28 December 20XX +1
My Dear Lucilius:
This afternoon as I was puttering around the house one of my science fiction books caught me eye.
It was one of those “military” science fiction books by one of the authors that I had come to enjoy (before the genre morphed beyond my ability to enjoy it). Starships, foreign worlds, the interplay of humanity in the future with all of the issues that are timeless because we are human. One of those authors who wrote science fiction when it was at its best.
I have many happy memories of reading books like that, of reaching out via space or magic to realms that were clearly unattainable but in some ways were far more real to me than the world that I was living.
I looked at cover, chuckled fondly, and put it back.
Our “science fiction future” has turned out quite different, it seems (Yes, I know, many authors wrote in some kind of mass apocalypse which humanity was able to push back from. I have no idea what the situation is outside of our bubble, but I suspect we are a ways from “the long march back”.).
One of the things that the best sorts of science fiction were infused with was a sort of underlying hope and optimism. Yes, part of that was likely due to the fact that authors wanted to sell books (who wants to read a book where everyone dies in the end), but it also reflected a belief at some level that hope matters, that good triumphs, that justice prevails. That seemed to change over time as the walls of the universe and technology closed in and travel “out there” became much less of a “Can we make it to the next star?” to “Can we make it to the next planet, or maybe even the moon?” Even those things would be amazing; for many that were raised on new worlds and new dimensions, “the next planet over” might seem a bit like settling.
Could I pick up that book, or any one of the other science fiction and fantasy books and read them today? Yes, without question: The books I have kept are the books that I enjoyed and that entertained me not specifically reliant on the setting or the technology/magic but rather about the relationships and the characters. In that sense, they are as great a literature to me as anything considered a “classic”.
But could I look to them as I did once as worlds more real? Sadly, no. That door has closed; possibly it has closed for all humanity at this point. The real world sputters in my stove with a minimum of wood or bends the bushes and trees as a cold wind that we can no longer predict days ahead, only endure.
I wonder if, out of all of this, a new sort of literature will be created based not so much one what we thought could have been possible, but what we actually learned from the experience.
Your Obedient Servant, Seneca
An interesting query. I am unaware of post collapse stories from such earlier "survivors". I suspect that most were too busy enduring the situation day to day to have leisure time to write about it.
ReplyDeleteMakes me wonder how many books will survive during a collapse, some might see them as a fuel source TB. Trying to survive day-to-day will take a heckava effort since centrally generated electricity is so ubiquitous. Someone will survive, even someone remembering "Wagon Train to the Stars" concept.
ReplyDeleteYour query about reading a book where everyone dies for some reason reminded me of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series of books. I read the first one as a young boy of nine and then I think in my teens, he finally picked up there series again and started cranking them out. I think I read the last one, hot off the press at the age of 31, long after I switched to non-fiction, excited to finally read the conclusion after 20+ years of wondering, only to be utterly disappointed by the ending. It wasn't that everyone died, but that nothing really was accomplished and the story started over.
ReplyDelete