by Tynan Drake, Ball State University An erasure poem is a “poem that sculpts itself out of another larger text” in order to commentate on or derive new meaning from the original text (Brewer, “Erasure and Blackout Poems”). Erasure poems are created by taking choice words or phrases from the source text and deleting everything […]

Olivia Hershman, Ball State University The Walking Dead and its representation of post-apocalyptic humanity has made it popular since its 2010 premiere. With each new season, the writers of this zombified survival narrative push the boundaries of audience comfort and force their viewers to confront questions about humanity, gender roles, and the quest for survival. One […]

by Bethany Benkert, Ball State University   Avatar the Last Airbender is a fantastic television show (which is much better than the live-action movie) that ran on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. It features a world where some people can control, or “bend,” water, earth, fire, and air. It also features a world under siege […]

by Hannah Partridge, Ball State University M. R. Carey’s 2014 novel The Girl With All the Gifts presents a new twist to the genre of post-apocalyptic zombie novels by making the protagonist of the story a zombie herself. Melanie, who believes she is an ordinary young girl and knows no other life than living in […]

by Leah Heim, Ball State University And to think that we complained about that Fort Wayne tournament. None of the parents went. Pendleton to Fort Wayne on a Thursday night? Give me a break. Parents had a hard time going to home matches. Overtime isn’t optional when the droughts last summer exploded food prices, or when […]

by Taylor Baugh, Ball State University Movies have the power to truly move a person – and children’s movies are no different. Movies like Wall-E, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, Chicken Little, and Ice Age all have a similar message. These movies depict an apocalypse-level event for the characters, but the characters are given […]

by Tynan Drake, Ball State University Dr. Vanessa Rapatz, Assistant Professor in the English Department at Ball State University, obtained her BA at San Francisco State University; her MA at the University of California, Santa Cruz; and her PhD at the University of California, Davis. Her area of expertise is Early Modern Literature with emphases […]

by Savana Newton, Ball State University It’s down to survival of the fittest in AMC’s The Walking Dead (TWD), where only those with the loosest morals can make it out alive. The characters in the show adhere to virtually no moral rules, either in the ways they torture/kill the walkers (zombies) and or they brutally […]

by Kaytlyn Bell, Ball State University Since its release on February 28, 2017, the video game Horizon: Zero Dawn has been praised for the originality of its apocalypse and its strong storytelling. The game is set on 31st century Earth. Decaying cities surround you, overtaken by vegetation, half-buried in snow, or barely visible between sand […]

by Tynan Drake, Ball State University In recent years, survivalism culture has exploded around the concept of a zombie apocalypse. At first it may seem absurd that anyone would take this fictional concept so seriously, but by digging beneath the surface just a little, we can find a thriving community of people who feel ready for […]