The post-apocalyptic world has been one of the most popular settings of speculative fiction since the middle of the 20th Century. To be certain, there were several examples of such fiction from earlier, perhaps the first of such being The Last Man by Mary Shelly published in 1826, which tells of a plague that reduced the world’s (Europe’s) population to a fraction of it’s former number, and ensuing descent of society into chaos.
The introduction of the atomic bomb at the end of World War Two saw a massive explosion of short stories, novels, and films about a world devastated by war, plague (artificial or natural), and/or other major catastrophe. Deadly pandemics have been a reality of every historical era and thus served as the inspiration for Shelly’s novel. The Cold War brought the great possibility of massive devastation by nuclear weapons. Then, starting in the 1990’s the possibilities of climate change were added to the list of causes for calamity for humanity that could spell the end of the technological progress and liberal democracy.
A key element of the post-apocalyptic setting is that much if not all the technological progress achieved since the industrial revolution has been undone via some sort of massive catastrophe that has also wiped out anywhere from a significant fraction to the vast majority of the Earth’s population.
All humans, even for the inhabitants of what were once the most technologically advanced nations have been reduced to some sort of pre-industrial existence. In some stories, like Mad Max, automobiles still exist, but they, and especially the petroleum needed to fuel them, have become incredibly valuable. They are no longer mundane commodities people take for granted, but invaluable, almost sacred items that the average man is ready to kill for. Post-apocalyptic stories are a commentary on the volatility of modern life, our dependence on electricity, food, water and all consumer goods that travel hundreds if not thousands of miles to reach us. This commentary on our world’s appetite for the non-essential is sometimes even direct as in Interstellar, which takes place in a future that isn’t quite post-apocalyptic, but seems to be right on the brink of the total breakdown of industrial civilization, food and energy sources are scarce. Donald, who looks to be in his 60’s or older is the father-in-law of the film’s astronaut hero, Cooper, comments on the world he grew up in, which can be presumed to be the world of now, or 2014, when the film was released.
When I was a kid, it seemed like they made something new every day. Some gadget or idea, like every day was Christmas. But six billion people, just imagine that. And every last one of them trying to have it all.
Stories about the end of the world, the process by which the world ends, have been around since the earliest recorded myths, such as Ragnarok from Norse Myth and The Book of Revelation from The Bible, but those tales focus strongly on battles between superhuman forces, the punishment of the wicked and the reward of the righteous. In both Ragnarok and Revelation, a new, better world emerges after the old, corrupt one has been destroyed.
In the most common post-apocalyptic settings of today’s fiction, everyone is suffering from the condition of the world. Even if one or a minority of characters (usually the bad guys) have access to rare and/or high tech resources that make their life far more pleasant than the average pleb, they are usually still living below the standard of what would be considered “luxury” in the pre-catastrophe world, a prime example of this being the feudal “Holnists” of David Brin’s The Postman novel. Even when characters do enjoy a pre-catastrophe standard of living, their power and freedom are severely limited compared to pre-catastrophe elites, a prime example of this being the villainous elites of 2005’s The Land of the Dead.
Science Fiction wasn’t always so gloomy. The “Golden Age” of science fiction which began in 1938 and lasted until 1946 to some time in the 1950’s depending on your source, saw science fiction do a bit of maturing from the previous “Pulp Era” of the 1920’s and 1930’s (think Buck Rogers).
According to historian Adam Roberts, “The phrase “golden age” valorizes a particular sort of writing: “Hard SF”, linear narratives, heroes solving problems or countering threats in a space opera or technological adventure idiom.”
“The phrase “golden age” valorizes a particular sort of writing: “Hard SF”, linear narratives, heroes solving problems or countering threats in a space opera or technological adventure idiom.” – Adam Roberts
Science fiction author, editor, and critic Algis Budrys commented on “the recurrent strain in “Golden Age” science fiction of the 1940’s – the implication that sheer technological accomplishment would solve all the problems, hooray, and that all the problems were what they seemed to be on the surface.”
“the recurrent strain in “Golden Age” science fiction of the 1940’s – the implication that sheer technological accomplishment would solve all the problems, hooray, and that all the problems were what they seemed to be on the surface.” -Algis Budrys
Notable works of The Golden Age of science fiction include Isaac Asimov’s short story “Runaround” that established his Three Laws of Robotics, Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers which saw all of humanity united in a single world government (which some have described as fascist) in defense against hostile aliens. Though it didn’t come until the early to mid-1960’s, the three (and there were only three) seasons of Star Trek TOS could arguably fit the category of the Golden Age of science fiction with its strong theme of techno-optimism.
Many have noted the gradual change from the “Golden Age” of science fiction (in which the future is usually a wonderful place of technological miracles with a smattering of accidents and assholes to make things interesting) to what some now call the “Dark Age” (in which post-apocalyptic and generally undesirable futures reign supreme.) Why did the scorched wastelands and brutal combat of Mad Max overtake the spotless starships and rational problem solving of Star Trek?
It is worth noting that when science fiction was more optimistic, it’s audience was mainly teenage and younger boys. Perhaps the most famous comment on the above mentioned “Golden Age of Science Fiction” comes from Peter Graham who said, “The Golden Age of Science Fiction is 12.” It wasn’t seen as something any self-respecting adult would read, much less discuss. It was seen as synonymous with comic books and b-movies. Early in his career, Heinlein wrote many science fiction stories for Boy’s Life the official magazine of the United States Boy Scouts. He also wrote several science fiction novels whose target audience was teenage boys. Starship Troopers itself was originally written to be such a novel but his publisher didn’t think it was age appropriate. This led Heinlein publishing Starship Troopers for adults which launched his career as “serious” science fiction writer and he was among the first science fiction writers of his era to be respected by the American literary community.
The now widely known and beloved Phillip K Dick is best known for his science fiction, but he made great efforts during his life to escape the “sci-fi ghetto” by writing realistic fiction novels. He spent much of his writing career in obscurity and at or near poverty and wanted to make more money by reaching a wider audience as well as to be respected by the elite literary community. However, his realistic fiction novels were never nearly as popular as his science fiction and are even regarded by many of his fans (myself included) as his least impressive work.
Here is my theory about science fiction’s change from the final frontier of Star Trek to the bloody highways of Mad Max, from the 25th Century of Buck Rogers to the desert of the real of The Matrix.
The optimistic future appeals to the idealism of a child who cannot help but see hope in the future. Research has confirmed that children, especially under eight, are significantly more optimistic than any other group age group. This optimism can and often does fade rapidly as a child enters adolescence. But overall, on average, even teenagers score higher for resiliency than legal adults.
Most children, even many who suffer poverty, neglect, abuse, and other misfortunes, are at least somewhat aware of how their lives change and often improve, however moderately, as they get closer to adulthood. Their bodies become bigger, they become stronger, more intelligent, and are better able to take care of themselves, make their own choices, etc.
For many children, my boyhood self included, this causes great optimism about the prospect of adulthood. Life gets easier in some ways as you get bigger. You become more powerful. You seem to be much more in charge of your own life. Subconsciously, without thinking about it, it seems that the farther along your life goes, the better things will become in the years leading up to your legal adulthood.
This narrative of adversity being overcome and improved fortunes occurring as children mature into adults is widespread in pop culture. Hollywood has a tradition of films about high school losers (boys mainly) who somehow become popular and happy in their mid-teens (The New Guy) and many more films about such social outcasts who attend university and find success with women, a previously unknown or unappreciated talent, and/or social adoration (Revenge of the Nerds.)
When you finally reach adulthood and move away from home it is usually much different than how you idealized it when you were fourteen. There is strong sense of disillusion. You become aware of limitations you were not previously aware of. The literal cost of living and all that is entailed in holding down a job that actually pays the bills being a prime example. The fantasies about what you could do and be as an independent adult hit brick walls. Waiting to be 18, to reach adulthood, feels like something that takes forever according to many young people.
Especially if you had strict parents. From an early age, you project all manner of fantasies about how your life will be better as an adult. Not just grandiose ones either. For small things, like being able to stay out as late as you want, travel to different countries, or even just other regions of your own, move to the big city and be in the middle of it all instead of your sad sorry small town or suburb. You crave that freedom from your early teens and it seems as though 18 will never come.
Then you reach adulthood and it isn’t all that your imagination or the media made it out to be. A life and indeed a world, that once seem like fertile ground for fulfilling so many of your desires can seem like a desert. The paradise on the horizon is reached and found to have been a mirage all along.
This is the world of the post-apocalyptic. The promise of a bright, utopian future, always just over the horizon, that came with continually technological progress has been broken, usually by that progress itself in the form of nuclear devastation, a man-made virus, depletion of natural resources, etc.
In some settings, this desolation is hostile enough all on its own. In others, like The Terminator or Walking Dead franchises, you’ve got hostile machines, and zombies respectively, though even those are ultimately man-made, Frankenstein creations of course.
Science fiction “matured” as a genre by tackling darker themes, facing, embracing the tragic. Science fiction took a turn for the darker by means other than just the post-apocalyptic, but those other avenues are beyond the scope of this piece. The wasteland represents scarcity, chaos, and here, especially, depression.
This is representative of coming of age, it is maturation and depression projected out onto the whole of the external world, the landscape. Depression, for many, comes with growing up, the limitations of adult life in the face of the hopes and dreams you projected onto it as a child. Entering this wasteland represents growing up as well as depression itself. A ruined landscape.