1. Javelineer

    Javelineer Active Member

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    Recommendation Request: books like Steven King's "Cell"

    Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by Javelineer, Dec 20, 2020.

    I touched on this in another thread...

    Oh cool! A piece of quasi-zombie fiction that certainly sounds engaging, original, genuinely horrifying, and maybe even believable... :eek:

    ...and, then the cellphone zombies all turn into levitating, omnipresent, mind-controlling telepaths. And almost all the main characters die at the end, except for the annoying protagonist and his literal empty vessel of a son. :(

    Technogenic Catastrophe.png

    It seems a lot of people are drawn to this metaphor of cellphones/mass-media/digital technology turning their users into mindless automatons. And the general concept of technological dependence robbing mankind of free will and autonomy has been something long-discussed in detail by such philosophers as Jaques Ellul and Pentii Linkola.

    (One point to consider: not only do smartphones seem to make people shamble around obliviously-- like dead shells of what was once humanity-- they simultaneously make it easier for our masters to monitor and control us. Almost like a Voodoo Necromancer and his "zombies" in the original sense of the word...)

    What I want to know is, has anyone else ever taken the metaphor literally, used it in a work of fiction (or non-fiction), and done a good job of it?

    I can think of a few close-but-not-quite cases of "Zombie Apocalypse by Technogenic Catastrophe", and there's a few in particular that stand out to me.

    -The Reavers from the Firely Universe

    -The 1970's film "The Crazies" and the more recent remake, neither of which I've ever seen. TBH, I don't like Romero movies.

    -A techno-thriller novel from the 90's about a self-aware computer virus that finds a way to infect humans.

    -The Plague of Nilhism dreamed of by Rodion Raskolnikov, in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime And Punishment. It has a pretty good example of what I'm looking for in its effect, if not so much in its cause.

     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2021
  2. TheEndOfMrsY

    TheEndOfMrsY Active Member

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    When ever I think about a story which encompasses the thought of the downsides of technology, I always think of 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke.

    You could argue Jurassic Parks' main theme is the damning effects of using technology to create something big.
     
  3. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Allow me to wax pedantic for a moment. It's largely by Stanley Kubrick. Yes, Clarke wrote The Sentinel, the short story on which the movie was very loosely based, but then Kubrick and Clarke collaborated on 2001, and in fact they would discuss ideas, Kubrick would work up a tentative outline of the movie and show it to Clarke, who would then work on the novel, but frequently Kubrick ended up making big changes before the movie was finished, which didn't get reflected in the novelization.

    /Pedantic mode :supercool:
     
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  4. Javelineer

    Javelineer Active Member

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    I know it was actually meant to be positive, but I read Childhood's End as a child (lol?) and always found it to be deeply unsettling.
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2020
  5. Javelineer

    Javelineer Active Member

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    I think Jurassic Park is essentially about hubris. The novel even moreso than the movie.

    (Though, now that you mention it, there's a theme in there that you seen in quite a few other works: The Island of Doctor Moreau, Frankenstien, Herbert West: Reanimator.)

    But, Jurassic Park isn't really apocalyptic in tone except for on that one island, and the theme isn't really about negative changes to humanity itself as a result of technology. The Borg from Star Trek are a closer fit, but from my admittedly-limited knowledge of the franchise, the theme with them is seldom apocalyptic (at least not in the main timeline as the main characters experience it).
     
  6. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Never read it. I don't think I've read any Clarke actually.
     
  7. Javelineer

    Javelineer Active Member

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    He's an acquired taste, to be sure. :p

    I'm going to add Robert A Heinlein's "The Puppetmasters" (speaking of acquired tastes...) to the close-but-not-quite list, and I'm surprised that I forgot it.

    I should see if I can find the posthumous edition anywhere, which I've never read before.

    Considering the sheer volume of amateur Zombie Apocalypse Fiction, I'm surprised no one has anything.

    Looks like I might have to write it myself.
     
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2020
  8. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    I'm not sure many have read Cell.

    Speaking of Heinlein, I recently read Stranger in a Strange Land for the book club here on the site (posthumous edition, all edits restored to his original version). Wow, was that an experience! Not what I was expecting at all. o_O :eek:
     
  9. Javelineer

    Javelineer Active Member

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    :read:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
    https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/Common_Consciousness
    :superagree:

    This. Whatever this is, what I'm looking for is apparently this.

    Government experiment to weed out "negative" tendencies in the human psyche unleashes Hell upon the earth. Mind-controlled shells of men now stalk the desolate landscape, fighting those who oppose their new masters and steadily adding to their ranks...

    ...well, I don't know, I've never played the game. Never even heard of it until today.

    It's Ukranian, and I actually speak a fair bit of Russian and Ukranian. I'll definitely look into the novel and film that inspired it.
     
  10. Javelineer

    Javelineer Active Member

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    Interestingly, the common Russian and Ukrainian phrase for "industrial accident" or "man-made disaster" basically translates as "technogenic catastrophe" (tehnogenna katastrofa, техногенна катастрофа). That's actually a phrase that I unthinkingly used at the start of this thread. :D

    So, yeah. If S.T.A.L.K.E.R. had been worldwide instead of just in the Pripyat Marshes of Ukraine, and if it had involved cell-phone signals instead of nuclear radiation, and if it hadn't seriously impacted the non-human ecosystem, then it would have been whatever I'm going to do.

    And, I really love the "gas mask and poncho" aesthetics of this world. That's literally what I've been looking like in public ever sense the start of the COVID outbreak. :p
     
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  11. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Stalker is a badass movie, if you're talking about the Tarkovski film (and I think you must be?) I haven't read the book (what's it called, Roadside Picnic or something?) but I'd like to.
     

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