Notes for 5 October 2015

LITCS 114
Teaching Associate: Patrick Mooney
Bldg. 494, room 160B
Fall 2015

• Etymology and foundations:
  • The Apocalypse:
    • Etymology:
      • from Latin apocalypsis, which is from
      • Greek ἀποκάλυψις, n. of action, which is from
      • ἀποκαλύπτειν, to uncover, disclose, which is from
      • ἀπό, off + καλύπτειν, to cover.
    • Definition:
      1. (With capital initial.) The revelation of the future granted to St. John (probably not John the Apostle) in the isle of Patmos. Also, the book of the New Testament in which this is recorded.
      2. By extension: Any revelation or disclosure.
         1. Christian Church. The events described in the revelation of St John; the Second Coming of Christ and ultimate destruction of the world.
         2. More generally: a disaster resulting in drastic, irreversible damage to human society or the environment, esp. on a global scale; a cataclysm. Also in weakened use.
         • (From the Oxford English Dictionary)
  • So, then, revelation:
    • The verb to veil comes from Middle English veilen, which is from
    • Middle English noun veile,
      • whence the English noun veil and ME veile.
    • ME veile is adopted from Old N. French,
    • which, like (Old and contemporary) French voile, derives from Medieval-Vulgar Latin vēla,
    • which is from Latin uēla, plural of uēlum, a sail
      • but also [a piece of] drapery, an awning;
    • uēlum is originally from Indo-European *wegslom, from *weg-, to weave.
      • Latin uēlāre has prefix-compound reuēlāre, to pull back the curtain, or covering, from,
        • hence to disclose;
        • whence Old French-Middle French reveler;
        • whence to reveal,
        • which is derivative of Late Latin reuēlātiō, an uncovering, e.g., of a secret.
          • (Adapted from Eric Partridge's Origins: An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English)
  • So, post-apocalyptic fiction …
    1. … depicts, of course, life after an apocalypse (in sense 2b, a general disaster).
    2. … has been written in recognizable modern forms since early in the nineteenth century, but gains currency after World War II.
       • … this increase is related to (and, at least in part, driven by) the increased cultural concern with nuclear weapons and the increased human potential for destruction after the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
    3. … is often concerned with the maintenance of a pre-apocalypse way of life after social structures have been vastly altered by the apocalyptic disaster.
       • At the same time, the apocalypse in each of the works we're reading this quarter is a revelation of basic truths that were hidden before the apocalypse.
         • One of the revelations commonly made by (post-)apocalyptic literature is that life and the social structures that support it are precarious.
         • The revelation of the precarity of the social structures supporting our ways of life is one way that post-apocalyptic fiction produces the affective response of horror.
  • So, the apocalpyse is …
    1. a disaster;
    2. a radical break from previous ways of living;
    3. a new beginning, for those who survive; and
    4. a revelation of previously hidden things.
• In what directions does this lead? Some examples:
  1. Survivalist fantasies (Day of the Triffids, The Walking Dead).
  2. Opportunities for starting from scratch (Oryx and Crake).
  3. Opportunities for redemption, in one sense of another (The Road).
  4. Seeing how deep the rabbit-hole of horror goes (Blindness).
• Today's whiteboard shots:
  • Etymology (and notes from another what changes? discussion)
  • Etymology, again (not the same diagram)