Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction

I have just come off of an Octavia Butler binge, where in 4 days I read six of her novels (in order of my reading):

CALY'S ARK
MIND OF MY MIND
Xenogenesis trilogy (DAWN, ADULTHOOD RITES, and IMAGO)
PARABLE OF THE SOWER

I had never before read Butler, but she is well recommended and I knew I wanted to give her a try, which is why I stockpiled a handful of her books.

And I think she is a very good, if brutal, writer. Unlike the Hambly mentioned recently, she is both "crunchy" in terms of giving you things to think about, and very much not a comfortable writer: in her worldview, what she does to her characters, etc.

I'm not sure how to talk about her books in a non-spoiler-y fashion, so am about to use a lj-cut, but before that, I'll say that the epiphany I had while reading all of these is that:

Post-apocalyptic fiction is always hopeful.

I guess this is self-evident, because "the worst" has happened and somehow someone(s) has/have survived. And survival is always hopeful. Survival of the individual in the face of great odds. Survival of the species. These types of stories are comforting; I think a lot of us keep turning to Katrina coverage with a mix of horror and awe that nature can do such things and also to be comforted by those stories that remind us that the human being and moreover the human soul/spirit/dignity can not only survive such brute natural catastrophe but do so with dignity in the face of governmental incompetence and mismanagement. These are post-apocalyptic stories of today.

Butler, by and large, withholds such comfort from us, the reader/thinker/human being.

( spoiler-y bits )