Midlist Writer: Post-Apocalyptic A to Z: Justice

Saturday 12 April 2014

Post-Apocalyptic A to Z: Justice

One aspect of a post-apocalyptic society that writers need to consider is how the survivors feel about what happened. If something like the American Civil War can inflame passions 150 years after the fact, what kind of reactions would the fall of civilization bring on?

In my Toxic World series, people are forbidden to speak of it in the one surviving civilized town, New City. The rulers of New City are terrified that the old social splits that destroyed the Old Times might return, and so anyone who is found guilty of Blame is branded and exiled.

In Radio Hope, we meet Jackson Andrews, one such exile. Jackson is a Marxist and publically blamed the rich for starting wars and polluting the world for their profit. Since he's already been branded and exiled, he's not afraid to continue his Blaming in the wildlands. Most people dismiss his ideas, but find they can't quite ignore him.

In the second book, which is in edits right now, Blaming religious groups becomes a problem in New City thanks to an attack by a mad cult, and in the third volume (in the outline stage) the most crucial divisions of the Old Times get shoved right into everyone's faces.

But I still need to write that story!

Statue of Lady Justice on the Well of Justice in Bern, Switzerland. Sculptor: Hans Gieng, 1543. photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

2 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...: And it's rarely one thing that starts it all.; 12 April 2014 at 07:54
D.G. Hudson said...: Nice photo to go with that post! Yes, there would be much animosity, I would think, after everything has been laid to waste.

Blaming gives a target to focus the bad feelings on. (reminds me of the old Monty Python skit - 'don't mention the war'. . .); 12 April 2014 at 08:06

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