Week 7 Story: The World is Ending in 2012
Dooms Day. Source: Pixabay |
In the year 2009, the movie 2012 was released, which brought on skepticism due to the story it told. People debated on whether they should go see it or not because the storyline did not seem believable in any way. Eventually, one person decided to see what it is all about and watched the movie. In this moment, she fell right into the movies trap. After watching 2012, she panicked and feared for the worlds future. She had no idea what to do but to tell all of her friends about the movie and how she learned that the world is going to end on December 21, 2012. Her friends felt like she was making this up; however, they still gave her the benefit of the doubt. They watched the movie one after another and fell right into the same trap she did. Again, her friends panicked and told their own friends about how the world is going to end in 2012. Again, their friends did not believe them but they decided to watch the movie to see what it is all about. Words kept spreading to more people and everyone kept falling into the same trap. Everyone was gullible enough to believe the movies storyline and did not bother to do further research to obtain real evidence of the world ending in 2012. However, there were a select few from the human population who did not believe in this whatsoever. Fast forward to the year 2012. People still had the movie 2012 on their mind. The select few who did not believe in this conducted research and found evidence that the world was not going to end. Even after releasing the results of the research out to the public, people still thought the world was going to end. It is now December 21, 2012 and the world did not end. Everyone was shocked to see that they were still alive.
Authors note: I rewrote the Jataka story The Foolish, Timid Rabbit but based it off of the world phenomenon that was apparently going to occur in 2012.
Hi Tracy! Ah the 2012 Mayan doomsday prophecy...those were good times. I never actually saw the movie 2012. How was it? Any good? I did read a fun science fiction book that centered around this idea called Domain by Steve Alten. It's the first in a trilogy (of which I read book two but never got around to the third one). Quick aside: Steve Alten is most well known for his book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror which was the basis for the movie The MEG. Back to your story, I like how you adapted the tale The Foolish, Timid Rabbit to a modern setting around a specific moment that had some hysterical hype around it. This would probably also work with Y2K, but now I'm showing my age...
ReplyDeleteHi Tracy, this was a good post even though I haven't seen the movie 2012. Like Dave, I want to know your feedback on the movie and the main plot of the movie as from your post it made it sound super interesting and unique. I also liked the fact that you referred to different Jatakas as it was easier to keep track as to what your moral or theme of the story was going towards. The Foolish was a good modern day story that referred to different settings where the Rabbit, Lion and the other animals helped one another and I like how you tied that into your short story.
ReplyDeleteHey Tracy,
ReplyDeleteI remember clearly when that movie came out and everyone in school thought that it could possibly happen. I obviously did not believe it, but thought that if it did happen, there was nothing I could do to stop it. I like how you tied in this with the Jataka, it fit really well and gave some more variety from other stories that have just been simple retellings. One criticism that I have is that I would have liked to see a story from the Mahabharata rather than a Jataka. It would have been more cohesive with the readings we have been doing.
Hi Tracy!
ReplyDeleteThe image you used and your title instantly peaked my interest. I remember watching that movie and thinking how realistic it was. The way you presented The Foolish, Timid Rabbit story really made me think about how in our modern society, often times the media plays the role of the Foolish Rabbit, and the rest of society just follows along with the story blindly assuming that the media is a credible source.
Hey Tracy,
ReplyDeleteReading your story brought back so many memories. I remember when the movie "2012" came out and how many peers around me did actually believe that the world was ending that year. Referring the end of the world as "doomsday," people who feared for the end believed it to be true because of some sort of reasoning. I remember the reasoning for doomsday was because of the Mayan calendar depicting the end of the world. Just like the original Jataka tale, modern day people believed in doomsday because of media, which you highlight in your author's note. Though the story is straightforward, I would suggest that you lengthen your author's note for more clarity on your point of view.