For The Exclusive,
By: Fatima Zakariya
From the post-war desolation in ‘Hunger Games’ and ‘Divergent’ to the gruesome monstrosities in ‘A Quiet Place’ and ‘The Last of Us’, we are no stranger to post-apocalyptic content as a form of entertainment.
On the contrary, dystopian fiction remains one of the more popular genres among the general masses and the diminishing of its appeal seems very much unlikely.
Whether it is from nuclear wars, raging fungi, solar flares or the breakdown of the earth’s ecosystem due to the negligence of man, the need for humans to predict just how we are to meet our end has been ever present.
However, in recent years there has been a gear shift in this narrative. In earlier works of dystopian fiction, we as a race believed that war would be the ultimate cause for our downfall. This can be seen referenced in a plethora of fictional works, such as George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’ and the hollywood blockbuster ‘The Matrix’. However, with the onset of the pandemic, I believe we have shifted our focus to a new previously unforeseen threat– disease.
Even though we as a race have experienced rampant disease throughout history with the likes of the plague and cholera, the sheer scale of the Covid-19 pandemic revealed just how vulnerable humans can be.
Not to mention, this fact can be seen reflected in recent post-apocalyptic works as well. The newest TV series that took the world by storm ‘The Last of Us’ portrays this very picture. Apart from this, zombie viruses spreading across schools and cities as seen in the popular k-dramas ‘All of us are dead’ and ‘Happiness’ show that this trend transcends the borders of language and nationality. Infection appears to be the new peril we must all be vary of.
Although the concept of ‘zombie viruses’ may not be new, the frequency of such content has peaked ever since the pandemic. We seem to have identified a threat against which our defenses as a race are very limited. The unfathomable volume of viruses, fungi and other microorganisms out there against which we have scarily little information about is enough to make us quiver in our boots.
And this fact has served as fodder to producers and screenwriters across the globe. They say that art is a reflection of reality, and the pandemic has paved the way for us to be more receptive towards disease mediated post-apocalyptic content.
Studios and streaming services worldwide have been able to capitalize on our fear of the unknown. They allow us to peer through a window into our possible future, where the world is left in shambles due to some unknown disease we failed to overcome.
They make us question our capability as humans to keep such threats at bay.
And they implore us to re-evaluate the systems we have in place to govern ourselves should such an ordeal take place. With the initial panic and abysmal handling of the pandemic during its early days, it only further highlights how shortcoming we are in the face of adversity.
Therefore the pandemic has in some way or form shaped the kind of content we consume today.
The experience of living through such a monumental time in history has forced us to rethink how we as humans are equipped to deal with certain life changing events.
If we are indeed able to govern ourselves in an efficient manner or would chaos ensue.
While there may be no concrete way to know whether the human race would meet its end due to a mind altering fungi or a nuclear war, there is no doubt that it is our experiences over time that shape our thoughts and ultimately dictate our actions as well.
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