Undying forces for good
As the factual programming of Hollywood tells us, when it’s all kicking off, the apocalypse is coming, the building you are in is collapsing, your ship is sinking and the dead have risen, the only thing you should really be thinking about is getting it on with one of your co-survivors.
There are so many films out there where a love story has been shoe-horned in, much to the detriment of the storyline.
But I’ve been thinking, perhaps it’s true, that as a species, when faced with certain doom our instincts to breed are initiated. I know it happens in some simpler organisms… but then they can reproduce in a matter of hours, they don’t have a nine month gestation period followed by at least a decade of dependence… It’s hardly an immediate threat when you have time to do all of that.
Still, when faced with the end,is there anything more productive to do?
Hehe, ‘more productive” — a brilliant word-play, that.
In my last literature class at Uni (Introduction to Science Fiction and Fantasy: the best literature class anyone will ever offer) we read Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, and my prof complained that her analysis of humanity was wrong, because the two main characters didn’t succumb and have sex when they were facing imminent death, stuck out on the frozen wastes. She claimed it ruined the book, it was so improbable. So, a profession of literature agrees, sex is what happens when death is coming.
Personally, I thought the book was fine as it was, despite also thinking they should’ve had sex at that point.
“sex is what happens when death is coming”
That’s not something I’d want to see… he makes horrible noises too…
And I’m glad you spotted the intentional pun.
Loved the pun.
I’d think that if death were imminent, i might get piss-arsed drunk (any maybe die from alcohol poisoning in the process)…..
and see whether or not I’m an angry drunk.
sitting pugss last post..Off Topic: Last Lullaby, Tom Sizemore punch!
….
gkthch! AAAAAAH!
GAAAAAH!
As our modern nihilist society rightly says, “If nothing matters, fornicate.”
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Or, as the popular expression goes, ‘F**k it’.
I think Le Guin’s point was about squeamishness: the inability of humans to overcome their differences, despite their overwhelming similarities. I guess I mean she wanted us to be disappointed, in her characters (in her earth-normal human character in particular) rather than in her story.
Adam’s point has been demonstrated, repeatedly. The post WWII baby boom is a famous example.
Pedantic, ain’t I? I’ll try to blame parenthood, it’s what I blame most things for, but I suspect it’s innate.
That’s a good point! I was just looking to see if there was a similar increase in the US caused by the terrorist attacks…
I’m also wondering if I can get away by comparing The Left Hand of Darkness to the X-Files… Does anyone remember how the show suffered from the loss of retrospective sexual tension when Mulder and Scully finally went to bed together in the series finale?
What I mean, I suppose is that an expectation unfulfilled remains an expectation nonetheless and so characterises the story.
Next week, Shakespeare and Sesame Street compared.
Ah, A good point! I agree, that’s a good possibility as to why she would have left the relationship less-than-intimate. But I feel like a lot of that book was showing that we can overcome differences, and that, indeed, we are all the same (with a mind towards gender, particularly). Seems an odd choice, given that.
I thought the baby boom was caused by the _end_ of the war – during the fighting all the men were otherwise engaged, and those left behind were probably more likely to not want to bring a child into a world at war (or a world where they’d lost the war).
Once the war was won and everyone came home… well, got to celebrate a thing like that.
Meh. When it’s time to “smash”, its TIME TO SMASH! Zombie, Lichs, 2012 or no.
Tee-hee-hee.
Simp’ the zombie slayer stays focussed and survives the ordeal whilst everyone else perishes, mostly naked.
I loved watching x-files, just waiting on mulder and scully realising that they were for each other but it was such an anti climax tbh.
I guess its kinda a more natural instinct, feeling the need to procreate when theres danger thats what we’re here for some believe.
>But I’ve been thinking, perhaps it’s true, that as a species, when faced with certain doom our instincts to breed are initiated.
It sort of happens in mice- when stuck in some lab, meeces have a knack of shagging in order to get out of their confines.
Knowing this, of course, means that according to Roo’s teacher, Pinky And The Brain is totally improbable.
/b
“Still, when faced with the end,is there anything more productive to do?”
Perfect explanation.
Okay, first of all, The Brain was totally giving it to Pinky. It’s SUBTEXT people.
And to the topic at hand, as awkward as I am, when I’m writing I tend to throw characters at one another and have the universe and a mountain of mutual character flaws keep them apart. I’m currently building a graphic novel around two characters, one who is immature and infatuated with the other who is sadistic and eats people.
But of course when the end is close at hand all the complexities of human relationships go out the window and the basest of instincts kicks in, particularly when procreation itself is unlikely, because all the other aforementioned complexities of human relationships evolved in order help people select genetically superior mates.
The Great Joe Bivinss last post..I Curse and It’s a Whole Blog Post
Being a part of a romantic storyline in a zombie movie vastly improves the chances that at least one of you will make it into the sequel.
It’s natural for people to seek comfort in each other in times of crisis. And if those people are sexually attracted to one another, that comfort may come naked. There are worse ways to ride out the climax of civilization.
“…ride out the climax…”
HA HA HA HA
These double entendres are killing me. Though I agree, if I’m gunna be eaten by zombies in the next few days, I’d certainly like to be with someone special to watch the fireworks, as we come to the end.
Just be sure not to mix the two- necrophilia is where baby zombies (or “Zombabies”) come from.
/b
“Come to the end”
Gold.
Bens last post..DO Uses cutlery for pizza
I read this book of short stories once. The subject was mostly death and disasters.
One story was centred around a massive subway train accident during a major earthquake.
The “main” characters met each other whilst climbing (the train carriage was tilting up) thru torn bodies. They were opposite genders and proceeded to fuck each other amongst the innards of the other victims.
If it were the zombie apocalypse, would you prefer to fuck or get fucked?
There will be only reason I will be heard screaming “BOOM HEADSHOT!!!!!” during the end times.
Bens last post..DO Uses cutlery for pizza
Okay, you grossed me out, great jearb.
DmLs last post..iBrawl by Gourami
But it was still hilarious!
Happy Birthday Justine!!!!
Bens last post..Swan River at Night
I dreamt of bloody zombies last night, and romance. Tho, I must say, it wasn’t the normal romance amongst the hordes of undead.
Bens last post..Swan River at Night
Gunther von Hagens exhibition criticised over corpse sex display
An new exhibition by controversial anatomist Gunther von Hagens showing two corpses having sexual intercourse has met with criticism.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5289311/Gunther-von-Hagens-exhibition-criticised-over-corpse-sex-display.html
Hmmm…the only thing I have to add to this is that, yes, I agree it does seem innate within us to want to “get it on” in times of crisis, but I dont necessarily think its with a mind to actually, you know..procreate! Sex is meant to (I say “meant to” here) be the ultimate proof of life, so when faced with death, we choose the other as an affirmation that we want to live. Saying that, a lot of films have fallen to this horses**t and been perfectly ruined…If theres a guy with me, and im surrounded by Zombies..know what I’m gonna do? Use the nearest shotgun, save us both..and THEN have fun
!
It always bothered me that in the first Terminator they’re running from a killer cyborg and they stop making pipe-bombs to have a sex break. It just seems like a plot device.
The Great Joe Bivinss last post..I Curse and It’s a Whole Blog Post
Of course it’s a plot device, it’s the central piece of time-twisting paradoxy to the entire Terminator series – John Connor is the leader of the Resistance, so Skynet sends back a Terminator to kill his mother. To protect his mother, Connor sends a human fighter back to fight the robot, who then becomes his father.
John Connor essentially causes his own existence by sending his father into the past… a closed loop of causality, yes, but equally as possible is the scenario where Connor just doesn’t exist. Maybe it’s his time-bending origins that make him so effective… for that matter, it would explain why the rise of Skynet is supposedly inevitable – if it never happens then no machines are sent to kill Sarah Connor, so John never exists.
Not that any of the Terminator time travel things really make sense, but it’s fun to try and get them into some kind of sensible shape… multiple timelines might fix things, if it weren’t for how 2 people sent back in time end up in the same timeline, instead of separate “branch” timelines… it could be that the film just happens to follow events in the branch of a branch where they both arrived from the future, but it’s a tad unsatisfying when you think of all the other possible worlds where only one arrives (and either Arnie kills a Sarah Connor who would never have fathered John anyway, or the Resistance fighter shows up without there being a Terminator to fight against)
That’s my problem with it exactly, the whole story depends on Kyle Reese fathering John Connor by impregnating Sarah Connor in the past. We know that, but Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor DON’T. They don’t know when they get to humping that they’re closing a massive causality loop, they just think they’re supposed to be trying to kill and avoid being killed by a killer cyborg from the future. It’s sloppy writing I think, the emotional states of the characters at the moment they decide to bump uglies aren’t properly developed, they just have an awkward moment and it’s hop on pop. You can’t just make your characters do something because it has to happen for the story to work, you have to get them to the point that they’ll do it on their own.
The Great Joe Bivinss last post..I Curse and It’s a Whole Blog Post
And that, Joe, is good writing.
I know, it’s pure plot device. The story needs it, the characters do it, and to hell with what makes sense. They just build so much on top of it that I at least have to respect their balls (founding the whole franchise on something that makes no sense).
On the other hand, the story contains time travel, murderous computer systems and robotic assassins, heavily interspersed with explosions and fighting. If you enjoy that kind of thing (and I have to say I do) then the little niggle of a stupid bit of plot-machination is excused.
It is part way explained away in the Sarrah Connor Chronicles, which aired on Fox.
In the SCC, there are multiple time lines, which results in some characters being killed and others not.
Bens last post..Swan River at Night
I’m not sure multiple timelines helps – consider the original films in terms of multiple plot lines.
Original timeline: Skynet rises, John Connor leads the resistance, Skynet dispatches the Terminator to kill Sarah Connor, John sends back Reese to protect her. Each trip through time creates a branch in the timeline, and since they don’t travel together there must be 4 timelines after the 2 branches (1 split where the Terminator arrives, and a split in each of those where Reese arrives… assuming he gets sent back in the future of both branches). So you have the original timeline (no Terminator, no Reese) 2 timelines that each have only one of the time travellers, and one with both of them in.
First off there’s the slightly annoying loose ends left by the timelines that only have one of the two, but that’s ignorable – the movie just happens to be set in the timeline with both of them in. A more serious problem is that Reese arriving from the future puts him in a separate timeline from the one where he was sent back.
This does mean there’s no need to worry if he creates conditions such that he wasn’t sent back in the future of the branch timeline, because he came from the original timeline regardless of the branch’s future, but look back to the original timeline – who fathers John Connor to start with if Reese is in the branched off version of events? John Connor can only cause himself, and close that causal loop, if the whole thing is in one timeline. If the effects of time travel are walled off in branch timelines in a way that makes non-paradoxical sense in most cases then he can’t exist.
Terminator makes no sense, QED. Now, who wants to watch them again anyway?
If all else fails; I’ll fornicate with myself and beat that record of 9 orgasms in a day. Then my little friend would definitely be sore and hand numb.
HAHAHA.
You oughtta watch Maury Povich. The talk show always has 13-15 year old girls who desperately trying to get pregnant.
Yeah, talk about drive to reproduce.
Though Maury sends em to bootcamp always and they always change their minds afterwards.
hahahaha, zombies can bring lots of things together. Loving your comics!!!!