A Review of Pop Apocalypse

Huntington, Al Gore, and every pastor making good on Revelation
(which is more concerned with how we are going to die rather than how
we are to live). EM! does give an answer to the pressing
question (hint: It’s the title), but the issue of how to live is not a
yes-or-no issue. But for many readers, telling Armageddon to fuck off,
like Junior must, might be a new idea.

Living in the near future, Eliot R. Vanderthorpe Jr., as the famous
bad-boy son of a multibillionaire, enjoys a comfortable, hedonistic
life. But while filming an episode of That’s So Fucked Up,
wherein he and the prime minister’s son are about to do awful things to
two passed-out girls, Eliot has a sudden realization where he develops,
“like,” ethics. Caught amid a new (but still vague) moral code, the
temptations that wealth and celebrity can bring, and his father’s
designs for his future, Eliot can’t decide what to do with his life
until he stumbles across his evil doppelgänger and uncovers a plan
to trigger the end of the world.

Dubbed “a possible satire,” the book makes fun of the collision of
commerce and ideology. The greatest leader in the Middle East, Caliph
Fred, not only guides millions of people in their faith but also
releases pop music and has a catchphrase: “Salaam, Dudes!” The
government gives wars flashy names (Operation Icelandic Saga) with all
rights reserved. Eliot’s brother, frontman for the Christian group Eye
for an Eye, sings songs of devotion for Jesus laced with curse words:
“That’s a’ight, you shitbags, Jesus Christ has sa-a-a-ved my soul!”

With satire aimed at easy targets and not-too-far-off technology,
the book at points feels like an issue of Popular Mechanics edited by the producers of I Love the 80s (also spoofed in the
book). Eliot is endearing throughout, making the tired jokes a little
more enjoyable as he manages to screw with just about every aspect of
his world. In a literary sense, destroying the world for cheap laughs
may be extreme, but having Eliot as both a sage and a jester makes the
Apocalypse a bit less worrisome.