ASSOCIATES (vol. 6, no. 2, November 1999) - associates.ucr.edu
Apocalypse Pretty Soon
Alex Heard
New York: W.W. Norton
1999
Hardbound: $24.95
Bob Farnsworth
Senior Library Technical Assistant
Serials Department
University of North Florida Library
bfarnsw@unf.edu
In this day and age, when many are screaming dire threats about the end of the century/millennium, etc. it's refreshing to find a book like Apocalypse Pretty Soon that not only shows some of the ways people are trying to prepare for the so-called "last days"...but also gives us a chuckle or two.
Alex Heard, the author, is an editor at Wired Magazine, and has also edited and written for the New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, and other publications. In this book he recounts his ten-year research experiences with groups who have brought "their own all-American spin to the Biblical idea of apocalypse".
The book begins with the Unarius-Science of Life group - and shows us a group who believes that "angels" in spaceships are due to arrive and to help us through a very trying time.
The book ends with the author's "last millennial field trip" to North Carolina. Here he meets with the Earth Changes group and relates their sometimes first-hand views of outer space intelligences.
The book is quite often tongue-in cheek, yet there is a kind of underlying serious thought in each chapter. Each group, no matter how much "on the fringe", reminds us that we're all human - and subject to worry and panic about an event that has always caused the entire world to join together in concern.
The author finishes by supplying his website so that readers may see selected "updates" on the End: www.apocalypseprettysoon.com
Definitely a timely read!
