apocalypse
Apocalyptabuse, or How to Survive “The End”
Call this fantasized thinking apocalyptabuse: the demoralizing mythic-psychic warfare that deprives people of hope, makes us fear that The End is near, and thereby cuts off our aspirations of any earthly life to come.
It’s the End and Nothing Feels Fine
I don’t use the word “apocalypse” or “apocalyptic” lightly. I’m a scholar of bad endings. And the pandemic that we face right now feels like it could be a very bad ending.
KtB Wants You…To Write About the Eclipse
The total solar eclipse passing over the continental U.S. this August 21st is the first to do so in 99 years, but American eclipse stories go back much farther than that. It was a “Dark Day” in the spring of 1780 that apparently convinced Shaker leader Mother Ann Lee to “open” her revelation to new…
Goodbye, Tim LaHaye
When I first encountered Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ Left Behind (1995), I was sitting on the a sage-colored corduroy coach at my mom’s house. Left Behind rested on a nearby table. It was 1998. I was in my first year of college and already determined to take courses on world religions. My determination proved…
Zombies and Guns
When did a movie monster become a reason for purchasing weapons? An excerpt from The Zombies Are Coming.
Look For The Signs
The Messengers is another supernatural mystery from a network, the CW, known for vampires, zombies, demons, angels, and other monsters that go bump in the night. I watched the first two episodes with the hope that maybe this show would mimic Supernatural, my long-time favorite that emphasizes moral ambiguity, the peril of good intentions, and…
Kingsman: The One-Percent Apocalypse
I went to watch Kingsman: The Secret Service the day after Valentine’s Day. My husband and I were eager to see a movie, any movie really, that didn’t involve talking animals. The choices were limited for those us who refuse to engage Fifty Shades of Grey, so we settled upon Kingsman because it was the…
Breaking: God is Not a Wizard
Pope Francis recently said that, regarding the Big Bang, there’s no conflict behind that concept and faith in God. He went on to say “when we read about creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so.”…
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,…
It’s All Fun and Games Until Odin Gets Eaten by a Wolf
You may have seen the links going around. Certainly I have, though I guess I’m an obvious target. “Vikings of the World Unite: The Apocalypse is Upon Us.” “Viking apocalypse: End of the world predicted to happen on Saturday (but don’t cancel your weekend plans yet.)” Word on the street is that Ragnarök is scheduled…
Occupy, from the Grave
A few weeks ago, Atchu was announced dead. disturbing to even mention someone’s passing, so afraid we are of the Reaper. like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obama or any other who has crossed the river of death, i am dead as fuck. Mofos-who-don’t-get-metaphors-or-art:: alex is fine:: his chubby body lingers on. Atchu on the other hand, committed…
Only the End of the World Again
I don’t think there’s much point in reiterating the genesis of this post; if you’re reading Killing the Buddha, I’m guessing that you’re exposed to the same media universe as the rest of us, and you’re aware that a significant portion of the population believes a significant portion of the population believes the world is…
The End of Macha
With the end of the world approaching, I will be snuggling up somewhere beneath a mosquito net, floating down a river through the mostly still-wild and mysterious Bolivian Amazon. I look forward to staring up at the stars, trying to piece together exactly what the Mayans had in mind (or didn’t—they may have just gotten…
Apocalypse Week…Again
Here at Killing the Buddha, we’ve been all over the apocalypse for a long time. The apocalypse is kind of like Christmas: it threatens to happen just about every year, or then maybe it does, or doesn’t, and anyway life goes on. As the apparently Mormon-inspired sci-fi show Battlestar Galactica likes to say “All of…
The GOP attack on Dems Jerusalem platform isn’t about the Jews…
It’s about Christians. In case you missed it, the Democratic Party dropped its longstanding insistence that Jerusalem is and will be the capital of Israel, despite the fact that most of the world doesn’t recognize it as such. Why not? Oh, the fear of setting off a never-ending, apocalyptic war. But for some of us,…
A Kinder, Gentler Apocalypse
Remember all the world-ending-on-May-21 hype earlier this year? Apparently God was playing more of his “I’m gonna pretend to high-five you, then pull my hand away at the last minute and say ‘Psych!’” games with all of us. Harold Camping of Family Radio was admittedly “flabbergasted” when it didn’t happen as planned. But lo! It has…