I am Sam's little brother," I said.
"Come in, come in," she said as she pulled me in.
"But we need to go, the animals are coming."

----
Obviously it'd be nice to have more descriptive words. I'm working with only about 150, whereas Suess had about 500 to work with. I went with the first decent word last I could find, and so I know I'm missing some necessary words (there's no "I" or "a" or "too," which, as sight words, count). I'll raid a few books for words and see what I can get put together.

Hows and Whys

Since it's Sunday, here's a word from the scriptures:

My eyes fail from weeping,
I am in torment within,
my heart is poured out on the ground
because my people are destroyed,
because children and infants faint
in the streets of the city.

They say to their mothers,
"Where is bread and wine?"
as they faint like wounded men
in the streets of the city,
as their lives ebb away
in their mothers' arms.

Lamentations 2:11-12

Section of The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. Right wing, top third shown.

Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot.

Warren Ellis' Global Frequency volume 2.

Things are taking shape. Figured out the "how" and "why." Now to start putting the pieces together.

Music from the End of the World

So apparently there is a (very, very) small trend on youtube to take post-rock songs by the likes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and translate them to songs that can be played on an acoustic guitar. Granted, some of the magnificence is lost, but its good to know in the event of an apocalypse, either zombie or other, I'll still have a chance to see some of my favorite songs preformed live.

My favorite so far is Blaise Bailey Finnegan III by Gihm. Others include a decent rendering of the Sad Mafioso section of East Hastings and Moya.

A nice post-apocalyptic song from The Decemberists.

Note to self: invent new genre of music, called post-apocalypse rock, then decide if that means only using instruments that would be readily available in an end-of-the-world scenario or just being concerned with tone/lyrical content. Right now I'm thinking it'd be like post-rock, only bleaker, with way more homemade kazoo solos. Paper towel tubes, wax paper, and rubber bands for the win!

Displacement

I've been thinking a lot about moving lately. We'll see what comes of it.

People fleeing Manhattan.

A resource for and about Displaced People.

Sanctuary Cities. I know I've posted this before, but I really like it.


Ravenstein's 5 Laws of Human Migration.

1. every migration flow generates a return or countermigration.
2. the majority of migrants move a short distance.
3. migrants who move longer distances tend to choose big-city destinations
4. urban residents are less migratory than inhabitants of rural areas.
5. families are less likely to make international moves than young adults.

Roma Anthem -

I went, I went on long roads
I met happy Roma
O Roma where do you come from,
With tents on happy roads?

O Roma, O brothers

I once had a great family,
The Black Legion murdered them
Come with me Roma from all the world
For the Roma roads have opened
Now is the time, rise up Roma now,
We will rise high if we act

O Roma, O brothers

Mono - Follow the Map

End of the World/news

Just got my laptop back from the shop, and the desktop should be returned soon. Some of the old NANAWRIMO stuff might still exist, and if it does, I'll throw it up here. Beyond that, I'm thinking about some new projects that might better fit my time constraints. If nothing else, I'll return to using it as a research dump.


From Glucozze after the election of Mr. Sarkozy.

Failed State Index.

End of the World: The Science and Ethics of Human Extinction, by John Leslie

Songs for the End of the World.

There is a short story called "The End of the World As We Know It" by Dale Bailey in the collection Wastelands. It turns the end to the world scenario on it's head, by making the point that every minute of every day, someone's world is ending. I highly recommend it.

Elsiane - Vaporous