Post-Apocalyptic Prognostications.
Abstract
Catastrophes are cross-cultural themes in ancient stories. 1 Similar motifs can be found in the off-balance mythical past of The Witcher. The narrative is set in a continent undergoing a climate crisis known as the Great Frost, which started after the Conjunction of the Spheres, an event that opened a cosmic gateway that allowed humans to leave a dying world and enter a new one. In a way, this development parallels that of the paleolithic Sahara desert, which had wet spells. These allowed our ancestors northward passage through this normally impenetrable barrier, letting them branch out of Africa. 2 Lurking in the background of all of this and imprinted in humanity’s genes is an ache in people to perpetuate themselves and their communities, a desire molded further through cultural experiences of contending with apocalyptic situations. In The Witcher too, this desire drives many individuals. There’s also a figurative sense in which apocalyptic impulses are in our DNA. Aristotle (384-322 BCE) claimed that all people “by nature desire to know,” and the word “apocalypse” has meanings that relate to truth-seeking. 3 The term is a compound of the Greek “apo-‘un-‘ + kaluptein ‘to cover’.” 4 So “apocalypse” literally means uncovering or revealing. In the hands of Greeks like Plato (c. 429-347), knowledge seeking takes on deathly tones because the sought-after truths are perfect, unchanging, and immaterialin short, the opposite of messy, ever changing, and material biological ways of living. We see this deathly Greek ideal personified in Yennefer: because her nearly ageless beauty and otherworldly wisdom are achieved at the cost of her ability to have children.
