theatrical security

The government, he tells us, wants to erect a sign warning future generations not to go near Yucca. This leads him to ponder signs and symbols and signifiers, what the world was like 10,000 years ago and what it might be like 10,000 years from now, and whether any current language will even be comprehensible then. A list of historical predictions about the end of the world follows. So does an appearance by Edvard Munch. (“We scream,” a psychologist explains, “because we need someone’s help.”) 

- American Wasteland: A Review of John D'Agata's "About a Mountain"