By Megan Schillereff, Ball State University In current conversation, the idea of apocalypse and the interconnected idea of the posthuman are usually presented as science fiction or fantasy. Despite its popularity within the fictional universes of both the page and the screen, apocalyptic events have occurred within the course of human history, traceable all the […]

By Audrey Bowers, Ball State University 2028 – The Change   Nothing can stop me. I’m a survivor of the zombie apocalypse. “Come along Toby,” I say to my dog. My eyes squint to see what this abandoned city might offer me. Toby, my corgi, trails after me through the brick streets of what I […]

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 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 […]

by Bethany Benkert, Ball State University Our society is obsessed with luck. We fantasize about winning the lottery and wish each other good luck before important events. However, we are reluctant to give luck its due credit when it is at work in our own lives, at which point it should be called “privilege.”  In […]

by Taylor Baugh, Ball State University There are many forms of entertainment today that depict apocalyptic plotlines while also incorporating supernatural forces. Within our entertainment, we want to enjoy imagining the apocalypse; however, we don’t want to face the realistic nature of those apocalypses. So, we include the supernatural rather than real world problems we […]