At first glance it doesn't make sense. Why would we gain pleasure from contemplating the end of the civilisation that feeds us and protects us?
But we've been doing it for a long time. As Kevin Mims wrote in Quillette this week (https://quillette.com/2024/07/09/abiding-legends-george-r-stewart-richard-matheson-apocalypse-fiction/), we've been doing it since the early 1800s when Mary Shelley started the genre with her novel The Last Man.
I have my own theories why: a love of the extremity created by the end of the days, a want for relief from the responsibility of making a better future, and a desire for self-destruction.
I'd love to hear anyone else's theories, thoughts and speculations about why we keep reading about the apocalypse.
by WilliamJBarker