Adventures in the apocalyptic style

Preppers and the end of everything

Featured in

  • Published 20241105
  • ISBN: 978-1-923213-01-2
  • Extent: 196 pp
  • Paperback, ebook, PDF

‘THE MACHINES ARE gonna fail. Then the system’s gonna fail. Then: survival. Who has the ability to survive. That’s the game.’

It’s the early 1970s. Lewis Medlock (played by a young Burt Reynolds, strapping and hirsute under a black leather vest) adjusts his hunting bow. Ed Gentry (a young Jon Voight) finishes his can of beer, cracks open another and sits back in their canoe.

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

About the author

Tom Doig

Tom Doig is a non-­fiction author and a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Queensland. He is working on a book about...

More from this edition

Believe it or not

IntroductionCultural critic Chuck Klosterman reminds us that ‘any present-tense version of the world is unstable. What we currently consider to be true – both objectively and subjectively – is habitually provisional.’

On the contrary

In Conversation Australian novelist Lexi Freiman knows how to walk a literary tightrope. Her fiction is both savagely funny and strikingly empathetic, daring to satirise the...

Up for debate

In ConversationDebate emphasises different ideals. You are forced to argue for positions you don’t believe and, regardless of your stance, you learn always to consider the opposing perspective. That is quite literal: after preparing your case, you turn to a different sheet and write the four best arguments for the other side or mark up your argument for its flaws and inconsistencies. Paper and pen. That is countercultural at a time when we expect a tight nexus between speech and identity, and I think there is something to be gained from such role-­play.

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.