For as long as I've been writing (spanning back before high school) I've pondered scribbling down ideas about the end of the world and the few survivors left and their inevitable struggle.
Of course now with T.V. shows like Doomsday Preppers, Falling Skies, and The Walking Dead, and films like The Book of Eli and The Road center stage it's certainly a concept much more accessible to the masses.
In college when my writing began to really take form I found that even there I couldn't quite spread my wings and flap on the subject. Not that it was inappropriate, but it just wasn't the right time. I dabbled in some ideas in college though and as my writing (and knowledge) matured over time I found that I could put together stronger and more realistic stories on page.
Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road I feel is still one of the most striking and realistic depictions of the end-all-be-all end of the world story. At the other end of the spectrum in the same genre I read Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collaspe by James Wesley Rawles, which is certainly a much different take on that end of the civilized world. As an actual composed and collected story Cormac McCarthy's wins by a mile, but Rawles does have a lot of interesting technical and logistical information that's incredibly fascinating. I found myself less interested in the characters in their journey for survival, but more so in the equipment they utilized or the tactics they used to defend themselves. While reading I thought to myself "hey that's a pretty good idea on how to secure that door," or "that's a pretty efficient way to store ammunition."
I think finding a middle ground between stories like these is where I'd like to go - whether it'd be a novella, full-length novel or even a screenplay for film or television. To be honest I have been brewing a TV pilot since 2009, but I would like to maybe try my hand at the survivalist angle. I just wish my motivation and skill was more present earlier on because now it isn't a fresh subject anymore. It's a familiar idea in a sea of stories just like it. I know it hasn't been "new" in a LONG time (i.e. Mad Max. 1979), but now it's a pop culture statement.
At this point I think I'd just like to be able to say: "Yes, I did write that and yes I was inspired by X, Y and Z and I'm happy I was able to do it," and have people say I sure remembered him and his work back then. To be acknowledged for bringing at least a new or improved opinion to the table of survival that the world can digest and nod their heads to. But it isn't all about recognition, it's also about getting my opinion out there too, hence Broadminded Survival. It's an external venue for my own thoughts because when I think about things like this most of the day while I'm at work or in bed watching T.V. with my wife I feel like I'm going to explode sometimes. I have to get it out there in some fashion. Whether it's me sketching drawings in a notebook, writing micro fiction or short stories just for myself or working on this blog what it comes down to is that I need to express myself. It's cathartic to say the least and when you have this much pent up inside you all the time it's better to let it out and share it.
The Road is one of my favorite novels (how can you not love Cormack McCarthy?) and I think the film is perhaps one the finest and most faithful film adaptations I've ever seen. I could discuss it for hours.
ReplyDeleteA book that I feel is something like a logical extension of McCarthy's tome is "Riddley Walker" by Russel Hoban. Anyone considering reading it should know up front though that it's an extremely challenging read. The book is written in the grammar and vernacular of a person living on what was once the Island of Great Britain but several hundred years in the future and after a great, world ending calamity. The character phonetically spells his language and he would have a thick, Cockney accent. An excerpt for an example (imagine a young Michael Caine):
"Seeing that boars face in my mynd that morning in the aulders and seeing it in my mynd now I have the same thot I had then: If you cud even jus see 1 thing clear the woal of whats in it you cud see every thing clear. But you never wil get to see the woal of any thing youre all ways in the middl of it living it or moving thru it. Never mynd."
You will read and re-read and re-re-read passages to get some of them down while others flow naturally but if it gets it's hooks in you it will become an exceedingly rewarding read, as though you read a great story and learned a new language while doing it.
Another one I enjoy is a similarly themed but much larger and more epic work called A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller Jr. and if you've ever played Fallout 3 you may recognize some bits of the book's DNA in there as it was a big influence on the game.