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The End of the World Apocalypse and Its Aftermath in Western Culture

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The End of the World Apocalypse and Its Aftermath in Western Culture Maria Manuel Lisboa The End of the World Apocalypse and its Aftermath in Western Culture OpenBook Publishers THE END OF THE WORLD Maria Manuel Lisboa is Professor of Portuguese Literature and Culture at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. She specialises in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Portuguese and Brazilian literature, focusing on gender and national identity. She has written four monographs, including one on the renowned Portuguese artist Paula Rego. Maria Manuel Lisboa received the 2008 Prémio do Grémio Literário. The End of the World: Apocalypse and its Aftermath in Western Culture Maria Manuel Lisboa Open Book Publishers CIC Ltd., 40 Devonshire Road, Cambridge, CB1 2BL, United Kingdom http://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2011 Maria Manuel Lisboa Some rights are reserved. This book is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. This license allows for copying any part of the work for personal and non-commercial use, providing author attribution is clearly stated. Details of allowances and restrictions are available at: http://www.openbookpublishers.com As with all Open Book Publishers titles, digital material and resources associated with this volume are available from our website: http://www.openbookpublishers.com/product.php/106 ISBN Hardback: 978-1-906924-51-5 ISBN Paperback: 978-1-906924-50-8 ISBN Digital (pdf): 978-1-906924-52-2 Cover image: David Fox, New Zealand, flooded coastal forest (2010) Typesetting by www.bookgenie.in All paper used by Open Book Publishers is SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative), and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) Certified. Printed in the United Kingdom and United States by Lightning Source for Open Book Publishers This book is dedicated to our planet, with best wishes for many happy returns. In memory of my mother-in-law, Winifred Brick and my uncle, Ilídio Lisboa. This World is not Conclusion. Where have all the flowers gone? A Species stands beyond— Long time passing Invisible, as Music— Where have all the flowers gone? But positive, as Sound— Long time ago It beckons, and it baffles— Where have all the flowers gone? Philosophy—don’t know— Girls have picked them every one And through a Riddle, at the last— When will they ever learn? Sagacity, must go— When will they ever learn? To guess it, puzzles scholars— Where have all the young girls gone? To gain it, Men have borne Long time passing Contempt of Generations Where have all the young girls gone? And Crucifixion […]. Long time ago Where have all the young girls gone? Emily Dickinson Taken husbands every one When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn? Where have all the young men gone? Long time passing Where have all the young men gone? Long time ago Where have all the young men gone? Gone for soldiers every one When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn? Where have all the soldiers gone? Long time passing Where have all the soldiers gone? Long time ago Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards every one When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn? Where have all the graveyards gone? Long time passing Where have all the graveyards gone? Long time ago Where have all the graveyards gone? Covered with flowers every one When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn? Pete Seeger Contents Page List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgements xiii Prologue xv 1. Apocalypse Now and Again 1 2. The World Gone M.A.D. 17 3. And Then There Was Nothing: Is the End Ever 49 Really the End? 4. Falling Out with Hal and Hester 103 5. Dying of Happiness: Utopia at the End of this 131 World Afterword: Libera Me, Domine, De Vita Æterna 171 Bibliography 177 Index 187 List of Illustrations Page Figure 1. Hieronymus Bosch xvi The Last Judgement, triptych fragment (1506-1508) Oil on panel Munich: Altepinakothek Figure 2. William Blake xvii Death on a Pale Horse (c. 1800) Drawing Cambridge: The Fitzwilliam Museum © Fitzwilliam Museum Figure 3. René Magritte 4 L’invention collective (Collective Invention) (1935) Oil on canvas Private collection © Photothèque R. Magritte – ADAGP, Paris 2011 Figure 4. William Blake 4 Nebuchadnezzar (c. 1795) London: Tate Colour monotype print with additions in ink and watercolour Figure 5. René Magritte 5 Les merveilles de la nature (The Wonders of Nature) (1953) Oil on canvas Chicago: Museum of Contemporary art © Photothèque R. Magritte – ADAGP, Paris 2011 x The End of the World Figure 6. Peter Paul Rubens 6 Adam and Eve in Paradise (1599) Oil on panel Antwerp: Rubenshuis Figure 7. John Guillermin 7 King Kong (1976). Paramount Film Studios © mptvimages.com Figure 8. John Guillermin 10 King Kong (1976). Paramount Film Studios Figure 9. John Martin 18 The Last Man (1849) Oil on canvas The Board of Trustees of National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Liverpool: Walker Art Gallery Figure 10. Gustave Doré 19 Adam and Eve Driven Out of Eden (1865) Engraving Public domain Figure 11. Albrecht Dürer 29 The Four of Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1511) Woodcut The William M. Ladd Collection Minneapolis: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Figure 12. Reuven Dafni 57 Corpses in a Mass Grave (29 April 1945) Germany: Bergen Belsen © Yad Vashem, Archival Signature: 2545 Figure 13. Marc Chagall, 59 Apocalypse in Lilac, Capriccio (1945) London: The Ben Uri Jewish Museum of Art List of Illustrations xi Figure 14. Anselm Kiefer (German, b. 1945) 62 Lot’s Wife (1989) Oil paint, ash, stucco, chalk, linseed oil, polymer emulsion, salt and applied elements (e.g., copper heating coil), on canvas, attached to lead foil, on plywood panels; 350 x 410 cm Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1990.8.a Figure 15. Caspar David Friedrich 72 Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818) Oil on canvas Hamburg: Kunsthalle Figure 16. Peter Paul Rubens 78 The Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse (c. 1623-24) Oil on panel Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum Figure 17. Ingmar Bergman 106 The Seventh Seal (1957) AB Svensk Filmindustri. Det sjunde inseglet/The Seventh Seal (c)1957 Stockholm: AB Svensk Filmindustri Still photographer: Louis Huch Figure 18. Ingmar Bergman 107 The Seventh Seal (1957) AB Svensk Filmindustri. Det sjunde inseglet/The Seventh Seal (c)1957 Stockholm: AB Svensk Filmindustri Still photographer: Louis Huch Figure 19. René Magritte 109 La condition humaine (The human condition) (1933) Oil on canvas Gift of the Collectors Committee Washington: National Gallery of Art © Photothèque R. Magritte – ADAGP, Paris 2011 xii The End of the World Figure 20. Thomas More 131 A Map of Utopia (1516) Woodcut Cambridge: St. John’s College Figure 21. Michelangelo Buonarroti 156 Christ as Judge of the World (1475-1564) Rome: Sistine Chapel, Vatican Figure 22. El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos) 158 (1541-1614) The Opening of the Fifth Seal (or The Fifth Seal of the Apocalypse or The Vision of Saint John) (1608-14) Oil on canvas (top truncated) New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1956 © The Metropolitan Museum of Art Figure 23. John Martin 172 The Great Day of His Wrath (1851-53) London: Tate Oil on canvas Figure 24. Michelangelo Buonarroti 173 The Flood, right-hand panel (1475-1564) Rome: Sistine Chapel, Vatican Acknowledgements I am indebted to many people who helped, encouraged and supported me, did things for me, and said ‘there, there...’ at times when the end of the world appeared to be an attractive option, relatively speaking. Bernard McGuirk, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh and Peter Evans generously agreed to offer a critical reading of this book. Coral Neale provided me with valuable examples of apocalypse in films, books and the visual arts. David Fox, the ideal companion on holidays I will never take, agreed to allow me to reproduce one of his remarkable photographs for the cover, provided the print, and, following a logic that escapes me, thanked me for it. Susan Mansfield and Karen Weber saved me from unhelpful demons and from my own never-failing incompetence in all matters practical and commonsensical. Robert Hinde proofread the manuscript. Chris Woodhouse and Alex Lucini, Computer Officers at St. John’s College, miraculously never attempted to strangle me, not even once. Sue O’Reilly and Hykel Hosni suggested some valuable reading which helped me consolidate my thoughts. Rory O’Bryen let me benefit from his expertise on blondes, monkeys and digital images. David Lowe and Sonia Morillo Garcia I thank for absolutely everything. I am also ever grateful to Colin Clarkson at Cambridge University Library, who goes where my legs cannot. My students suggested I have a look at truly ghastly examples of end- of-the-world books they had read as teenagers. Margaret Clark did the same with regard to books with which she had traumatized her children over the years. Helen Coutts and Helen Lima de Sousa helped me with tracking down the images. Victoria Best and Robert Evans always tell me affectionately not to be silly whenever I need to hear it, and make me howl with laughter even when life gets dark. xiv The End of the World Chris Dobson encourages me repeatedly to delve ever more deeply into my inner silliness (seeing as, according to him, I have no option anyway). Mary Dobson kindly urges me to ignore him. Hilary Owen has stayed the course. Teresa Moreira Rato, my no-questions- asked friend of over forty years, knows that a friend is someone who is on your side, even if or particularly when you are in the wrong, once offered to punch two classmates’ noses on my behalf, and would help me to hide a body if ever the need arose.
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