Word: disastermania
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...Disastermania...
...your article "The Deluge of Disastermania" [March 5] you grouped Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth with Hollywood trash like Earthquake and Blizzard. Lindsey's book is based on Bible prophecy. Armageddon will not be a disaster for those who believe in Jesus Christ. The disaster is your article...
...explanation for this disastermania: it is merely a harmless byproduct of popular entertainment. Explains Science Writer Isaac Asimov: "Hollywood just happens to be very good at special effects, primarily destructive effects." Indeed, in a forthcoming book, A Choice of Catastrophes, the polymath popularizer seeks to soothe anxieties about global disaster. Says Asimov: "All the scenarios are either very low in probability, or very distant in the future...
...Historian Andrée Conrad sees disastermania in sociological terms. In a recent review of 20 catastrophe books for the quarterly Book Forum, she argued that disaster writing and entertainment are safety valves for hostility toward a complicated culture. Says Conrad: "For one exhilarating and guilt-free moment, the whole teeming supermarket cart of capitalist goodies is sent hurtling down the aisle and crashes through the façade." The films, in her view, also ease the dread of death, since there is comfort in knowing that everyone almost always dies together. Concludes Conrad: "The success of disaster entertainment...
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