That the world would end not with a bang or a whimper, but only with a flicker, like the last frame of an old film, was a possibility Jonas Black had not contemplated in all of his short but distinguished career. The impending end of all existence bothered many people, but no one's professional pride was wounded quite as much as his. Jonas's dissertation, What End May Come: A Comprehensive Documentation and Deconstruction of Apocalypses through the Ages, earned him an appointment as the youngest sociology chair in Berkeley history, a National Book Award, and a gig touring the moribund world giving lectures on