How Do You Feel?

In the last few days I finished reading Cormac McCarthy's new novel, The Road, and saw Children of Men at the theater. Both paint very grim pictures of the End of the World and the (potential) extinction of the human species. This follows closely upon having finished The Brief History of the Dead last week--that's about the end of the world and the extinction of the human species, too. Is there something in the air?

The Road tells the story of a father and son, "on the road" in a post-nuclear holocaust America, trying to make it South and to the coast--ostensibly seeking out other people. Of course, all the time there are people seeking them--in order to eat them. I'm talking cannibals. I can't remember the last time I read a book in which cannibalism featured so prominently. It's "Mad Max" without cars, or hope. I'm not sure I can recommend it--it's dark, and unrelenting--but if you "like" that sort of thing, or you like McCarthy, worth a look.

Children of Men is excellent. You should go see it, as soon as possible. You probably know the story. Clive Owen is a depressed, alcoholic bureaucrat in a dystopian future in which the "youngest" human being, "Baby Diego" (a major celebrity), is in his twenties. This "mass" infertility is never explained, but that's not really necessary since it poses a serious problem for the species, not to put too fine a point on it, whatever it's source. Owen's character gets sucked into an effort to save the species, and thus the "world of men (and women)." The last half of the film is basically a chase film, but the premise is so great, the production values so amazing, and the vision of the world so complete and bleak--this one is an instant classic. Maybe one of the best science fiction films ever.

I would actually like to see COM again.

But back to the "serious" question. Is there something about the zeitgeist that explains the end of the world as we know it as a theme in contemporary letters and film?