Let's Go Back

(Yeah it's something like that.)

Let's Go Back

I know chapter 4 was a lot and I kind of want to explain it more and also explain more about the world Veritas takes place in. Pieces of this post may end up in the Lexicon.

As I created more back story this serial it strayed away from cyberpunk and into speculative fiction. But, speculative fiction is an umbrella term so, I think I'm okay.

If you haven't figured it out Veritas exist in an alternate history as well (it was news to me as well). In this history the the USSR never collapsed and the arms race never ended, which is why nuclear power is so advanced.

Part 1 of Chapter 4 gets into some of the political stuff I was talking about. I will admit the meat of the backstory was influenced by the earthquakes in Haiti and all the news coverage. Haiti is a poor country because of it's long history so, I had think what could happen to the US to make it similar to a 3rd world country. I was also inspired by a news story I saw about the Mexican Cartel. The amount of government corruption and control the cartels have is really hard to imagine. Anyway, the wars were the scenario I used to create a different kind of America.

One thing to remember is the Serial Wars happened 60 years ago at this point in time. So, it is their history but, it is a history that is affecting them today. Think about history affects us today even though we don't acknowledge it. There is a huge Asian population in California because Asians were immigrated to work on railroads in the 1800's. It happened 200 years ago but, it's something you can still see.

Gendercide

Gendercide is one of the more serious tropes I came across. At first I brushed it off as a plot point and thought of it as something from some lame 60's sci-fi movie but the more I thought about it the more I thought it would create an interesting social situation.

Joanna Russ is a feminist science fiction writer who wrote a lot of speculative fiction about male gendercide and female societies that didn't need men to reproduce. From what I understand if there were men they usually ended up getting killed by a woman ripping him apart with her bare hands So . . . Yeah.

Anyway, I came across another fictional story about nuclear war and how only the military survived and that's when I decided female gendercide made the most sense because the military is mostly men. That's how this whole idea came about.

Is it anti-feminist ? Maybe, I don't really know. I honestly had to ask myself what would really happen if there were significantly less women in this country ? Are we discounting men by saying they can't control sexual impulses ? It's always been interesting to me that in all the episodes of To Catch A Predator (I need to stop watching MSNBC) they have never caught a woman.

I will say I have no agenda in writing this so, take from it what you will.

I had kind of meddled with the gendercide for a while but, it is kind of hinted at in the earlier chapters with the way the women are treated so carefully. It is also hinted in chapter 3:

1. Alan says he went to Barnards Boy's School. Barnards is a womens' college but, with less woman some womens' colleges never reopened.

2. He says is he were ever so lucky to have a family.

3. He mentions that Sara could leave the West because she's a--. He never finished the sentence but he was going to say because she was a female she might be allowed asylum.

4. It's also the reason Alan tries to save Minnie when she falls even though he is tied up-- he is afraid she will die.

East v West

In my head the Former Republic of the Western States is fromWashington to California to Texas. It's unruliness and repuation is kind of a throwback to the "New Frontier" "Wild West" mentality. Here are the basic notes on the two countries :

Former Western Republic

* Controlled by Eastern Government Militia
* Called "Former Republic" because the East does not want to recognize it as a real country.
*Commonly called the Western Republic but referred to as "The West" "The LOLA" "Republic" it's inhabitants are called Republicans
* State lines don't exsits

Eastern United States
The Eastern United States expands from New York to Florida to Lousiana, it is basically just one big city. There is no green, it's just industry and covered by a geodesic dome (think epcot)

*Controlled by Eastern democracy
*Commonly called the Eastern States but referred to as "States" "The State" "The East." It's inhabitants are called Easterners.
*State lines don't exist so the city is separated into districts or sectors. Alan lives in the South District which is where Atlanta is.
* The term America is not really used anymore so, when they talk about the country before the split he calls it the State.

The Midwest does not exist anymore because the country's population is so small they don't need all the space.

Truths
The truths for Sara about the harmful Uranium testing and practices. Not to mention other government secrets she learned from her husband. The reason she mentions the Shift is because the Shift is why she had the "take no prisoners" attitude. She wants people to know she is not weak and she wont allow herself to be a victim.


Pomegranate
I'm surprised Lile did not call me out on this one. I mentioned Pomegranate tea in the prologue because I thought it was a kind of futuristic, trendy fruit.

I wanted to use a Greek words for the title (Veritas is the Greek goddess of truth) and I came across the story of Persephone and Hades. The reason Persephone has to stay in the Underworld is because Hades tricked her into eating 5 pomegranate seeds and if you eat food in the Underworld you have to stay. The last thing Alan drinks is pomegranate tea and it sort of symbolizes him staying in the "underworld" of the Western Republic.

This was very unintentional on my part.

Terminology

In this piece the term Deckjockey refers to someone who works in computer information and keeps the internet running. They write code and create all the internal parts of computers. It is also use to mean hackers.

Chapter 5
Now that I'm done with that mini dissertation on to the next chapter. I'm pretty much out of songs except for a few faves I'm holding on to so, it will be interesting to see what music I use next. It's funny I actually have a song for each character, I hope I can use them.

Chapter 5

Playlist
-1- No More Rain by Kylie Mingoue
-2- Down to Earth by Jem
-3- As I Moved On by Blue Foundation