KtBlog
Crashing the Mayans’ Big Date
Most of us know, one should hope, that the media’s portrayal of 2012 is essentially baseless. What is more interesting, though, is the way that the Mayan date of 2012 has been forcibly grafted onto Western understandings of the ages of man and Judeo-Christian beliefs about the end of the world. The pop phenomenon surrounding…
Why Is the End of the World Such a Big Deal?
I’ve got a new essay today in Obit that takes the new 2012 movie as an occasion for a reflection on why folks are always so eager to proclaim the end of the world: “You Broke It, You Bought It.” Though the word “apocalypse” now is usually taken to mean a world-ending calamity, the original…
Times Reports: Crazy People Believe in 2012
In the Times yesterday, Dennis Overbye had an essay telling the paper’s more apocalyptically-inclined readers to continue paying their mortgages. We have nothing to fear, Overbye insists; 2012 will only be remembered as the title of Roland Emmerich’s movie. Overbye doesn’t demonize the 2012ologists. He shares their fascination with Doomsday. “I have been in love…
Oh Mayan!
We just heard from Corey Pein out in Santa Fe, who tells us about his excellent new Buddha-killing article in the Santa Fe Reporter about some of the key 2012ologists, including John Major Jenkins, who our own Andrew Marantz
Why 2012?
With the subject line “2012,” Wendy Bradley wrote, regarding our present series on the subject: What a waste of time, attention, and resources. How come? XOW I suppose she’s got a point. 2012 is a terrible movie, and the whole phenomenon is more than a bit ridiculous. But maybe I can explain a little bit…
In Honor of 2012
Whoever rules the apocalypse rules the world. That’s why, in celebration of the release of the disaster flick 2012 today, Friday the 13th, we’ll be publishing a series of articles about the 2012 phenomenon—a real, live, ancient apocalypticism for our time. New Agers, Mayan enthusiasts, climatologists, environmentalists, and NASA have all teamed up to give…