Armageddon attracts human attention like moths to light. It has done so for millenia. Perhaps it has to do with the self-conscious knowledge of their own demise. All life meets death and this seems to perturb humans to no end. Imagining that the world as they know it, ends in dramatic fashion captivates the masses. The truth of the matter is that it can be dramatic but it can also be slow and creeping. The human capacity for seemingly perpetual violence, spurred on by a global military industrial complex, does imbue all imaginations with the possibility of a cataclysmic end.
Which is partly why this end-of-the-world book features no zombies or war time tales. It’s a close setting, almost like stage theatre. All action taking place within one primary location: a nice house. The basic premise makes anyone’s skin crawl. You’ve rented an AirBnb and then the owners show up to stay with you. Awkward undoubtedly, but the author makes it tense while not actually relying on physical violence.
That doesn’t mean the story doesn’t rely on some psychological and philosophical violence. Some good screaming and shouting. The hysteria we all expect at the end of the world. Not rapture but riots. Humans devolving back into their previous ape state. I like to picture something different. Always something different to what most people think. Not necessarily against this grain, but I like to imagine futures that are not alike in their devastation and destruction.
For that Leave the World Behind is a breath of fresh air. No city streets teeming with maddened crowds, like frightened livestock cannibalising themselves along the way to the slaughter. An idyllic place to be in any scenario, but perhaps more so (or less?) at the end of the world. No neighbours particularly nearby. A picturesque woodland. As light and airy as the house may feel, the interpersonal interactions and the internal anxieties of the characters make the story feel tense and terse.
A page turner for sure, finish it up in a couple of days and then I guess watch the movie. But at times I didn’t enjoy the stuttered style. Perhaps it was intentional to disturb the reading flow. My ape mind found it jarring to the prose itself. Undermining the story, consciously, but perhaps subconsciously harbouring this disturbed feeling to welcome the undertones of tension that are tangled throughout the book.
It ends in a way that a sequel seems possible but not necessary. There are many stories of survivors of Armageddon too. Considering most of this book plays out in a few days, extrapolating what may happen in the next few months feels almost rote at this point. The world will end, one day. In what kind of fashion remains to be seen. If the only future humans imagine is vast devastation, I imagine that is the future they are likely to create. Primarily for the opportunity to tweet “I told you so!” first. But what happens when you don’t have network access? What happens when you can’t get on the internet? That Friends DVD boxset could become gold I tell you.
All a horror show for you post-modern technologically addicted people. Nature becomes life threatening through ignorance and panic. Deer are mesmerizing rather than messengers from gaya. Flamingoes are frightening. Cartography a lost art. What a terrifying prospect. An incapable human society.
