Twisted Tails V:Apocalypses Now and Then — J. Richard Jacobs

Entropy. All things, good and bad, come to an end. It is the way of the Universe that it will one day succumb to the "SIGNIFICANT SUCK" and collapse in on itself, or it will experience the "BIG BLOW" and expand until there is nothing but cold darkness on all sides. There is also a third alternative...it could reach a steady-state, though that is doubtful, and all the stars in it will merely run out of gas along the way. They will become dead, black cinders, but all of those possibilities are the common end product of entropy. In astronomy the first condition in the running down of entropy is simply called "Cold Death" while the second and third states are known as "Heat Death" or the "Big Freeze." I love best the sound of the second description.... "Heat Death." There isn't a day passes that I don't say it to myself a few times. "Heat Death...." "Heat Death...." It has a pleasant ring to it, don't you think? It could become a mantra for the Clan of the Apocalypse gathered near the eternal flow around a roaring fire, an animated symbol of end in itself. They sit lotus style, hands laid on their knees, palms up, chanting, "Oammmmm, Heat Death, Heat Death, beautiful Heat Death...Oammmmmm...," as the hungry flames consume what were once lovely green trees, reducing them to a pile of fine, gray ash that will be scattered on the winds of time. Will there be a Phoenix? No one can say. Probably not.

In another sense, entropy refers to the decay and eventual terminal condition of institutions, empires, societies, and anything else you can dredge up from the depths of your sordid imagination. Everything that grows into organization will eventually dismantle itself in the process called entropy. The word "Apocalypse" has the same basic meaning, but it is a more powerful way of saying it. Apocalypse conveys a more catastrophic feeling but, in the end (sorry for the pun), it all finishes with the same outcome. Fin. The end. Period.

The end of a day disastrous. The end of a cataclysmic century. The end of a fateful era. The falling apart of a fragile relationship. The fall of a fractured empire. The demise of a deal demonic. Plans gone awry. Your final fight for that last breath. "Aaaaaaaagh...." Okay, how poetic can a last gasp be?

TWISTED TAILS V looks at ends. Many kinds of ends. It treats all terminal conditions in the contorted, irreverent style the TWISTED TAILS series has come to be known for...and it does it with a polished, glossy class rarely found in today's pop literature. Come along with us as we follow a treacherous, tortured and twisting trail to the place where good ol' entropy delivers the "coup de grace."...