The Lotus Eaters

A pocalypses are a sticky business. On the Beach, the movie made from Nevil Shute’s novel, proves that however easy the scientists make it for man to destroy himself, it is just as difficult as it ever was to imagine the way the world ends. Few artists possess the literal finesse needed to finish the world.

Successful apocalyptic literature appeals to symbols of man’s critical nature, to the clash of absolutes. In the modern world we have learned to write of man’s last tryst with fate as something anti-climactic. Once society is separated into individual souls—into mysterious units subject to an ultimate test and judgment—the modern prophet can no longer “improve social conditions.” The last moral possibilities of man disappear for the Liberal when “the family of man” is broken into its irreducible members.

GW

About the Author

Garry Wills

Featured Tags

A pocalypses are a sticky business. On the Beach, the movie made from Nevil Shute’s novel, proves that however easy the scientists make it for man to destroy himself, it is just as difficult as it ever was to imagine the way the world ends. Few artists possess the literal finesse needed to finish the world.

Successful apocalyptic literature appeals to symbols of man’s critical nature, to the clash of absolutes. In the modern world we have learned to write of man’s last tryst with fate as something anti-climactic. Once society is separated into individual souls—into mysterious units subject to an ultimate test and judgment—the modern prophet can no longer “improve social conditions.” The last moral possibilities of man disappear for the Liberal when “the family of man” is broken into its irreducible members.