Anybody Else Read Rawles New Book, Yet?

[Coffee]

I haven't seen it.  As a personal policy, I avoid going to see movies if I know ahead of time that they're sad and depressing.  That's not what I want for my $11 and 2 hours.  I can get enough of that, for free.

[MediumTex]

Did anyone see the movie, "The Road?"  Is it decent?  I'm a fan of Viggo Mortenson, and thought it looked interesting, but very depressing.

The movie was good, but of course not nearly as good as the book.  Mortenson played the role well, and he seemed to understand what the character was all about.

The book is really outstanding.  It depicts hunger, fear, and social deterioration with great insight.  There is nothing cartoonish about the zombies in "The Road"--they are just regular people who have missed too many meals and lost too much structure in their lives to remember the important differences between human beings and the rest of the animal world.

[moda0306]

I tend to agree. A few sad/depressing movies that I also thought were somwhere between good and absolutely phenominal:

Children of Men: 9.5/10

Gone Baby Gone: 9.5/10

Sideways: 8/10

Crash: 9/10

American History X: 9/10

[MediumTex]

I tend to agree. A few sad/depressing movies that I also thought were somwhere between good and absolutely phenominal:

Children of Men: 9.5/10

Gone Baby Gone: 9.5/10

Sideways: 8/10

Crash: 9/10

American History X: 9/10

Every time I watch "Easy Rider" I tear up at the end.  People sometimes think this is funny, but I just think that means they don't understand what the movie is all about.

[Coffee]

I tend to agree. A few sad/depressing movies that I also thought were somwhere between good and absolutely phenominal:

Children of Men: 9.5/10

Gone Baby Gone: 9.5/10

Sideways: 8/10

Crash: 9/10

American History X: 9/10

Every time I watch "Easy Rider" I tear up at the end.  People sometimes think this is funny, but I just think that means they don't understand what the movie is all about.

Enlighten me: Is it a metaphor for the end of youthful innocence?  I can barely remember the movie, except for that he gets shot at the end, right?

[Coffee]

Or is it: "Movie that include chaps, for $100 Alex?"

[MediumTex]

I tend to agree. A few sad/depressing movies that I also thought were somwhere between good and absolutely phenominal:

Children of Men: 9.5/10

Gone Baby Gone: 9.5/10

Sideways: 8/10

Crash: 9/10

American History X: 9/10

Every time I watch "Easy Rider" I tear up at the end.  People sometimes think this is funny, but I just think that means they don't understand what the movie is all about.

Enlighten me: Is it a metaphor for the end of youthful innocence?  I can barely remember the movie, except for that he gets shot at the end, right?

They both got shot at the end.

I view Dennis Hooper and Peter Fonda as symbolic of the honest desire to seek freedom in life.  The fellow who killed them found this approach to life threatening and decided to snuff it out.  Seeking freedom outside the existing social structure was apparently threatening enough to the fellow who shot them to resort to murder to make sure it didn't get any foothold in the rest of society.

Or at least that was my take.

[MediumTex]

Here is a great little 6 minute film about the Salton Sea area of southern California and its post-apocalyptic atmosphere:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otIU6Py4 ... ata_player

For a young family of zombies, it looks to be move-in ready!

[l82start]

nice video ..

i am a fan of the post apocalyptic genera books/movies as well, i loved the book the road but it was depressing, the movie was a fair treatment but movies seldom lived up to it when you have read the book first...  
the graphic novels "the walking dead" are really good as well, i was given the first few as a Christmas gift, and had to force myself to slow down or i would have read them all in one marathon session, very captivating

[AdamA]

Another great decline-of-western-civilization book that I just read "Super Sad True Love Story."

It's by Gary Shteyngart.  Anyone else read it?

[AdamA]

I am now about 1/3 of the way through "Earth Abides" and I want to say that this is a really fantastic book.

Where "The Road" focused on the bleakness of a post-apocalypse world and the fight against hopelessness that each individual feels as civilization slowly edges from view, in "Earth Abides" the focus is more on the vastness of a world suddenly stripped of 99% of the people.  The book focuses on the role of culture in providing people with a daily narrative that cumulatively leads to a sense of meaning in life, and how when those daily routines and habitual interactions with people are suddenly removed it creates a jolting sense of mental, social, psychological and spiritual incoherence.  It's not just loneliness or alienation, but some broader and more subtle sense of I'm not supposed to be here anymore.

It's very well written.  In looking at some of the Amazon reviews, one recurring theme is people who are lifelong readers cite this book as one of the few that left impressions on their minds so vivid that years or decades later they would recall a scene from the book as if they had experienced it themselves very recently.

I love good post-apocalypse stories, but as Coffee noted in the OP in reference to Rawles' first book, too often the work in this genre is simply not well-written and the characters and plots are not well designed.  Thus far, "Earth Abides" has been a very happy surprise.

I finally got the chance to read this fantastic book.  MT's review above is dead on.  I can't believe I had never heard of it before.

[Freedom_Found]

I actually came over here from suvivalistboards.com. I had been posting on there for the last couple years, but basically came to a few revelations. One, many (most) people on there are dirt poor, and will spend 50 hours to make something out of spare materials, rather than buy a new one for $15. I run a business during the day, so I don't have that kind of time to spend, but even if I did, even a rudimentary cost benefit analysis would likely make me lose interest.

Two, it seems that what is really going on (as mentioned above) is a lot of people who have some fantasy of being Mad Max and being "the hero" once this pesky "real world" thing goes away. I think the reality is that if you're not making it in the current world, you're gonna have a heck of a harder time making it in a world with no laws, etc.

And third, for a lot of people who are into it, it's just an excuse for rampant consumerism. To justify buying every gadget, gizmo and otherwise "cool" item on the planet. Not that I don't want that stuff too. But at least I call it what it is.

That being said, there is some good info you can get on there. I do believe that guns and food (aka beans and bullets) are two categories of investments you should be comfortable with your level of before you start getting into the four PP categories. Kind of like the foundation upon which to build a house. My reasoning is that if you don't have food, well.... that's pretty obvious. And if you have food but no guns, then someone else who does have a gun will likely have your food just when you need it most.

Also, MT, on the subject of Post-apoc fiction, if you haven't already, check out Wolf and Iron by Gordon R. Dickson. A good read. I actually checked out Rawles first book from the LA public library (if you can believe they carry it) and it was pretty hollow writing, but the overall story was interesting. I'll give his second book a try one of these days. 

[AdamA]

Also, MT, on the subject of Post-apoc fiction...

Earth Abides is much more than just post-apocolyptic fiction...just wanted to plug it one more time for anyone looking for a really great book.