Apocalypse, in a Funny Way

By Sophia Qamar, TMO

Recently, the current younger population including myself has been strongly attracted (might I even say obsessed) with post-apocalyptic settings, whether they are in novels, TV shows, or movies. Now I think it was around the time I followed Brad Pitt into his World War Z drama after having read the Maze Runner for the ninth time this year that I realized I may have a teensy obsession with this specific genre. I know this may just be the nerd coming out of me, but I really have succumbed into this fictional sci-fi nonsense to such a degree that I believe one of these apocalyptic events will occur.

This list is a mostly a reminder to me that I should probably prepare for dystopia, but I hope you get a kick out of my insanity just as my mother did when she read this.

1.    Zombies- It’s going to happen. Lately, there has been a large spike of zombie set movies and books. That surely can’t be coincidence. If it really were up to my imagination, I would say something about the government covering up cases of the Walking Dead roaming around graveyards—note: I should probably go check out a graveyard.

Here’s some fiction that may have you on the same boat that I am in:

    -World War Z (read the book first)
– The Walking Dead (TV Show)
– Warm Bodies (Movie)
– I am Legend (Movie)
– The Forest of Hands and Teeth (trilogy books)

(It’s about time every household should get this just in case the Walking Dead come roaming about)

2.    Aliens- They’re going to come down eventually, so I think it’s about time we prepare for green, translucent bodies screwing up our society. By prepare, I mean we should invent ray guns and battle spaceships before they do. I’m sure if we build a valid case to NASA, they’ll join in with the cause. Of course if the aliens are friendly, I’m sure we can share the planet…right?

Or perhaps the government does already know, and they’re just hiding away these other planet beings to keep from having a social outcry. What if they were living among us right now?
Don’t laugh yet, here are some movies/TV Shows/Books including aliens that might sway your opinion:

-Starcrossed (TV Show)
-Star Wars (movies)
-Star Trek (TV Show/movie)
-Predator (movie)
-Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout (book)

3.    Global Warming on Steroids- Now we all accept human over consumption and over production of wastes. Whether you believe in global warming or not is irrelevant in the case of fictional stories, and we really have been getting a lot of stories based on this topic. To me, because I am very gullible and want to keep my climate away from getting anywhere near the loss of oxygen, or heating up so bad, we can’t go outside anymore.

In any case, here’s some fiction that might give the unaware awareness, and the aware amusement:

–    The Maze Runner (Trilogy books/soon to be movie)
–    The Hunger Games (Trilogy books)
–    Snowpiercer (movie)

4.    Technology on Steroids- In the 21st century, our daily life is filled with technology that we can’t live without. From here, I expect technology to become even more complex that would require us to be even more dependant until suddenly we realize that we’re part robot and nothing is really human anymore. Well that may be an over exaggeration, but the dependency of technology may lead to other climatic changes, like toxic wastes and what not.

So here are some amusing examples that’ll have you thinking twice about your iphone.

-Almost Human (TV Show)
-Hunger Games
-1984 by George Orwell (Book)

5.    Evolution- Now I know in Islam, we don’t believe in monkeys transforming into People (to put it simply), but evolution in a sense of adapting into our environments is very well true. Now what if this adaptation changed drastically because our environment changed drastically. Soon the idea of “natural selection” will come into play and the human race as we know it won’t exist. From the books I’ve read, human evolution is the fastest case to dystopia. Here are my references so you can agree too:

-Divergent (trilogy books and movies)
-All the Superhero comics, TV shows, and movies
-Lucy (Movie)

So by the end of this, you have realized one of two things: either I’m crazy, or you should go check some of this post-apocalyptic genre that will turn you into me.

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