TEOTWAWKI

[gfish]

As I happened to mention in Rollick's suicide post, I was really obsessed with nuclear war as a kid. I wrote stories involving it, invented games simulating it, and drew lots and lots of mushroom clouds. In the process of moving boxes around to make room for a server rearrangement tonight, I came across two of my old paintings. They were supposed to be part of a greater 'Scenes from the Apocalypse' series that remains unfinished. These would have been done when I was 16ish.

I present Nuclear War and Nuclear Winter. Both are acrylic on block of wood. Note the cute before/after motif. I'm actually rather proud of the second. Probably the best visual art I've ever made -- which obviously isn't saying much.

Comments

[anansi133.livejournal.com]

I kind of like the winter one, actually. It's cold looking, but dirty looking too.

I had so many nightmares about nuclear war as a teenager, it was the single greatest source of angst and distrust between myself and the older generation. It drove me bananas that no one would speak honestly about it.

[mrlogic.livejournal.com]

I still recall vividly at least one of my nuclear war nightmares from when I was fifteen or so. I remember the helplessness of watching the wave front from the explosion approach.

Thankfully, these went away when the Cold War ended...

I like the subtlety of the Nuclear Winter painting.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

I have had more nightmares about nuclear war in the past two years than I ever did as a teenager, and I used to worry about it a fair amount. The town I grew up in, Andover MA, was a secondary nuclear target, so I knew that I was toast if the Soviets attacked, and I can recall reading the Jonathan Schell's the Abolition, McNamara's Blundering Into Disaster, and other books on nuclear deterrence and such. I felt much easier about things since the Wall came down, but since 9/11, I am convinced that it's only a matter of time.

My bet: India and Pakistan.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Sure, we're closer to nuclear war now than we ever were during the cold war. I still have hope for India and Pakistan, but they're certainly up there on the list. If North Korea really has a couple, then we might wake up one morning to find Seoul or Tokyo gone... The nuclear material sold by Pakistani scientists is pretty worrying... Yeah, lots of reasons to be skittish these days. :)

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

And, who controls OUR nuclear trigger? George W. Bush, the guy who was willing to use any and every lie/excuse to invade Iraq. Let's hope he never decides a nuclear exchange is good for business.

I think you'll appreciate this.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

I saw this link in mycrofth's journal. It's photos of Chernobyl, taken in the past few months.

http://markrose.ca/www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/page2.html