I’ve been struck by the way that people in Lucifer’s Hammer seem both repelled by and yet somehow attracted to the idea of the apocalypse. At first it’s presented as a ludicrous idea — there’s even doubt as to whether or not the comet would even be visible from Earth — and something worthy of extended jokes (the ice cream sundae comet). But as the comet gets closer, and the odds of not only visibility but an impact get better and better, the attitude changes to not just horror but fatalism with a touch of fascination.
I think that we’re seeing the appeal of a real-life reset button in an apocalypse. Everyone thinks that they’ll be one of the ones who survives, and needs to make their way in a whole new world. All the sins, all the responsibilities, all the problems of your life are wiped away. You’ll be in a world where it doesn’t matter if you can’t make your mortgage payment or if you lost your temper and started a bar fight. It’s the fantasy of the gleaming cherry-red Mustang screaming through the deserted streets of New York City or the romantic Middle Ages where you’re a knight of the round table and not the serf bound to the land you were born on. It’s the idea of getting to start your whole life over, but in a way that isn’t your fault — you didn’t divorce your wife and fake your own death, but all that stuff is wiped away anyway and so you get to enjoy it guilt-free.
Gordie is a poignant character for me in that respect. He’s out to abandon the game, just when the reset button is about to be pushed for him. Embezzlement is meaningless in the post-Hammer society and he’s about to get his chance to start over, if he can just live long enough to see it.
I agree with you, Nik. People are becoming increasingly compelled and yes, hopeful for the hammer at this point of the story. I hope I’m not being redundant, but I’d just like to quote a couple lines from the text to further this point:
1. “‘And they should be scared, but not of a damned comet! Comets! Signs in the heavens! Evil potents! Medieval crap, when there’s plenty to worry about right here on Earth… Spray cans ruining the atmosphere, destroying ozone, causing cancer…'” (156)
2. “I’ve got a hell of a story, he thought… Not only do millions think the world’s going to end, but millions more hope so. It shows in their attitudes. They hate what they’re doing, and keep looking nostalgically at the ‘simple’ life. Of course they won’t voluntarily choose to be farmers or live in communes, but if everybody has to…” (159)
It can be speculated that the underlying “disaster” of this novel is actually the mess of lives people have made for themselves or simply the mundanity of working a 9-5 cubicle job for the rest of their lives. She is growing tired of having to sleep around in order to keep her job and repeatedly needing to remind herself that she’s not a slut, and he is deeply unhappy from the pent-up sexual frustration in his marriage, cheats on his wife, and is now suppressing the guilt by repeatedly needing to remind himself that he loves his wife.
People are waiting for a release from daily routine and anxieties. They are living in a prison (you can take it both figuratively and literally) and are so unsatisfied to the point that, after deeper consideration, the idea of a comet blowing up their world is not such a horrid idea after all.
Additionally, as Harvey mentions on pg 159: “but if everybody has to”- the idea of ALL survivors starting over is what is especially satisfying. Social hierarchy will be shattered and re-built upon completely different standards. It won’t be about the number of degrees you have under your belt, but how well you can cope in the wild- yeah…no fridges and no Internet.
In fact, almost all BS that people hold to a high standard in today’s society would be nothing amidst an apocalypse. No one is going to care about the $600,000 car you show off to pick up girls behind your wife’s back, where you went to college or grad school with now your umpteenth degree, how embarrassingly large your debt is, or even something as stupid and minor as what she said or what he said. What people are really going to be needing are your inherent, cool-and-calm leadership qualities, or how much alcohol and bullets you have in stock.
Society holds up all the wrong things as high standards, and that is exactly why we need an apocalypse.