This is the way the world ends

Those are probably four of the most recognized lines in poetic literature, from T. S. Eliot’s poem The Hollow Men, a poem full of darkness, brooding and despair inspired much by post-WWI Europe. Written in 1925, there are so many metaphors in its 98 lines that can be applied to many things, in an allegorical way, that have happened since its creation. Like in any written word, the meaning is in the eye of the beholder and there have been many takes on what Eliot was trying to say. But in the world I’ve lived in since the coming of the atomic bomb, especially living in the Cold-War era, many peoples thoughts immediately go to a nuclear holocaust, applying these lines to the literal end of the world.

There have, however, over the years since the poem was penned been many books written and movies made about an apocalyptic time. And what first comes to my mind is the recent mini-series on TNT, The Last Ship, telling the saga of an American destroyer which was in the Arctic doing research, thus avoiding a global flu-like viral pandemic that killed 80% of the world’s population.  There actually was such a pandemic of flu in 1918-19, the Spanish flu, which killed 5% of the world’s population, between 50-100 million people, making it more deadly than WWI which had roughly 16 million killed. And even now, there is the Ebola outbreak going on in West Africa which is scary in real life, a true story, though I’m sure there will be more novels and movies using this plot line, based on this real-life event.

As a family, we religiously watched The Last Ship, each episode leaving us hanging at the conclusion. Unfortunately, that’s how the 10th and last episode left us. But, the series will continue next season, therefore making it a not-so-mini series. Still, it was an excellent show, well written, exciting and believable. And just as exciting, TNT followed up with another fantastic series whose final episode will be this week: Legends. This series is as good as any Tom Clancy novel, and the character goes hand-in-hand with John Kelly whose undercover “legend” is John Clark in the Clancy novels. Legends is about an undercover FBI covert operative caught up in this terrorist age we live in, which in itself has led to the end of the world as we once knew it, though not in an apocalyptic way…yet.

 Along the same lines of The Last Ship was Steven King’s 1978 novel The Stand, telling a post-apocalyptic tale of the survivors of a flu pandemic, caused by an accidental release of the virus from a government germ warfare lab. As the survivors come together, there’s two groups, good and bad, which then leads to another battle for survival, the righteous against a pandemic of evil. Of all his books, and any other book I’ve read over the years, this is my most favorite of all, ever. And in 1994 there was an 8-part mini-series based on the book, but in no way could it ever come close to telling the same story as the book. But there are now plans of making a full-screen version which I truly look forward to.I’ve always had a fascination with this kind of story. No, I’m not morbid but it does make me wonder about the what ifs. I’ve read many of the books and seen the movies based on the books. Such combinations have been: I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson, movie with Will Smith; The Postman by David Birn, movie with Kevin Costner; The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, movie with Viggo Mortensen; Waterworld, based on an original screenplay by Peter Rader, another Costner starring role; and  Alas Babylon, by Pat Frank, seen on TV’s Playhouse 90 starring Dana Andrews.

And then there’s been great books with no movie, such as 1977’s Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. I always wondered why no movie was ever made of this one. It was about a comet hitting the Earth and the chaotic aftermath, as believable a story as there could be. Sure, there has been comet movies: Deep Impact and Armageddon. Great movies, but…in no way did they touch the power of Lucifer’s Hammer.

Funny thing about the end-of-the-world scenario, all the books and movies about such an event tell the saga of the survivors, which means it’s not truly the end. Except for one, that is, the all-time classic, 1957’s On the Beach, by Neville Shute, made into a 1959 movie with an all-star cast of Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and a young Anthony Perkins. Though it is about survivors, they’re awaiting their ultimate doom as the huge radioactive cloud from a global nuclear war makes it way down to the farthest city in the southern hemisphere, Melbourne, Australia. And the final shot in the movies says it all: newspapers blowing through the empty streets of Melbourne, signifying the end of all humanity. Ironically, I began this post with the final lines of Eliot’s poem The Hollow Men. Nevil Shute got his title from the fourth part of the poem:

But last of all, is the ultimate, no-holds barred real story of Armageddon, told in The Holy Bible:
The Revelation of St. John the Divine. And no writer of fiction could ever come close to telling this one because fiction is just that, fiction. This one is the real deal.

Personally, I’ve always had my own outlook on the end of the world. The end of the world happens 160,000 times a day on planet Earth to all the people who die. Yet, there is approximately 360,000 births a day which leads me to have to use that stale, old cliché adage: life goes on. From Aristotle came the idea that art imitates life. But who knows? Maybe one day life will imitate art, and the end of the world might come in one of the fantastic dramatic ways as has been depicted in so many fictional ways.