Nostra wrote:Its the post apocalyptic bit humans are interrested in.
Its in our nature to be fascinated by such things, imagining a world totally ripped from current reality where lawlessness, destruction and havoc are the everyday way of life in contrary to a safe 9 to 5 desk job. (or school)
I think it's more than that. (the following is poorly edited and should never be used for a paper)
tl;dr = Paranoia, fear, and thrill seekers.
Writers enjoy extrapolating on the fears of the public. War of the Worlds was a part of the invasion genre that was created in England in the late 1800s (I think somewhere in the 1970s...?). All of the novels created in that time had invasions from foreign powers or aliens, and each one used the fears of citizens to entice readership. They had anything from the best war tactics their country should adopt to a failed national security system that left the country open to attack. All of these stories were published leading up to WWI. After that, I'm sure the genre boomed (mere conjecture), because what these authors wrote came to fruition in some form. Okay, so Wells may have used martians instead of Germans, but readers tend to stretch their imaginations.
People like to be scared, and western society has been spoon-fed that the world will end if we keep doing ______ or if we don't do ______ or if ______ or _______. I mean, it's almost all we hear about during times when the news doesn't have a war or conflict to talk about. Global warming, illness (Zombieland turned MadCow into the Zombie virus), alien encounters, etc. And then you have the people who like to be prepared. How many times have people been asked, "Do you have a zombie plan?" Conspiracy nuts, people just waiting for the millions of ways the world is going to explode into tiny pieces (If Yellowstone blows up, I'm toast. Plan or no plan).
