Apocalypses & Cataclysms

8/8/2019 Apocalypses & Cataclysms

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THEFLYING WALRUS

IN THIS ISSUE: LAST SUPPERS

SURVIVAL TIPS YORK GOES DOWN THE HOLE THE DARK AGE OF FILM DECLINE OF THE WEST

PLUS:APOCALYPTIC POEMS,STORIES & COMIX


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EDITORIAL

CONTENTS:EDITORIALApocalypses & Cataclysms: An Introduction Walter F. WalrusResist Pop-Ocalypse! Te Real Change Happens Inside:How a Proper Apocalypse Can Work For You N. Alexander ArmstrongApocalypse Not Now Lori-Ann Russell

HEALTHSister Psychs Last Supper Betty M.Five Quick ips to Enjoy Your New Healthy Lifestyle Michelle Lambert & Richard CheamTe Last Supper Maria Golikova

ARTSTe King Will Hide & Te People Will Be Afraid Paul Costa

Free Apocalypse Inside Every Box Roland SingerBlue Bird Ernest ReidSurvival ips Blair BeauchesneDavey Dapper ed KillinTe Monkey-Brained Apocalypse Blair BeauchesneIts So Friggin Hot! Curran FolkersYorku Go Down Te Hoooo oooole!: How Higher Education Loses Because Of aLow Flow Problem Sasha MakarewiczPrelude o 2012 Ray GarciaArmageddon Elise HaskellDark Age Of Film Barry GermanskyDark Age Of Film: A Response Ali HersiTe Decline Of Te West: Why It Doesnt Matter Ali Hersi

Extract Verbatim Rhys MendesMike Is Divorced In: Apocalypse Now (And Ten) Richie HoldickTree Poems Brennan MaynardBoom And Echo Kira LancasterTe Pack Dominic LicorishShredded Pages, Lost Volumes: Lessons From An Art Installation At Te Gladstone Hotel John Nymanv Party N. Alexander ArmstrongFinal Exam aylor AbrahamseTe Plague Frank Myrland

CONTACT:[email protected] Stong CollegeCome visit us: Mon 3:30-5:00, uesWedTurs 2:30-4:00647.237.4247 [Editor-in-Chief]

STAFF:N. Alexander Armstrong Editor-in-ChiefBlair Beauchense Associate EditorHaley Anderson Design/LayoutAli Hersi Arts EditorMaria Golikova Health EditorMadd Hattere PhotographerJoshua Moore WebmasterTank you to Webnews Printing

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Unification

Te Flying Walrus is looking for submissions that relate to the theme Unication. Ac-cording to modern, postmodern, post-postmodern, and post-post-post-? theories, weare living in a fragmented state of being. Individuals are broken o from their culture.Even the individual shatters when one takes a close look. We exist in shards. Te centrecannot hold.

But are we so broken? Can we not create new structures from the fractured pieces? Tejob of the artist is to transform disparate pieces into a whole. Please send us articles,images, comix, poems, and anything else which explores this theme in some way. Helpus put Humpty-Dumpty back together again.

Send us your your pieces in 1000 words or less to:[email protected] by December 12, 2010!

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APOCALYPSES &

CATACLYSMS:AN INTRODUCTIONWORKING DEFINITIONApocalypse: o Reveal, o UnveilCataclysm: o Wash Down

also called Beginnings and Endings but this is vulgar

The FLYING WALRUS looks at History:

Lather, Rinse, Repeator: Reveal, Renew, Return

If the doors of perception were unscrewed from theirjambs, every thing would appear to man as it is, unnec-essarily confusing

Some Aphorisms on Apoca-lapse and Cat-Ass-TrophyEmpty hearts and stued bellies weaken ambition.

Te magnicence of the cosmos is directly proportionateto its insolubility. I Am is a buttery whose movements are unpredictable. ime gives voice to the heart. While Ugliness is venerated, Beauty goes unrecognized. A facial expression can outrun any ambition. A moment can be broken by a smile.

A moment of lucidity is a dicult occasion. We only know good as good because we are sick. Observers of change can only wait quietly. Every action is unfathomable. We truly love all that is melted. But we cling to the solid.

THE FLYING WALRUS IS NOT CALLING FOR THE END OF

ANY INSTITUTIONonly the end of the power that they hold.

Love,

Walter


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EDITORIAL

APOCALYPSE NOT NOWRESIST POP-OCALYPSE!THE REAL CHANGE HAPPENS INSIDE:HOW A PROPER APOCALYPSE CAN WORK FOR YOU Run for your lives, take shelter now, yells a man from the alley way.

He has holes in his shirt and a shroud of cloth that barely covers his ankles.People, the Apocalypse is here!He makes his way toward the busy street, attracting shadowed eyes upon his disman-tled attire, yet he remains untouched by the cynical stares of disbelief that bore intohim from all directions. His ranting continues throughout the day and into the latehours of the night. Te shopkeeper turns his Open sign to Closed, and the streetlightsturn to a dim yellow. Te man returns to his place in the depth of the alleyway that issmouldering in acid. He settles into a corner, amid the darkness, as the disease-riddenrodents take their place among him.

Te next day looms and it begins again. He retreats into the street, the same as the daybefore. Te shopkeeper turns on the radio to drown out the doomsaying shouts. TeDJs voice illuminates from the speakers:Okay folks, heres Prince with his latest sing le 1999!

Te shopkeeper smiles to himself and begins to hum the tune. Suddenly, there is com-motion in the streets. Te shop keeper races to the door with heavy breath and pulsingheart. Trough the window he can see that the sky is purple. Tere are people runningeverywhere. It is utter chaos. It is the apocalypse...

History has a way of repeating, even if it has to reinvent itself. Apocalyptic predictionsare present in nearly all cultures. In the year leading up to 2000, it was the Y2K scare.

People stayed away from their computers for days. Aer 2001, everything returned tonormal. We have survived 1999 and now a new terror has come upon us : 2012. Tenew age of paranoia has dawned on the millennium generation. It has been spokenabout in the media , literature, lms, and music. With the current inux of technol-ogy taking over our brain waves, conspiracy theories are easily spread through blogsand other raw internet sources. Tese theories only become real when enough peoplebelieve in them. It happened in 1999, and now, only two years away from 2012, the

world is on its toes again. Recently armageddon theories focus on the onset of thenatural disasters which seem to be taking humans by storm worldwide. Hurricanes,tornadoes, avalanches, landslides, they all have one thing in common: they dont dis-criminate.

Movies like Te Day aer omorrow and 2012 re-enforce prophesies that predict thecoming of the apocalypse. Tese lms portray the end of the world as inescapable.Novels such as Bill Douglass Te Awakening, and Whitley Striebers 2012: Te Warfor Souls plague the literary landscape. Te real apocalypse is the epidemic of amxietysurrounding 2012. Soon, the whole world will begin to live in fear of a multifarioussecond coming.

So, when will it happen? No one knows, but people are having a hell of a time guess-ing. Face it, the world is not frantic because the world is going to end--they are franticbecause they dont know when the world is going to end. Deep down, people know

that this life must draw to a close, but the disaster g oing to strike when we least expectit. Paranoia is highly contagious.

Although, there are other theories claiming that the 2012 apocalypse is just anotherhoax, a distraction for something worse, something no one is aware of yet. It has nodate, or set plan, it is the denitive end. It is Te Coming...

Once again, that was Prince and 1999.Te DJ cues another song on his set list when all of a sudden, silence.Sorry folks, there seems to be a bit of commotion down Yonge Street. It looks like atractor trailer carrying twelve tanks of purple paint has exploded. No worries, police

will arrive on the scene shortly...

Lori-Ann Russell

Armageddon Enzymes must have found their way into our cultures water supply. In these dark-ening days it seems I cant leave the decompression chamber of my fortied stronghold withoutoverhearing some half-spent pushing his or her sour slant on the End imes in a pe tulant frenzyof biblical clich , extraterrestrial rhetoric, and/or enviro-maniac conspiracy theory. In an age ofoverriding fear, in both secular and spiritual social groups, it is radical to suggest that we shouldstop focusing on doomsday scenarios and instead focus on the de velopment of the human soul.It is time to take responsibility for ourselves and o ur world. We must stop shirking the fate of

the human species over to ancient prophecy or supernatural beings. We may be traveling head-long into an era of massive change, but that change will happen rst within our consciousness. It

will reconstitute the way we see the world, aecting our thinking and being on a deep level. Tisprocess can only happen successfully if we resist the popular notion of Apocal ypse, and embraceits original meaning: o remove the veil.

Here is what we know: Our zeitgeist is rife with crises: ecological, economical, social, spiritual...Who among you can claim to be something more than decentered avatar? It is common forsocieties plugged into uncertain times to turn to Armageddon situations as a fearful solutionto our public and private woes. Yet it is extremely unproductive. We should not be looking tonatural disasters (dystopic) or an advanced alien species (utopic) to solve our problems for us.

We should be looking into ourselves and our fellow human beings for realistic answers basedon intelligence and compassion, rather than paranoia and distrust. We must reject the Pop-ocalypse and embrace the Apocalypsewe must actively work to nd a revelation. It seems thatmost people do not like the notion of work in this leisure-centered society. Perhaps then weshould approach the Apocalypse playfu llyWe must actively play in the game of the world to

win a revelation.

Apocalypse is the moment when the veil lis and reality, beyond ideology and conception,reveals itself. Tis can only happen in individual perception; it will not be delivered by aliens,masons, horsemen, or supercomputers. Apocalypse is the moment when your consciousnessshis into a sublime state. Te sum of your knowledge, your ideals, your identity, is dropped.You will then nd yourself on the interstellar danceoor, twisting to the rhythms of the cosmos;do you dance or just shue o?

Te Apocalyptic moment cannot be spoken about in any clear languag e. Our mundane ways ofthinking and speaking are part of the veil that is lie d in Apocalypse. Tis is why the discourseof Apocalypse must take recourse in mythic and poetic ways of speaking. Te mythic imageof the Hanged Man in the arot deck (Aha, you are saying, I knew he was a goddamn NewAger!) is an exemplary representation of the individual in an Apocalyptic state. Te HangedMan, for those unfamiliar, depicts a man suspended upside-down, tied to a tree by his foot. Heis not in agony, but a state of revelatory bliss. For the rst time, he is seeing the world free fromhis mental constructs. By turning his perspective upside-down, he is able to remove his precon-ceived notions about how things ought to be. Instead, he is seeing the world as it is. Tis imagereects the Norse myth of Odin, who hung himself upside-down from the world tree in orderto gain wisdom and insight into how the world works. o do this, he also had to pluck out oneof his eyes. Hows that for a new way of seeing!

It certainly is not in vogue, especially in a university setting, to go around discussing arot im-ages and calling for a sudden shi in consciousness. But I am do ing it, as are the rest of the staand contributors of Te Flying Walrus. We admit we are humble eschatologists; the predic-tions contained herein are not meant to be taken at face value. Tis is the work of individualsaspiring to heighten their consciousness, change their perceptions, and continue their quest foridentity and insight. No answers are contained in these articles (except for maybe that one well-researched piece), only questions. Questions and catalysts.

N. Alexander Armstrong


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HEALTH

4

Grunge queen Betty M., of the highly acclaimed experimental girlgroup Sister Psych, dishes out her nal fantasy feasts.

If apocalypse refers to a liing of the veil in an age of misconceptions and falsied realities,then let this be your reality check. Stop eating food you dont enjoy, start cooking for yourself,and be aware of what goes into the food you consume. Te best way to accomplish all this is tostop being so trusting of pre-prepared foods, and more importantly, the imposed idea of con-

venience. With practice and condence, cooking is not so dicult. Cooking with love reallydoes make your food taste better, not because it is magic, but because you care enough to try

your best and assess any issues you may have along the way.

It is important to feel good and have a physical appearance that reects that, but simply depriv-ing yourself of good food in an eort to mod ify the way you look is ludicrous. Understanding

portion control and balancing a meal with various components is a more worthwhile eort. Tisallows your body to break down and absorb nutrients at dierent times, thus allowing for morecomfortable digestion.

Carbohydrates, for example, spend the least amount of time in the stomach, while protein staysin the stomach longer, and fats the longest.http://digestie.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/yrdd/

Another advantage to cooking for yourself and your loved ones is that it allows for a betterunderstanding of seasonal produce and availability. For me, enjoying seasonal produce, whethereaten as-is or used in a rec ipe, is like having a passionate love aair with someone in the primeof their lives. You think to yourself holy shit, it couldnt get any better than this, even if thatmomentary conviction is eeting.

Terefore, when the challenge was set forth for me to create my ideal last supper in the face ofan apocalypse of the world is ending variety, I had some serious factors to consider. My answer

would depend on the country I am residing in, and in what season the sun would nally set forthe last time. Aer some debate, I selected Canada (rather than my current home of Scotlandor my former home of Japan). Te reason for this d enitive decision is quite simply because Iconsider it my home, lled with the people I love, food memories weve made, and my intrinsicunderstanding of the seasons and general product availability.

Since I am one who likes to be prepared for all sorts of situations, I decided it would be best todevise an outline for my dream meals within the context of each season rather than to try and

predict a fate and date beyond my control. Tough some of the menus seem laden with llingfoods and too many items, I assure you they are intended for small portions of ple asure and thuscomplement each other well. If my last meal, as I would hope it would be, is shared with various

valued companions, I would make more than necessary to allow for selective eaters and second(and third) helpings. I pay special attention to the desserts because they are strongly tied to posi-tive food memories.

It goes without saying that I would require ample amounts of music to be available for everyone of these meals and their preparation.Whether cooking for yourself or enjoying the cul inaryoerings of a trusted peer or chef, you never know if your next meal is going to be your last.

If the sun were to set, for the last time, in the thick of a sweaty SUMMERTis meal would be served around a large table in a backyard, with good friends andgood music. Most of the meal would be prepared earlier in the day, allowing for theburgers, ribs, and corn to be nished on the BB between the salad and main course.Salad: Standard Summer Salad- mixed greens, red onion, homemade candied nuts,homemade croutons, goats cheese, dried berries, and pear, topped with a homemaderaspberry balsamic vinaigrette.Main Plate: A Mini BBd Burger (homemade burger topped with tomato, avocado,sauted mushrooms, BB sauce, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, bacon and real cheddarcheese) served alongside two perfectly cooked (meat falling o the bone) Sticky, Sweet-and-Spicy BB Ribs, and sides of Garlicky, Sesame Green Beans and Corn on the Cob.Dessert: I would satisfy our need for a sweet treat to beat the summer heat in a lightand fresh way, serving a family-style bowl of a heaping assortment of fresh berries with

SISTER PSYCHS LAST SUPPER Betty M.

freshly whipped cream and topped with fresh garden-grown mint. Bonus points if theberries were picked as an activity earlier in the day. Also note that if an ice cream truck

were to roll down the street playing a classic, I would chase it down and get a vanillacone dipped in chocolate.Drinks: Bottled beers; water with lemon, lime, and cucumber; mojitos; bloody marys/caesars; sodas; lemonade; wine.

If the quakes start as temperatures fall in AUTUMNSoup: Cream of Mushroom Soup or Miso Soup.Salad: Roasted Vegetable Salad- mixed greens, roasted vegetables (potatoes, eggplant,turnips, carrots, onions, garlic), goats cheese, homemade croutons, topped with ahomemade balsamic vinaigrette and a fresh lemon wedge (to be squeezed over thenished plate).Main Plate: A small piece of High Quality Steak, cooked to medium and thinly sliced,served with homemade Guacamole and a Warm Mushroom Salad topped with CrispyShredded Potatoes.Desserts: As autumn approaches and the summer nights become cold, I am neverbitter, because I know apple-picking season will soon be upon us. Quite simply put,there is nowhere I would rather spend the aernoon than roaming around an orchard,gathering the main component of nearly all my favourite fall feast nishes: AppleCrisps, Baked Apples, Apple Pie, Spiced Apple Cake and Apple arts. Ideally any andall of these items would be served warm with freshly-whipped cream.

If the earth freezes over while I want to warm up in WINTERBreads: Cheddar Dill Biscuits and warm Corn Bread.Soup: Spicy Lentil Soup or Vegetable Chicken Chili.Main Plate: Small portions of Homemade Bacon Macaroni and Cheese, SouthernFried Chicken, and Pulled Pork; Spicy, Creamy Coleslaw (with corn kernels and avo-cado) on the side.Dessert: o beat the blues of winter I call on some fall favourites that dont includeapples- particularly things that turn the oven into a kitchen-heater. Since I have neverbeen one to shy away from winter weight and spoil myself, I would pick Pecan Pie andPumpkin (or classic) Crme Brule, both of which are perfection in any season.

If the meteor strikes as the weather softens into SPRINGSalad: Mustardy Mushroom and Spinach Salad- spinach with warm morel mushrooms,bacon, walnuts, homemade croutons, and homemade Dijon mustard vinaigrette.Main Plate: An assortment of Homemade Pizzas (with a variety of toppings) servedalongside Steamed Broccoli, and Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce.Dessert: Surrounded by images of Easter bunnies and eggs it is not chocolate I cravebut Light, Airy Meringues and Moist, Fruit-Filled Pineapple Carrot Cake with a Lem-ony Cream Cheese Icing.


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5

HEALTH / ARTS

Regular gym-goers expect new faces every January. Tese are the same unfamiliar faces that makethe common New Years resolution of attempting to commit to a workout routine, but quicklyfade away along with their new workout gear. Everyone knows that living an active lifestyle isgood for your health and most people want to live this type of life but cant seem to stop fallingback into their old habits. It is time to change our perspective and realize that bec oming healthyand active does not have to be a chore. It can become part of your daily routine, something assimple as brushing your teeth in the morning. Te transition from the old way of unhealthysedentary living to a new life of being healthy and active can be easy and fun. So why not startnow and separate yourself from those people who make the same New Years resolution every

year? Why not muster up the courage and beat the inevitable January rush? Once you have putthe past behind you and commit to your new self, I will contest that every single aspect of yourlife will be improved. Everything from your academic life to your sexual libido will be far better

than before. Here are some quick innovative tips to help you stay motivated and on top of yournewly committed self.Update iPod weekly: Upload your favourite new songs to keep you up upbeat throughout your

workout routine. Tis will encourage you to jam to a list of new songs every week at the g ym.

Te crashing, something disorganized is approaching,Spilling foreword in what I think is a wave.

Te King, crown askew, is speaking sounds,Waving his arms, back to everything, the world beyond,Addressing the people focused, muttering and analyzing,Te intricacies of his arms orchestrated movements.

Te thing...as it arrives it reveals itself in the only wayTat can be dened: as a stampede of horsesArmoured hollow eyed mustangs, spaces between them,Coming from the vast mountainous,Green ranges of Wyoming.

Te thing and the world beyond the king with tunnel vision,Become visible in front of his people in the marble courtAt the last second before collision.

Tey are wiped out into the dust that blows away.

Stop.Spin the clock like a coin, counter-clockwise,You see it all happen in reverse.It hasnt happened yet.

Te crashing, something disorganized is approaching,

Spilling foreword in what I think is a wave.

Te King has vanished from the marbled court, hiding.Te people are fearful, they know something approaches.Because they are fearful they build towers to lie atop of,Tey run away with glorious wind whistling through their ears,Tey climb the mountains. Tey try to tame the wild beasts.

Te thing...as it arrives it reveals itself in the only way,Tat can be dened, as a stampede of horses,Armoured hollow eyed mustangs, spaces between them,Coming from the vast mountainous,Green ranges of Wyoming.

Te thing and the world it is from become revealedIn an instant,

Just before collision with the at empty royal c ourt.It is trampled and broken into shards of marble,

Jagged and rough, glimmering,With multiple reections of some other lig ht

FIVE QUICK TIPS TO ENJOY YOUR NEW HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

THE KING WILL HIDE & THE PEOPLE WILL BE AFRAID

Michelle Lambert & Richard Cheam

Paul Costa

Do-yourself-up: Create your own personal positive environment at the gym. Be yourself, feelgood about yourself, and you will learn to love the g ym and the environment.

Say hello to someone new: Tis can stir up a conversation and leading to new friendships, mak-ing your time at the gym e ven more enjoyable.

Look up new exercises weekly: Not only can you implement new workouts weekly to keep youchallenged, but looking up new workout routines will also help generate interest and motivation.

Prepare a new healthy meal: ry some new healthy alternative, and mix things up in thekitchen. You might surprise yourself how good some of these healthy meals are.

Tese tips can make your new healthy lifestyle more pleasurable so you can enjoy being your newself. You will feel better, become more condent, look better, and you will be in c ontrol of yourlife. Achieving this lifestyle does not have to be as hard as once thought. Dont be like all theother Gym-uaries with their wasted gym memberships. Make it a part of your day-to-day rou-tine, have fun with it, enjoy your better life, and never look back at the way your life was before.


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I got up one morning and the Apocalypse was in my cereal yes, the big rev-elation was waiting there inside the great abyss that is the hole in the centerof a Honey Nut Cheerio. he milk turned red with bloodpink actually, likestrawberry milkand I saw a beast rise up out of the strawberry sea, havingseven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crownseach one a HoneyNut Cheerioand upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And he looked-so there upon his wristwatch and I heard the voice of the great beast say,Well get you back in time for class. Come and see.

And I saw my license to be a kid expire and my childhood and my surrogate sub-stance substitutes drain from my bones leaving me stranded on a Sunday evening,awkward and adult. I saw my wife, bloated with child, stuffing her face, and this dis-gusted me. And our first born was old enough to ask Why was I born? And to thatI have no response except You were born to appease my instincts, you were born tofulfill my desires and to make my life less of a bore and I have no real answers for

you. And he says Well I dont want to die but many are the times I wish I had neverbeen born. And what can I say then? What apology can be made? And there is neverenough money to be satisfied and there is too much money to tell myself Im notgluttonous. And there is no such thing as progress any more, only change, and I hatemy job that offers neither progress nor change, and I flirt with death as she circlesme like a vulture and whoremonger. I see her in the circle of a gun barrel that I putto my eye, I see her in the circle of locomotives headlamp as I lay on the tracks, I seeher in the circle of a noose tied from the extension cord that powers our Christmaslights, I see her in the circle of a wine bottles spout and the circles of the sleeping

pills beside, I see her in the drain circled with blood as my veins empty themselves,and most of all I her in the circles under my eyes in the motherfucking mirror.

And I saw myself take a communion of strong coffee each day, and a wafer of va-

lium, and I cannibalize the holy body of capitalism five days a week and on thesixth and seventh days I live in fear of midlife Mondays where my parents stillremind me how young I am, and my children still remind me how old I am, andthe mirror just reminds me of how still I amhow petrified I becomein those

pathetic double digit hours when Id prefer to hear the cracking of the seal on abottle of scotch than the sound of my own childs laughter, because its been a longday, and a longer life, and my headache is nothing for my child to laugh at, and a

ARTS

FREE APOCALYPSE INSIDE EVERY BOX Roland Singer

laughing child is nothing to drink over, and a dying day is nothing to think over,and tomorrow is already hung over with the wanton wine of yesterdays youth.

And who would believe in my visions? Who but the pure-bred dogs of war orthe eternally inbred hounds of hellwhich thirst only for more souls, moresoldiers for the rapturewhich are untamed yet never bite the hands thatfeed because in their flaming canine hearts they know the man attached tothose bloody hands will eventually be fed head over heels into their rabid jawsby the next man in line, and forever more down that lineand down all theichor-crusted corridors of historythey will feast on the men that feed.

And why must God make trouble for man? Well sit you down and write a story,and see how interesting it turns out if everything is love and gold and perfec-tion and pure empathy in its allusions and atmosphere. Who would read it? Who

would publish it? Who would believe it? So who would believe in heaven?

And I saw us all prancing on Gods eternal page, each footprint one of His im-mortal words, each solemn sigh and terraforming tear is but another example ofhis omniscient onomatopoeia. And every once in a while, when Im feeling at mylowestmy absolute lie-down dirt-eating lowestthat almighty fountain pendescends on waxen wings from a rift in the purple and orange clouds, and its all-knowing nib of Gods own gold circles my head like a halo and the pen fountainsstraight into my earit flows with all of creation and youth and deteriorationand death, and the ink of existence blots my mind and soaks my soul. And blackand impenetrable as it is, I start to see my reflection in the apocryphal pool ofinkI see that I am at my lowest but also that I am at my highest. And apoca-lypse means revelation, and there is only one revelation, and that is that theennui of Earththe malediction of man, the wretchedness of womanis all

just part of the greatest story ever written, and that although everything is per-fect within its gates, Heavenif you believe in itmust be as boring as Hell.

I woke with a start and pulled my head out of my cereal bowlmy facecovered in milk and Honey Nut Cheerios and strawberry syrup.And God damn it all I was late for class.

We never ne eded that war butIm glad you sang it Vera.You wrote me love letters on the radio andI wanted to marry you.I hear there are still churches in New Mexico ;Say yes to this little boy, to this poor fat man,and well prove ourselves pureon those white sandscontemplating the trinity.

Well make a home on Mojave sheet glass and dust.

At night Ill rub my hands ag ainst our gramophoneAnd keep warm by your ember records.Crack a Fanta, curl up and trace craters on my chest,You whisper future res into the radio.Audience, hear our bomb shelter acousticsand our geiger-mller music,keeping time with the oil wells.

(Vera and me in B-17s, B-O -M-B-I-N-G)

Our sixth toes will be o ur wedding bands.So let me be your roentgen equivalent man,Our hairs grows Gy and there isnt much time --

Love has a half-life.

Say yes, say no, but dont sayAuf Wiedersehen, sweetheart.Fly over Vera sing your songIll be thereomorrow,

Just you wait and see.

BLUE BIRD Ernest ReidAer announcing our theme for this issue, the Walrus inbox was ooded with emails om worried students about

the end of the world. So I thought Id take the time to answer a few of your concerns. With the rise in popularityof zombie movies kinemortophobia has infested the public mentality. Many of our readers asked How do you

preent a zombie apocalypse? Well reader if you are asking that you are shit out of luck. Tere is no way to stopa zombie apocalypse om happening, but there are ways to surie it. If youe seen any zombie icks you know

theres always that one character who goes crazy / betrays / tries to rape / generally [expletie deleted] oer eery-

body else. In situations where society has degraded into sparse anarchist pockets co-operation is ital for surial.Remember its always the guy who splits o and goes it alone who dies rst. o prepare you for the end of the world

here is a list of tips to make it through it all with your bunker buddy.

Share Tere is nothing worse than being stuck with someone who eats all the rations or hogsthe sheets at night. o avoid eventual resentment with your partner be sure to share all suppliesaccording to need. Everyone is going to want more than they can get sometimes. Compromise is

important.Weapons Weapons are necessary. Every survivor should have one, but survivors should practicesafe habits to avoid unintended accidents. Swords and other jabbing weapons should always besheathed and/or covered. Guns should never be pointed at your partners body/face/hair in case itaccidentally discharges and makes a horrible mess.Communication If you are going to spend your last days with this person open dialogue is impor-tant. Secrets will create more tension in already tense situations; eventually that zombie you let getaway is going to wander in through the door. A discussion with your partner can eliminate a lot ofnasty surprises.Zombie Friends Tat zombie may have been your friend since you were six, you may haveslept in the same bed that one time and totally nothing happened, but really we all know they only

want you for your brains, and they will bite your neck the rst chance they get. Your partner(s)wont want them around for long even if at rst they say it doesnt bother them. Make sure to take

them out back and make sure they know its over.Space If you are going to see this person every day for the rest of your natural (and sometimesunnatural) lives. o avoid cabin fever make sure to take a little bit of time each day to invest in

yourself; read a chapter of a book, play with your radio, etc. No one wants to be with someonewho doesnt want to be with themselves. But under no circumstances go out for a walk alone.Never go to sleep angry Make sure to resolve all problems before you go to sleep. If you dont

you may not to wake up the next morning.

I hope these tips hae helped reliee some tension for you and keep those emails coming!

SURVIVAL TIPS Blair Beauchesne


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ARTS

HIS IS A PRERECORDED CACOPHONY DESIGNED O ACCOMPANY A ERRIBLECAASROPHE!

HE NANO-MIE EMERGENCY IS SPREADING HROUGHOU HE GREAER O-RONO AREA...

...INVISIBLE O A LL AVAILABLE HUMAN EYES... WOULD YOU BELIEVE I, SIMPLE-ONS?

HESE MINIAURE MIES END O BURROW INO BASEMEN DWELLINGSHONE IN ON CANNED FOOD RESERVES;INVISIBLE O YOUR OPEN EYE, HEY WILL CON AMINAE YOURSAFES FOOD.

HE CONAMINAION PROCESS IS VILE AND DANGEROUS.INFILRAION A A DEEP MOLECULAR LEVEL ALLOWS PARASIIC MIESO ACHIEVE ABNORMAL FOOD MOBILIY,

VESSELS USED O FORCE A SWARM UPON YOUR PERSON.

HEY HAVE BU ONE OBJECIVE: GAIN A LARGER HOS BODY.YOU ARE HA HOS B ODY.YOU ARE HA HOS B O-UDDY.EMERGENCY IN YOUR CIY!

HIS SPECIES CAN AMASS INCREDIBLE ARMIES,AKE HEED;PREVEN A MIEDOM FROM OVERAKING YOUR NEIGHBOURHOODOR HEY WILL ROAM UNHINDEREDHROUGH YOUR HOMES IN A SINGLE NIGHAS EASILY AS A PILLAGE-HUNGRY CREW OF VIKINGS CAN CU HROUGHFIELDS OF S HEEP.

YOU ARE HA FIELD OF S HEEP.

SEAL OFF YOUR BASEMEN,HIDE IN A ROOM WIHNO VENIL AION WHASOEVER;ENJOY HE PLEA SAN SENSAION HA

WASHES OVER YOUR PERSON.

MAINAIN A RIGID, PLEASURABLESAE OF MIND,FOR AIDE IS ON HE WAY.I REPEA, YOU WILL BE AIDED(with what immediacy can be musteredduring these hard times).

AKE HEED,DON DO WHA DAVEY DAPPER DOES:

Te Dapper family have always prepared for the worst of these scenarios: deep shelves ofnon-perishable foods line the walls of a large lower basement built around two smaller rooms:a spare bedroom and another packed to its utmost with a games cabinet, a small sink, a toiletand the old, uncomfortable couch. Davey Dapper gures the family can survive with scantentertainment for over three months. At the rst ominous syllable ERR-, d espite the eortsof our prescribed announcement to convey successful parasite avoidance, Davey Dapper herdshis family of four into the lower basement and locks them all together; this dopey Dapper

practices uninformed safety before allowing the situation to sink in at all.

DAVEY DAPPER Ted KillinTe rst indication of trouble appears in the still form o f the family cat, Shues. Openinga tin of wet foo d and walking away, the Dapper son is horried to discover an unmoving catface-down in its dish aer ve minutesthe animal succumbs to a bubbling pudd le, nger-liketendrils of food solid ifying around the snout to cut o its air supply. Although the cat makesno further eorts to extricate itself, its hair ripples as a single heaving membrane, as though a

healthy wind whips through the basement hall. Ol Davey Dapper brushes this e vent o as asymptom of the cats old age, combined with a particularly hairy case of rigor mortis. He placesthe body in the c orner of the food stacks to dissuade familial melancholy, and washes his hands.

Soon thereaer, cans closer to the walls of the basement begin to bulge and leak. Davey Dapperis prone to blame inferior product until he observes a can of legumes shudder and open, its con-tents spraying onto the oor in violent hic cups. Aware of the rippling esh of the le gumes strug-gling toward him, he nally de cides to enter the upper basement in order to che ck for updateson the event, but he has already wasted far too much time: a wall of gyrating cans block his wayand topple down as soon as he steps onto the lowest stair. He quickly retreats into the smallspare bedroom with his family. Te sound of rolling aluminum lls the room, echoing throughthe diminished space. Te family can hear freed organic matter slither down the hall. Te thin

wooden door seems pa infully insucient to safeguard against such a restless meal.Davey Dappers stomach emits a long, low rumble, a sound that breaks the standstill. Deaf to afatherly warning, the daughter creeps forward slowly to place an ear to the door as creamed cornoozes underneath. Te daughter opens her mouth to scream but a cherry tomato drops fromabove, lodging in her throat, covering her larynx. A strange red glow appears around her pupilsas the tomato slips into her belly, and she utters two drawn out syllables: taaaaaek miiiiiiiiiii.Te daughter disappears under the door as it bursts from its moorings. A wave of corn, c hopped

potatoes, and green beans ows towards the family, each vegetable group ghting amongstthemselves in an undulating eort to fall upon these he lpless meat-lled abodes. Davey Dapperclamps his mouth, but the young boy and his wife slacken their mouths in fear and green beanssecure a space between their molars in an instant, standing vertical for a moment before ruptur-ing and slithering into their gullets. Aer a moment of hesitation, red cl usters disperse through

their white sclera as both wife and child smile toward Davey: taaaaaek miiiiiii. Creamed cornspirals up toward his mouth, dispersing along the edge of his pressed lips, unable to penetratehis salivary sluices.

He bolts upstairs to nd that the way has been cleared slightly, many of the cans unable to resistthe nal assault on the downstairs door. He scrabbles upward four-legged and cans slide andburst under the pressure of his appendages. He cannot avoid slicing his hands on e xposed edge s.Te more cans that slip under his grasp, the more raw material is added to the growing mass ofuncooked fodder that seeps upwards to compromise his autonomy. Te smiling faces of his fam-ily emerge in the mess bel ow as they lurch aer him, masticated non-perishables dripping fromtheir incisors, esh roiling all over their exposed bodies.

taeeeekkkkk miiiii... oooooo... taeeekk miiiiiiii...

He rips cherry tomatoes o of his arms while they latch onto his open wounds, but he cannotreach the pieces that crawl up his leg, that clamp to his ngers. Within moments he feels his

vision dimming, his body f ailing in strength; his family below smiles expectantly. He ghts tokeep his eyelids moving as a voice steals into his mind:

taaeek oooooo? taaeeekkkkk ooooooooo...

DAVEY DAPPER IS A FOOL.

DON DO AS DAVEY DAPPER DOES.

Some people may tell you that the rst apocalypse was millions of years ago when a rogue hunkof space rock collided with the earth and killed o the noble dinosaur race. Tey would be

wrong. Tat is the natural history they teach elementary school students because it is easy. Tetruth about earths rst apocalypse has been smothered by mainstream historians, but a smallgroup of researchers and historians, led by Dr. VonWesterheimerton, are nally publishing thefacts. Te orthodox thinkers of the old guard say that Anyone who isnt mentally defective willrealize there is insucient evidence to prove that this theor y is even plausible. Evidence hasnever been a requirement for the Walrus to publish something, so here are the real facts aboutthe Monkey-Brained Apocalypse.

Te fossil record shows that dinosaurs were the dominant lifeforms on earth for millions o fyears and the e volutionary ancestors of humans rst started appearing well aer the dinosaurshad gone extinct. Dr. Roland VonWesterheimerton says this is a short sighted theory. Dr.

VonWesterheimerton has theorized that before the dominance of those cold-blooded reptilesa civilization of proto-primates dominated the planet. Critics of Dr. VonWesterheimerton askif this is true why dont we see any remains predating the dinosaurs? Dr VonWesterheimertonbelieves that an event so violent oc curred that it destroyed any and all evidence of these ur-apes.An event Dr VonWesterheimerton calls Te Monkey-brained Apocalypse.

THE MONKEY-BRAINED APOCALYPSE Blair BeauchesneIn a dream Dr. VonWesterheimerton claims he built a time-machine and travelled back to thisage of primordial monkeys. With him he brought a pair of roller skates so he could see as muchof the early earth as possible in his short amount of time. Te rst and only creatures he spied

were a tribe of these archaic orangutans. Dr. VonWesterheimerton describes them as uprightmammals that stood nearly ve feet tall, c overed with luxuriously so golden f ur, with one

purple eye and one turquoise. Tese simple simians were so taken with his wheeled foot-gearthat they immediately began producing them. Dr. VonWesterheimerton was so impressed bythese prehistoric mammals that he studied them for several decades. Te Dr. describes this

period as a g olden age, a time of invention and advancement. Sadly this civilization of primeval

baboons grew too quickly. (A tear comes to the corners of Dr. VonWesterheimertons eyes ashe details this part of their history) Tey quickly realized how silly they had become. Everysingle poorly evolved foot clamped within a rollerskate, arms and tails ailing trying to achieve

precarious balance. Unable to cope with their shame, the wisest chimps realized that such asilly creature could not possibly exist. Instantly the whole species reasoned themselves out ofexistance. Not even a single pair of rudimentary simian-sized skates remained as evidence forDr. VonWesterheimerton. All the go od Dr. could do was wake up and transcribe his acco unt ofthe rst apocalypse as he experienced it. Maybe one day Dr. VonWesterheimerton will nd theevidence he nee ds to rub it in the face of all those pretentious monkey-brained historians.


8/16

FEATURE*

8

I do not mean to alarm anyone, but academia, you know that thing you are doing and spending

thousands of dollars on? Its failing. Dont panic, Philosophy majors, this has nothing to do withyou or your useless degree (well, being an English major Im a pot calling a kettle black here,but you probably dont believe in either pots or kettles because they dont think or doubt theirexistence like you do as Philosophy majors). No, why academia is failing is very simple, and itscares me how simple it really is.

Some students do not know how ush a toilet.

A simple problem, but a problem that piles on and a problem that should not be occurring inan academic institution that has systems in place to wee d out idioc y and inanity, and a systemthat can singlehandedly destroy futures and traumatize with tuition costs, percentages, grades,and other mental mind games. Tis system however, allows in these people, people the schoolitself respects enough to allow into a classroom that teaches the human genome, Sartre, String

Teory, and the wonders of the Renaissance and al l those purdy pictures, even though they lackthe basic familiarity with the toilet and proper use of it. Te y defecate into these outlets builtto defecate into, they pe e on seats, they clo g the bowl with unnecessary amounts of toilet paper,and they throw im Hortons doughnut bags and pop cans into the water; but they l ack thespark in their head, that supposed spark the school saw when it viewed their high school tran-scripts on a piece of paper and/or computer screen and allowed them into university, enablingthem to pull a lever that would ush all their dung down a drain. And even when they accom-

plish that, they forget to wash their hands.

YORKU GO DOWN THE HOOOOOOOOLE!: HOW HIGHER EDUCATION LOSES BECAUSE OF A LOW FLOW PROBLEM Sasha Makarewicz

You do not ne ed Nietzsche. You do not need Camus. It is all right there in a toilet. Te se ass-

holes (forgive me, I am using the technical term) eclipse our supposed bright futures and reduceour generation to more methane in the atmosphere. Tese people could be lawyers, doctors,and Mayors of oronto. Tey could be at the highest levels of government, they could be on topof the corporate world, they could be on MV and run NBC, they could be on Wall Street;and the thing is, they are already there, and nothing is stopping more of them from piling onto the dingle berry mountain of society and culture. We let this happen and we are continuingthis non-ush cycle because we are not doing anything about it. Yes, it is a simple problem, notushing a toilet, but that can mean something greater and fouler than what is there in the toilet.It means letting the ignorant and arrogant people, those who do not respect us or our intel-ligence, get what they want, and leaves us to deal with their crap. We let them get away with notushing a toilet, we let them start wars for no reason, we let them bomb the economy, and itdoes not get better. It gets worse.

Yes, York University, the school that educated the great minds of Jim Flaherty, Ronnie VannucciJr., and Keanu Reeves, is an unclean and unushed toilet bowl be cause of this, but so is everyuniversity and education, and societ y in general right now. It takes ony Danza becoming agrade 10 high school English teacher in Philadelphia to realize that academia, higher education,society as it is now and as it progresses, is fa iling; and its going to take more than a Danza ExMachina to x this, but we can start by learning how a toilet works.

Curran Folkers


9/16

FEATURE*

9

Its 2010 and the population of the planet is reaching dangerously unsustainable numbers. Ithink everyone already knows how badly weve screwed ourselves in the food department; Imtalking genetic modication, Im talking pol lution- and thats not e ven addressing the issue of

whether or not theres even enough of this mangled foo dstu to go around. Im really not a bigfan of the sensationalized reality checks we oen get in the intros of these sorts of articles (orthe lead-ins to most plans of action concerning the future, really). Here is the shit we are in:now heres the shovel. Te problem I nd is that by the time Im done the introduction, Im so

panicked and depressed and hopeless, I dont even want to keep reading because I feel as thoughIm hanging on to the wall of a bottomless pit by my ngernails and several of them are bro-ken because I dont get enough minerals in my diet and no fractional reduction of my ec ologi-cal footprint is going to g et me out of it. If were really only two years away from the end of the

world, theres no use ge tting our feet stuck in the sludge of our forbearers. Lets talk about now.Were still living, were still breathing; were still experiencing the pains and pleasures of being.

Te plan now is to segue smoothly from the mention of broken ngernails and minerals and dietsto my topic of discussion. What is a balanced diet? What is the chemistry of it, besides the kind ofbalance thats achieved by slapping unappetizing illustrations of various foods on a rainbow?

The BreakdownWe all know that our bodies gain the energy they need, on a cellular level, by metabolizing thefats, carbohydrates, and proteins we ingest. Eating is great, so is breathing; oxygen intake also

plays a signicant role in energy production (Kin students, go nuts). But as our bodies metabo-lize food, they also produce metabolic waste products, many of which are acidic and need tobe neutralized before they are excreted. Ever had a muscle cramp ten minutes into your brandnew active lifestyle, that time you and your buds remembered there was a whole world outside

your apartment? Tats the lacti acid produce d when your cells try to gain energ y without anadequate supply of oxygen (you Kin crowd are probably familiar with aerobic training exercisesthat help prevent this diculty).

Furthermore, we all know that our bodies need vitamins (those mysterious lettered ones) and

minerals (the ones they push on you in dairy ads) in order to function properly. We get ourminerals from food, since o ur bodies cant produce them autonomously. Te point of all thattalk about cellular metabolizing is that for the neutralization of acids, alkaline mineral saltsare necessary and indeed very important. All that wonderful acid metabolic waste is expelledby means of our blood stream, the pH of which our bodies vigilantly strive to maintain. Everyexhale, we discharge, in the form of carbon dioxide, the carbonic acid that is carried to our lungs

via the bloodstream. High school biolog y taught us that other acids are slain by our kidneysand spectacularly banished by way of urine.

THE LASTSUPPER Maria Golikova

The Build-uponights word is dynamic equilibrium. What we should strive for is a balance bet ween acidand alkaline mineral salts within our bodies, not to mention a balance between fo od ingestionand excretion (yikes!) of all these metabolic waste products. If all you take from this article isblah blah blah balance blah blah, Id be more than satised. Ideally what you should bestriving for is a diet that factors in your own individual nutritional needs, but the general ruleis that 75% of the food you eat should be of the alkaline persuasion in order to maintain this

proper internal pH. Now, if youve been waiting for me to get to the meat n potatoes here that is, which foods it is that are alkalinizing and which are acidif ying Im sorry to disappoint

you, but it aint the meat n potatoes. Big surprise: its the meats, pou ltry, dairy, yeasts (yes,unfortunately, that means alcohol too), and sweets we should be limiting to about a quarter ofour entire diet. But really, it shouldnt exactly come as a revelation that its the foods we alreadyknew were good for us that should comprise most of it: leafy greens, fruits, vegetables, herbs.I am just hoping to explain why we need to be conscious of these nutritional considerations,because the consequences of the unscrupulous dietary habits we engage in as North Americanscan really be catastrophic. So much so that there is already a scientic term coined : hyperacidity.Its a slow process, but it does make sense that if your body doesnt have enough alkal ine mineral

salts for metabolic neutralization, itll resort to other mechanisms to counter the imbalance.Tose include brazenly dumping all the acidic wastes into your connective tissues until su-cient minerals are available again, and in prolonged cases of hyperacidity, resorting to your ownminerals (like the precious calc ium in your bones) for substitution. Dynamic equilibrium.

I would not be so bold as to consider what Ive communicated to you a solution to the crisisstate of aairs were in, amidst the hurricanes and droughts and volcanoes and famines, butrather a set of tools to aid you be (moderately) healthy and (moderately) happy for the time be-ing. If, for some of you, the main motivation for improving the nutritional balance of your dietis that you want to look so hot you leave behind scorch marks on the face of the ruined world

when it ends by your catastrophe of choice, then Im giving you some information to consider.I might also sugge st for you to al low the possibility to enter your consciousness, and purpose-fully oat somewhere, in the recesses of the same, that the world will not end on December

21st, 2012, that you may yet be faced with an entire lifetime of lethargy and indigestion in thisincreasingly toxic world, and that given this possibility, you might as well start doing what youcan to turn it around now.

Tis is totally not an endorsement but if you want some more information, including a compre-hensive list of alkalinizing and acidifying foods, visit http://www.energiseforlife.com/list_of_alka-line_foods.php.

SHOW CAKE, xxxx!! 2010, InstallationPhoto : Keizo KiokuCourtesy of MORI AR MUSEUM and Mujin-to Production, okyo, Japan

(What you ought to know about food ifyou want to leae a good lookin corpse)


10/16

ARTS

10

PRELUDE TO 2012Scene: Te room is dark. Seated on a bench against the wall are 3 gures. A young man clothedin white is seated on the le. He is barefoot and there are isible wounds on his hands, feet, and athis side. A red haired lady sits beside him. Her dress is made up of leaes, ines and owers. Her

skin has a greenish tinge, and small animals surround her. Seated beside her is a l arge gure witha dragon-like body and a head of a squid. Its green scales and large ruddy wings are all covered inprimordial slime. Te three gures sit upon the bench waiting quietly.

A man and woman enter the room. Te woman is tall and blonde, wearing a skimpy red dress withmatching red heels. She has long legs and platinum blonde hair. She seems perfectly human exceptthat eery now and then her eyes ash with a red light. Machine-like.

Te man is shorter than the woman. He wears a crisp black business suit with black shoes, black tieand black shades. A scythe with a wicked blade protrudes om his briefcase. He sets his briefcasedown, and clears his throat.

Man in Black: I would like to thank you all for meeting today. I know we all have busy schedulesso lets get this over with as soon as possible.

Te woman in red steps forward and the lights dim. A slide show appears on the far side of the wall.

Woman in Red: Ladies and gentlemen allow me explain why humanity must end in order for theearth to survive (CLICK: Te screen shows a picture of animal that looks like a cross of a zebra and

a horse). Equus quagga: A beautiful animal that once populated the plains of Africa. Extinct by1883. (CLICK: Te next slide is a dog with tiger stripes) Tylacinus cynocephalus, also knownas the asmanian tiger. Extinct by 1936. (CLICK: this time it is a pudg y looking bird) Raphuscucullatus, thehe Dodo bird. Extinct within the 17th century. All said animals have one thingin common. Tey were wiped out by the interference of human beings. Tey either lost theirnatural habitats due to human expansion, were hunted to extinction, or both. Tousands of

creatures face imminent extinction thanks to humanity.

Te African Rhino, Polar Bear, iger, Giant Pandathe list goes on. Tey cannot exist peaceful-ly with nature and defy her ver y laws. Tey are an anomaly. Where in nature do they t in? Teytake more than they need and they destroy what they have no use for. Tey cut down the worldsrainforests for fuel, farmland, and so that they can erec t homes for themselves. Nearly half of the

worlds wildlife is fo und within these rainforests. Te Amazon River alone holds more spec iesof sh than the entire Atlantic Ocean. For every acre the humans cut down thousands of livingthings are lost forever.

A new slide appears. Barren landscapes void of any isible life appear on the screen.

Woman in Red: Exxon Valdez 1989, Chernobyl 1986, Seveso1976, Bhopal 1984, Love Canal

Niagara, and the Mississippi Dead Zone. All major disasters caused by human error. Eachincident had devastating eects on the surrounding environments. It will take centuries for theland to heal -if ever- and to sustain life once more. Tey poison the very soil and air. Tey alterthe very climate of earth due to industrial machines and overuse of fossil fuels. Teir capacityfor self-denial is staggering. Tey live wastefully and refuse to change while placing the blameon others. Humans are like parasitesOnce this planet is dr y and dead, they will reach out tothe stars in search of another earth to settle on, and the destructive process begins anew. Teythreaten life itself with their very existence.

Te slideshow ends

Woman in Red: Teir crimes against nature pale in comparison to the crimes they commit

towards each other. Human beings kill and hurt each other o ut of greed, pettiness, and spite.How many wars have they fought ? How many genocides have they committed? Even now theycannot live together in peace. Teir so called governments are corrupt and unstable; they hidebehind facades and grasp for p ower. Do you know what a nuclear war would d o to this very

planet? Yet they keep building weapons of mass destruction to use against each other.

Tey throw food and cl othes away as if they are nothing, yet there are people starving through-out the world. How can they live so gluttonously when they know that on the other side of the

world, others are dying from hunger?

ake a look at their society! Teir actors are paid more than their doctors! Laughable! Look athow much value they put towards pleasure than towards their very lives!

Man in White: But they show compassion and try to help others in need.

Woman in Green: And they are trying to save what little wildlife is le.

Woman in Red: Is not poverty a human creation? Tey are the cause of their own strife anddestruction. It seems almost comical to see them struggling to x their own problems. Teydisrupt nature and lament when faced with the consequences. Give or take a couple centuries,the human race will have destroyed itself and Earth. In order for the earth to survive, humanitymust die. Teir time is coming and a decision must be made.

Ray Garcia Bridget stood at the glass door and watched the city burn. Behind her in the apartment livingroom Nina and Brenton sat on the couch and played Mario Kart. She had been on the bal-cony watching the chaos below, but the heat had grown too intense and she relented to watch-ing the re through a barrier now. Even that was beginning to get too warm. She was sure if she

put her hand on the glass her skin would melt to it.You asshole! Nina yelled as Brenton, who always played as Bowser, threw a shell at Ninas

Princess Peach, sending her kart into a spin.Dont hate the player, hate the game, Brenton chuckled.Do you guys think we should do something? Bridget asked, her eyes still locked on the

rising blaze.I already told you theres a third controller, Brenton replied, as Bowser went over the n-

ish line. He jumped up and threw the controller down in victory.Eat it loser!

I dont want to play Mario Kart, Bridget sighed and walked into the kitchen, separatedfrom the living room by half a wall, to get a glass of water. She turned the faucet, but no watercame out, just a metallic whine.

Shit, the waters gone.Nina looked at Brenton with wide eyes

Do you think it evaporated?Brenton shrugged, starting a new game.

Eh, who cares?How are we supposed to use the washroom? Nina asked as Bridget walked back into the

living room empty handed.Go on the balcony, Brenton suggested.Te three of them all turned to look at the citywide inferno.Or the sink, Brenton turned back to the game.Suddenly the V went black.And there goes the power, Bridget sighed.Oh, fucking great! Brenton sat back against the couch in defeat.

o be honest, Im surprised it lasted that long, Nina smiled.Now what?What are other people doing? Bridget looked back out the glass door. Yesterday she

could still see people running around, some in a desperate panic, but many trying pathetically toextinguish the ames.

It was hard to put out res with the sulfur raining down.Drinking vodka? Brenton smiled up at Bridget.Tats a random guess.Yeah, but theres a bottle of vodka in my freezer and we can all toast to Armageddon, he

jumped up and giddily ran to the freezer.Armageddon is lame, Nina pouted.Cant we just call it the apocalypse? Bridget sat down on the couch, staring at the res

reection in the blank V screen

I hate being reminded of Michael Bay lms.I kinda like the way Armageddon sounds.

Brenton returning with three glasses and a bottle in hand, he set them down and sat be-tween the two girls on the couch. Tey all stared at the V for a moment, then Bridget lookedat the clear bottle.

What the hell is that?Vodka.Its frozen.Itll thaw out in a minute.Vodka doesnt freeze, Nina laughed, picking up the bottle. Dude, someones been drink-

ing your vodka and relling it with water.Fuck

Well on the bright side, now we have water, Bridget said.Ash is the worst roommate ever.God, how long has he been gone anyway?Hm, Brenton looked at his watch. I havent really been paying attention.Bridget looked outside.You dont think he? I dont know.I thought wed all get to g o together, Brenton sighed.I thought Id get to graduate, Nina muttered.I thought this building would have co llapsed by now.Give it a few minutes, Brenton reassured them.Te vodka water is thawing fast enough. Bridget picked up the bottle.Hey, you know what vodka means, right?Little water?

Something like that.Bridget began p ouring the mostly-water-and-little-vodka into the three glasses, leaving a

small lump of ice in the bottle for later. Tey all took a glass and raised it to the V.o Nina trailed o

Ill be honest, I dont really have anything to toast to.Me neither. Brenton swirled his watered down vodka for a moment, in thought

Bridget?Bridget down her vodka and went back to staring at the V.Give me a minute, something will come to me eventually.

ARMAGEDDON Elise Haskell


11/1611

ARTS

Te international lm industry is currently on life support. It exists in a tightly-sealedvacuum, uninterested in art and exclusively concerned with the commercial viabilityof its products. I am not opposed to the commercialization of the resources requiredto make lms. Tis does not interfere with creative integrity and makes the production

process easier. However, I am strongly against the imposed commercialization of lms,which unpleasantly results in compromised works of art. Regrettably, this business-minded corruption is now at an unparalleled peak.

Let me explain. In the great decades of cinema (I would say beginning with its liberationfrom a nickelodeon novelty into a full-blown, storytelling medium in the 1910s, to theNew Hollywood movement in the 1970s), studio heads and producers were far morelikely to have an equal interest in making both great movies and great sums of money.

Just take a look at the original Hollywood moguls, ranging from MGMs Louis B. Mayerand Samuel Goldwyn, to Warner Bros. Jack Warner. Sure, they were tyrannical, butthey loved movies and understood the creative process behind them, thus enabling theirdirectors and writers to prosper. Te moguls didnt use focus groups, movie-by-panelconferences, or middlemen (AKA agents and lawyers) to commercialize the art. Teycould greenlight movies with the snap of their ngers, and no one else could reversetheir decisions.

I think one of the best examples of a studio mogul standing by his word would be whenJack Warner gave Warren Beatty the go-ahead to make Bonnie and Clyde, a movie ofthen unprecedented violence, sexual candour, and technical innovations. At rst, War-ner resisted taking the plunge, but aer Beatty famously bent over and kissed his feet,the Hollywood titan gave in and let Beatty make his movie the way he wanted to makeit. Tis included letting Beatty choose director Arthur Penn, writers David Newman,Robert Benton, and Robert owne, and the cast (then unknowns Gene Hackman, Gene

Wilder, and Faye Dunaway). Despite some monetary worries, Warners respect andenthusiasm for the art of lm allowed Bonnie and Clyde to be the breakthrough it was.

And it wasnt just the movies themselves that received respect. Emerging talents in everydepartment were sought out and then marketed. Moguls and producers of the goldendecades wanted to show o their stars and their money. Terefore, they instinctivelyunderstood that balance was crucial to ensure success on all fronts. Judy Garland andMickey Rooney probably represent the best of what can come from this system. Tesechild actors were born with talent to spare, and the moguls did nothing to corrupttheir authenticity. Garland and Rooney could act, dance, and sing (oen doing all three

within a single movie). oday, stars are grown in back lot laboratories.

Of course, studio moguls dont exist today. Lew Wasserman, who passed away in 2002,was probably the closest thing we had to a member of the original group. Te modernmovie executive is oen either a honcho from a conglomerate or a university grad with abusiness degree; in other words, someone without any knowledge or appreciation of art.

Consider what happened to the great saviour of 1990s lm, PolyGram Filmed Enter-tainment. Tis international independent production company was responsible foreverything from Four Weddings and a Funeral, Fargo, and Te Game, to Te UsualSuspects, rainspotting, and Te Big Lebowski. But, by the end of the decade, the man-agement of Polygrams parent company, Phillips Electronics, went through a colossalchange. Te new CEO was Gerard Kleisterlee, a corporate honcho interested solely insure bets and who didnt understand the principles of lmmaking. Almost every studiotoday is run by a Kleisterlee stand-in.

So, something needs to change in the international lm community (and it is a globalproblem). How can the issue be resolved? By encouraging young and upcoming talentsas well as older power-players to seek out the better movie-making methods of the past.Perhaps, over time, some industry hot shots will go so far as to fund talent search agen-cies, allowing budding talents to bypass the bureaucracy of the middlemen upstairs andsubmit their work directly to producers. And never forget that the commercializationof modern lms is a microcosm not only for all art mediums, but each and every societalsector. Tat lm is the most popular artistic medium today merely means it showcasesthe epidemic of corporate interference to the highest and most visible degree.

Troughout the entire, almost one hundred years of lm weve seen, not just an artisticshi and improvement in human culture, but a totally new and interesting way of viewingourselves while creating a way of leaving behind something very near to real for all of timeand posterity to use for the purposes of understanding our current times and ways.

During its young history its had a very high degree of our attention in many very impor-tant ways. Dierent styles and genres developed, techniques and methods created, andentire rain forests sacriced and used for the sole purpose of documenting the words thathave been and continue to be dedicated to its study in both art and academia.

Not one specic time can be anointed as its golden age as many very wrongly have doneand still continue to do. From as early as the 1920s it isnt very dicult to recognize theingenuity, imagination and completion it required to accomplish the task of lm mak-ing, while at the same time allowing us to contemplate and watch the social and culturalnorms of a time long since passed. A re-viewing of D.W Griths Te Birth of a Nation

will easily demonstrate, simply, how life at the time was; in this case a dark, shameful andvery real part of US history. Te lm was years ahead of its time in terms of technologi-cal innovation, and was received very popularly, becoming the highest grossing movie insilent lm history, and was accepted and enjoyed in privet viewing by President Woodrow

Wilson, while at the same time glorifying the idea of white supremacy and justifying theactions of the KKK. An idea acquired and admitted within the culture.

In the 40 and 50s it became more about a kind of deep and dark introspection, the dif-ferent psychological conditions of man, never so naked and exposed and twisted, while

visuals and aesthetics took on a greater importance and became much more appealingand rened, while at the same time creating the big studio and movie star format, rem-nants of which still remain. Names like Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and Akira Kuro-sawa became icons who opened up fresh artistic frontiers and set the stage for greats likeKubrick, Mazurski, Chemino, Scorcese who once again challenged the art form based on

what was le for them to work with.

Te belief that popular lm today is not comparable to what was made in the past doesntmake much sense, especially when we consider the level of quality in modern movies. Ithas become a signicant aspect and form of commentary while still maintaining artisticcredibility regardless of the idea that popular lm has no intellectual or artistic merit.Some of the highest grossing movies of just the past year include distinct titles Inception,a critical darling, and Avatar (however you may feel subjectively) which shattered box of-ce records while at the same time forever changing the way we view movies.

Te independent movie scene has also grown in signicance, dened by the auteur statusof personalities like Welles, Stone and arantino. So much has become possible thatniches in the past which seemed too specic, over the top and absurd are now realizedand are correct and are prevalent at the moment. Directors focused more on the creativenuances began new processes of unconventional plot and story line development. Nameslike Jim Jarmusch, Larry Clark, Gus Van Sant and the Cohen brothers have crossed overas much as they might refuse to admit it. And these are only American names, forgettingfor the moment to mention the abundant amount of talent in both Europe and Asia.

Te notion of modern lm no longer putting any emphasis or focus on producing highquality productions is simply not true. Anyone who subscribes to this idea seems likemore of a supercial lm enthusiast who takes serious the common i hated it frame ofmind with out suciently taking in to consideration any of the current arguments andideas in regards to lm today. Te barrage of sequels and prequels and re-makes are whatdominate the box oce, but most fail people to understand that these places are not theonly places to watch a ick, and that there are many other venues that provide a spectacu-lar variety of selections to choose from, whatever your taste might be.

DARK AGE OF FILM DARK AGE OF FILM:A RESPONSE Barry GermanskyAli Hersi


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Even aer Oswald Spenglers prophetic prediction (which came right aer the barbarous eventsresulting in the ruin caused by the actions of man against himself: World War I) there lingeredin the Western world a feeling of concealed frustration at the failure of its inability to completelyremove civilization from this existence. But through the heady liveliness and the unyielding senseof enterprise man is so abundantly endowed with, he found himself once again facing a mutu-ally assured destruction, this time in the form of a much more convenient and easily accessiblemethod of entering a few digits into a mega-computer, followed by a coordinated turn of themaster keys. Tus was mans tragic character.

In this fashion did the West (this time led by the USA), with the smile of a benevolent libera-

tor, assume control of much of the world and designate itself grand imperial power. Soon aerfollowed reconstruction and Marshall Planning. Every new nation state, with the absence of anovert fascism, was entitled a happy meal. Te assembly line was globalized and available to every-one who could use a few bumps in the national GDP section of a nations wealth indicator. Tesenew states, mainly those that we call the global south today, could not turn away these sure shotguarantees to develop a higher quality middle class population. For them, compartmentalizedliving and a limited feeling of newness was the never-materialized longing to rid themselves of thetrappings of their so called primitive yoke.

Te catch was, however, that for them to reap the benets of the emerging political structures,they had to replace their cultural identity with something more tting and appropriate to thechanging times of the approaching nihilistic atmosphere. Centuries worth of history and cultureand knowledge were quickly traded in for paved roads and the chimerical death call of develop-

ment was sounded.

Te streets were cleaned of all signs of dissidence. Tose who would not comply were disappear-ing (50,000 in one country) and the prisons and jails quickly become well known for housingthose alleged to have gossiped in the wrong manner. With the backing of Western governmentsthese actions were sanctioned, authorized, and in some instances directly encouraged and sup-

ported in the form of military training and nancial funding.

Te homogenization of the world was and still is becoming more and more apparent, and theemergence of powerful and eective counter-cultural movements during the second part ofthe 20th century, forcibly pushed to the extreme collective mental psyche of society, is enoughevidence to prove this.

oday not much is dierent, apart from the slightly altered presence of a Unites States seeming toteeter on the edge of complete ruin. Ultimately, this might have something to do with its leadingrole in the contemptible and very precarious actions of the West over the past ten years.

Iraq and Afghanistan seem to assume the role of destroyed civilization for the sake of Democra-cy, both c ountries targeted and virtually ruined based on imsy evidence and fragile non truths,resulting in the loss of astronomically high numbers of civilian lives and the demonization of anentire religious group. Te imes Square Mosque situation is an example of the inbred intoler-ance created by the two wars, which manages to rear its ugly head in the most reliably absurdfashion. In Europe, France seems to be illegally deporting Roma ethnics and fellow Europeancitizens based on the idea that they are socially undesirable. Te French have also recently placeda ban on face coverings, making it illegal for certain religious groups to fully practice. In Switzer-

land they passed a Minaret ban, making it illegal for the structures to appear on the facades ofreligious buildings and furthering the feeling of resentment and anger within the Right-shiing,seemingly-doomsday, precursory position of Western politics.

Even at home weve seen Canadas position fall from the cherished pedestal it once held in inter-national politics. Much of this can be blamed on the current government. Te feeling of displea-sure with Canada was recently demonstrated when the UN chose Portugal[?] over us for a seatin the UN Security Council. Many blame this on Harpers unwise international alliances, andhis eort to single-handedly muzzle the international environmental movement by paying littleattention to the more or less associated global sentiment regarding climate change.

With that said, readers can choose for themselves one of the many reasons not to really caremuch if it were all to end tomorrow. One could also choose to do the opposite and try to incite

change through the many available and appropriate channels. By becoming more politicallyaware and active, and just generally knowledgeable, one can equip gain the tools necessary tobring forth the necessary change required to overcome the current problems faced by many of thecitizens of the world, and to successfully enact the essential changes that will eectively lead tothe greatest good for the greatest number.

THE DECLINE OF THE WEST:WHY IT DOESNT MATTERAli Hersi

12

A: She, whom you mortals ca ll Aquarius, the Bearer of Water, for whom do you think she bearsit, but for the Drinker? Not for Vulcans forge, nor to cool Ra in his fury, but for the quenchingof Drinkers eternal thirst.B: But if his thirst is eternal, how can she quench it?A: Simple. She has yet to give him the water she bears. If her task is accomplished, his task canbegin.B: Well, why hasnt she done it yet?A: Ask her brother. He will tell you their tale, the tale of their loss and their gain. But he will nottell of it freely.B: What does he want?A:

Tat which was lost by him. He will mention it in his tale, if you can make him tell it to you.B: (long silence) Who is he?A: He is her brother. He is the Hunter-Upon-Four.B: (another pause) Why will she not tell me herself?A: Have I said she will not?B: Ten why did you refer me to her brother?A: Because you cannot ask of her that which is not yours to receive.B: But isnt it the same whether she tells me or her brother does?A: No.B: Why?A: Tat too, will be answered by the Hunter-Upon-Four.B: Youre leading me in circles!A: Hardly. I have merely reveale d unto you a set of points. It is for you to nd the path that best

connects them.B: How many paths are there?A: How many points are there?B: (pause) Do the points move?A: Now, you are thinking at last. Te proper use of your f aculties will help you.B: If the points move, my path may loop back . Back on itself.A: Yes. A circle with no center.B: (long silence) I... I cannot even imagine such a thing existing!A: Tat is the point. Te c enter is on the circumference, and the two are not two, but one.B:So, my path... is one point?A: In a manner of speaking, yes. However, to initiate such a set of circumstances, movementmust rst be established.B: And if I consider it a s such, I would be moving... inside a p oint? But thats impossible! It

undermines the... the very... why, the verypoint of a point!A: And that, impossible though it may be, is the truth. Tere are more answers to question than

you would ever conceive of.B: Such as?A: Te Drinker drinks.B: And that is the answer to which question?A: Will you nd out?B: I may, if I know how to.A: Simple. Question it.B: Well, may I ask you something?A: Certainly.B:

Will I ever nd the answer to that question?A: Aer only a short period of time, your faculties have faile d you. Your thinking has degradedagain. Te answer to your question is No.B: Why?A: Because you already have the answer. It is the question you must seek. Once you learn whereto focus your energies, then you can establish the necessary motion to complete the path.B: Te circle with no end?A: Te circle with no c enter.

EXTRACT VERBATIM Rhys Mendes

The Samuel J. Zacks Galleryis a student-run gallery in Stong College.We are located at 109 Stong College &are open Monday Friday, 11:30 AM 4 PM.Email Michael & Stephanie at [email protected]

Have art youdlike to show? *


13/16

ARTS

13

Metro MorningJudgement, black and white, smeared across our palms and le to stain the railings as westepped o the streetcar into the night. Tis night, above all nights, is sympathetic to the elec-tric hustle of the eeing lamplight and the heavy rotation of the sky. A park nds us sitting with-in its boundaries the trees are our slaves - and despite the limbs of their ser vitude granting uscover, we can still feel the tension of these elastic hours.

Tis stark naked realization sits at the bottom of our conversation: tomorrow I will be a dier-ent person and the world will fol d in upon itself without me. My threadbare metaphors will beretired to the closet of my mind, the fond friction of our hands as well, and this world will be di-gested in the sickly sweet chyme of memory.

Failed Rejection of the Present

death!death piled a thousand seconds highinsurmountable tragedyinherent in these wasted syllables

to leak, unhinged and sieve like in a metaphorno longer whispering into a warm thighbut shouting, scraping at the static screena modern voice trapped under glass.

So rust these silver stringsthat keep us so suspended,each keystroke homageto an age of isolation.

DefinitionCataclysm is the rending of the earth,the slow methodical tearing of a continent,an ever happening never stormreported with universal reluctance.

It is saying you dont want kids

during the rst date,picking at your pasta salad in a waythat eloquently statesthe world is ending.

It is one unremarkable snowakeon its way downaware it is unable to inspireanything but silence.

THREE POEMS Brennan Maynard

For those ash framed secondsthe room was cleanerthan bleachs pale dreams

Te cabinets seemed to humin their gleaming state-almost lit from within, likenew cells of washed skin.If only for the fragment,

when we forgot the shadows

chair legs and our legs andlampshades cast. Tat claimfrom radiance was our space-not the same as darkness, never still-layers of intersection. Of memory before

its placed, roaming behind our locked limbsbehind possessions before we x dates, days,dinners to them. Darkness covers shadowsthe way this glow did, taking even our eyelids,

with our dreams patterns beneath them,leaving behind uorescent minds.Of illumination?

BOOM AND ECHO Kira Lancaster

Haley Anderson

Tere was nowhere for our gloomto slink to- the tombs of our memoirsburning in our skulls faster than lig ht.Our brains became foaming embers before

our children remembered to checkif we really had three dimensions.

We had kept pieces of them-silver baby spoons, lunch boxes, drawings-keepsakes lost in the ashes within us,and now they comb throughthe moon surface of our livesfor the past world we promised them.

In the silt and sandyou can feel the wind return,

real sun comes back as a faint tunewhistled to the elements,a doom unable to settle nowthere are no shadows


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14

He walked along a cracked road. Te sky shone white with the midday sun. On the road, he thread-ed his way through abandoned vehicles, refuse piles, debris. His rie was slung over one shoulder,

and the pack strapped to his back. He had been walking for a long time.

He came upon a deserted square, old advertisements still promised happiness and enrichment.Te world needed that more than anything. Unfortunately the advertisements could never deliveron their promises. Te man continued to walk. He entered a large building and unslung his rie,double checked it, and continued walking.

Overturned mannequins, piles of clothes, and rotting corpses decorated what was once a bustlingdepartment store. Shas of light cut through the musty dark of the room through the pockmarkedceiling. Te man registered vaguely that he was in Sears. He didnt need any clothes though. Heneeded food. It was always dangerous coming into the core of the city. Raiders roamed the streets,

preying on anyone dumb enough to wander into their sight. Te others, people

who were not raiders, were worth avoiding too; they didnt like the man. He used to be with them,but they kept trying to take the pack. For the good of the group, they said. But they were not al-lowed to touch the pack. No one was allowed to touch the pack.

Te pack was pink, originally. Now its mostly dirt-covered. Before the world was set on re, Angiewore it every day. I have to protect the pack; its all thats le. Te pack holds everything that isimportant, and I have to protect it. Te others didnt like it when I protected the pack. Tey werescared and tried to hurt me.Tey chased me, and I was forced to protect the pack so much! When I was done there was no oneelse to bring harm to the pack or its contents. Te pack was safe.

Te Eaton Centre: they used to come here together. Memory reared its dusty head, but the manshooed it away. Te past was dead. Te pack was the future.

Picking along the rubble of the building, the man heard a noise and froze.

Hello? Is anyone there? a voice called. Te voice was soon followed by the gure of a man, armedwith a shotgun. Upon seeing the man, the stranger aimed squarely at his chest. Te stranger ap-proached carefully; behind him a small boy attached himself to the strangers coat.

You friendly? We need some water. Were willing to trade, but you can never be too sure withpeople nowadays. He brandished his gun. My names John.

Te man nodded. Im friendly. He dropped his rie.

John let loose a sigh, Tank God! Junior and I have been hiking for days. We heard there were

people here, but all weve run into were gangs! If you could point us in the right direction Id reallyappreciate the help. John shouldered his shotgun. Te man watched as John opened up a pack ofhis own. It was much larger than his. How much water can you spare us? John asked.

Te mans eyes never le the boy. Junior, is it?

Te boy nodded.

You know, Angie would have been about your age. Funny coincidence, eh?

Te boy said nothing. John cleared his throat. Te water, friend?

Te man nally looked at John. I can give you a full canteen. Probably holds about a half litre.John grinned and Juniors eyes lit up. John extended a hand Tank you, erm

Te man neither took his hand, nor responded.

I suppose you want something in return. We dont have much of value, but we can work some-thing out, John continued. Are you out here all alone ? Wheres the Enclave?

Te man nodded, Te others keep to one of the old stadiums south of here. I keep to myself. Itsbetter that way.

Yeah? Whys that?

People dont understand me.

Understand you?

Tey cant see what l ifes priority is.

Life: theres only one thing important in it now.

Dominic Licorish

THE PACKAnd what is that? the man asked.

Holding onto whats le.

Te man chewed this answer over for a moment. John is wrong; the only important thing is the pack.

John checked his watch. He removed some salted pork from his pack and set up a small grill. Johnonce again made an oer, but the man refused. He told them that he was looking for food of hisown before they ran into each other. Te man moved to continue his search.

Wait, the water! John reached out and stopped him. His hand is on the pack.

wo sharp cracks perforated the silence. Te mans breath slowly came under his control as the lastecho died away. He had found food. He had protected the pack. Te world was as it should be.

Every single fucking word is vital. Without them, information melts into a mass of material pa-per, and everything we think about the world evaporates into the recognition of nothing more

than what we can see around us: wood , stale air, and human esh.

Its what you learn in a small room where a slightly demented woman (perhaps, if you will, an art-ist) sits in front of a paper shredder and a mountain of the machines excrement, all derived from

participant-chosen pages torn from a multi-volume encyclopaedia. Grace, Democracy, Love, theVikingsthey all go callously into the shredder with a smile and a turn of the wrist. If you want,you can take a handful of shreddings with you and try to remember what they once meant.

I cant think of a better microcosm of cataclysm. A room c ontaining wood, stale air, humanesh and the sum total of abstract knowledge and conceptualization is transformed into a roomcontaining wood, stale air, human esh and mounds and mounds of paperfrom a certain

perspective, more wood.

Te trick of the scenario is obvious once youre there: destroying something that seems to bearthe weight of complex thought and knowledge, even if its just a sheet of paper, feels muchmore surrealistically powerful than destroying anything else. Te act of transforming the purelyconceptual (the encyclopaedia) into the purely physical (thick, shredded paper) reminds us howintrinsically the two are linked. Language and material give meaning to each other; an encyclo-

paedia is an encyclopaedia because words are printed on its pages, and the words are meaningfulbecause theyre bound in the pages of a solid volume, a real object in the real world. Severing thelink is the ultimate form of destruction. Te concepts, their typographical representations splitinto illegibility by the shredder, oat into mere memory a s unpinnable ideas. Meanwhile, the

paper, lacking any content to designate its use, be comes indenable matter (what exactly do youcall shredded paper, anyway, when even the word paper suggests something thats still blank,something that can still be marked with meaning?).

Tis is what we fear. Te force of a nuke cant destroy civilization as long as there are still wordsto describe it. Te most frightening re is the re burning the pages of bo oks. Broken up,burned, or evaporated, matter will always be there as matter. Knowledge, unhinged from theobjects it describes, can be lost. We fear the rubble because it suggests there was once somethingmeaningful where it now lies dormant and dead.

Te real lessons learned, however, are not lessons of fear or foreboding. Te installation doesntsuggest an ending, only what could be an ending, and in that it exposes what existence is whileit lasts. Te installation venerates the encyclopaedia. Even though it is fragile, terminally boundto the shreddability of the material medium it exists upon, its destruction is powerful enoughto capture our sentimentality and

Apocalypses & Cataclysms

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