Disasters in popular culture explained

Disasters in popular culture includes real and fictional disasters, as depicted by the media, and are considered social events.^[1] Disaster movies made in Hollywood are part of the American pop culture.^[2] Catastrophe types can include hostile aliens, climate change/global warming, environmental disasters, financial crises, natural disaster, nuclear apocalypse, pandemics, super heros, terrorist attacks, zombies and other technological meltdowns.^{[2] [3]}

Theories

There are different theories why audiences consume apocalyptic films, according to filmmaker Roland Emmerich, "They are somewhat cathartic. You see all this destruction and everything but at the end the right people save the day." Wheeler Winston Dixon notes, "I think they’re sort of preparing us for something that’s going to happen in the future."^[2]

According to Eva Horn, "What makes today’s obsession different from previous epochs’ is the sense of a “catastrophe without event,” a stealthily creeping process of disintegration. Ultimately, Horn argues, imagined catastrophes offer us intellectual tools that can render a future shadowed with apocalyptic possibilities affectively, epistemologically, and politically accessible."^[3]

See also

• Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
• AI takeovers in popular culture
• Doomsday devices in popular culture
• Global catastrophic risk
• Global warming in popular culture
• Impact events in fiction
• Tunguska event in fiction
• Tropical cyclones in popular culture

Further reading

• Book: . 1977 . Harmony Books . 0-517-53174-7 . Ash . Brian . Brian Ash (bibliographer) . 130–136 . en . Cataclysms and Dooms . 2984418 . https://archive.org/details/visualencycloped00ashb/page/130/mode/2up.
• Book: Langford, David . David Langford . . 1983 . Knopf . 0-394-53010-1 . Nicholls . Peter . Peter Nicholls (writer) . New York . 102–119 . Holocaust and catastrophe . 8689657 . https://archive.org/details/scienceinscience00nich/page/102/mode/2up.
• Book: Nichols, Ian . . . 2005 . Greenwood Publishing Group . 978-0-313-32951-7 . Westfahl . Gary . Gary Westfahl . 45–47 . en . Apocalypse . https://archive.org/details/greenwoodencyclo0000unse_k2b9/page/46/mode/2up.
• Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: The Definitive Illustrated Guide . 1996 . Carlton . 1-85868-188-X . Pringle . David . David Pringle . 26–28 . en . Disasters . 38373691 . https://archive.org/details/ultimateencyclop0000unse_a8c7/page/26/mode/2up.
• Encyclopedia: 2022 . Disaster . . 2024-04-05 . 4th . Pringle . David . David Pringle . Nicholls . Peter . Peter Nicholls (writer) . Langford . David . David Langford . Clute . John . John Clute . Langford . David . David Langford . Sleight . Graham . Graham Sleight.
• Book: Sawyer, Andy . Andrew Sawyer . . 2005 . Greenwood Publishing Group . 978-0-313-32951-7 . Westfahl . Gary . Gary Westfahl . 200–202 . en . Disaster . https://archive.org/details/greenwoodencyclo0000unse_k2b9/page/200/mode/2up.
• Book: Seed, David . . Science Fiction: A Very Short Introduction . 2011 . OUP Oxford . 978-0-19-162010-2 . 113–116 . en . Disasters . https://books.google.com/books?id=BC1lxSwsZewC&pg=PA113.
• Book: Stableford, Brian . Brian Stableford . . 2006 . Taylor & Francis . 978-0-415-97460-8 . 130–132 . en . Disaster . https://books.google.com/books?id=uefwmdROKTAC&pg=PA130.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Disaster, Memory, and Popular Culture. University of Richmond.
2. Web site: The lure of the disaster movie. 7 January 2019. BBC.
3. Book: The Future as Catastrophe. September 2018 . 9780231547956 . Horn . Eva . Columbia University Press .