Surprises in Apocalypse

I must admit that I have not been truly surprised by any revelation, haha, about apocalypse during this journey. I have had an interesting time exploring just how deep an apocalypse can go. How personal an apocalypse can be. For years I have thought of apocalypse not as an end or necessarily as a beginning either but as a transition in the cyclical nature of time. I suppose if I had to name something that I have begun to more fully understand it is the fact that each and every day, each and every one of us experience apocalypses, be them large or small. Something new is revealed that causes us to look and see in a different way. That is apocalypse, though a small one. Now when doomsayers call out and claim the apocalypse near or here. The response that should be given is "Yes. It always has been. It always will be. We are constantly in the end times. But we are also always in the beginning. What was your apocalypse today?"

Necessity of Apocalypse

Apocalypse is necessary in order to change, whether for good or ill. We grow, change through the apocalypse of our character. Without the apocalypses there would be no change and no rebirth. An apocalypse to me is the destruction or death of one way of being and the start of another, a rebirth. So an apocalypse has to happen for change to occur. Otherwise there is no reason to take another step forward. There has to be a catalyst for change and that is apocalypse. With the apocalypse we introduce the before and after. Version 1 and version 2. Version 1 is reliant on the changes made to version 2 to exist. If there were no version 2 then version 1 would just be version. Like Hell and the Silver City of Neil Gaiman's "Season of Mists" book of the Sandman series. They both need to exist in order for either to exist. Like Saussure says of language, we know what a word is because of what it is not. Everything is tied together based on relation to each other. A dog is a dog because it is not a cat or a pig or a horse or a car. So Hell must exist to give definition and substance to the Silver City. Apocalypse must occur to give definition and substance to Version 1 and 2 and 7, to define all the changes made to an object or person from their beginning, or the beginning of the tracking of change, to the present time. When we begin to stagnate and cease to change that is when we die and even with death change does not stop. Our bodies decay turning into something else. Matter (nor energy) is created or destroyed, merely changes form.

Apocalypse as Revelation

What is an apocalypse in a novel? When we think in terms of novel's being composed of internal struggles and of Human Versus Self most novels could be talked about in terms of apocalypse when the apocalypse is a revelation or more specifically a journey of self-discovery. The apocalypse of a novel is tied into the character and their internal motivations. When a new way of thinking is brought about we frequently call it a revelation or an epiphany, a eureka moment if you will. It's the change in the character of a novel that is the true apocalypse. The moment of alteration and revelation. Eureka!

Not every character can undergo an apocalypse and some start down the path without every being able to complete the journey. It is a harsh trail, often violent, that not every person is able to make it to the other side but for those that do they are forever changed.