Poll time

[valarltd]

I've been kicking around a Post-Rapture Romance Novel. It'd be a rather bleak one, a pair of lovers set against the massive disappearances and destruction.

And I have questions.

BTW: if you answer "other" please explain in a comment.

[Poll #1290813]

Comments

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

The Rapture is such a fundamentalist Christian concept that I would have to assume that the writer had a moral agenda, much like the writers of those ill-written Left Behind books. Obviously, anyone not wafted up to heaven would be, by definition, a sinner. Leave behind people of different faiths and there's an implicit criticism: they were left behind because they didn't believe in Christianity. Leave behind gays, and it's implied that God considers gays to be sinners unworthy of heaven. And so on. I would be hearing the message of, "See! See who the sinners are? Don't be like them! Believe in the Christian religion! Don't sleep with people of the same sex! Then when it happens for real, maybe YOU won't get left behind!"

It doesn't work for me as a dark future novel, because, for one thing, there IS no future. As I understand it, the way the Rapture and the Tribulation are supposed to work is that people get Raptured, the people left on earth suffer for X number of years, and then everyone dies and gets judged. Not a lot to work with there.

I would much rather read about a believable disaster--a natural catastrophe, a disease, the aftermath of a war or a massive terrorist attack. You know, something the reader KNOWS could actually happen, rather than something that the reader may not ever have heard of, let alone believe in.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Actually, at the end of the Tribulation, you get a big ol' battle. Anyone who doesn't fight on the wrong side gets to live a thousand years with David as king in Jerusalem.

After THAT, we get the big judgement, and new heaven and earth.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Huh. Never heard that version before.

But it's still not a believable premise--not in the way that a dark future novel involving a massive earthquake or a plague or a sudden, worldwide breakdown in technology is believable. It's predicated on a belief originating in the nineteenth century that's only held by some Protestant Christians, rather than on events that people know have happened and can happen.

[mother2012.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's the traditional interpretation.

For myself, what's the point in living for 1000 years if there's no growth, no future to build, no children to be proud of, no goals ...

predicated on a belief originating in the nineteenth century

Regardless of when it started, I think it reflects Man's longing for peace, for the opportunity to live and grow without outside forces taking it all away from you. Which would be why it's losing favor today, when the majority of people *can* rely on the future.