Apocalypse, Later

We don’t always celebrate the anniversaries of non-events, but here at KtB we thought we’d call your attention to the fact that we have now survived Harold Camping’s non-end-of-the-world, predicted for May 21, 2011, for exactly three years. Congratulations!

The infamously inaccurate Family Radio pastor’s apocalypse was fascinating for Camping’s utter conviction in its reality, despite his previous failures to correctly predict the day and time of the end of the world based on complex Biblical numerological techniques. In our Apocalypse Week 2011 coverage, we interviewed Camping himself, and profiled his communications director (talk about your “dead-end” job).

And now Zeke Piestrup, the self-described “only dude hangin’ with Harold daily for the two weeks leading up to the non-Rapture” in his capacity as Family Radio videographer, has released a fascinating documentary film about the experience–and, more to the point for KtBniks, about the ongoing appeal of  the end of the world in general. Apocalypse Later: Harold Camping Vs. The End of The World is now available on iTunes, and you can check out the trailer below. Sit back, enjoy, and appreciate the ongoing world.

Brook Wilensky-Lanford is the author of Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden (Grove Press, 2011). An editor of Killing the Buddha, she lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Follow Brook on Twitter: @modmyth