I had a random thought on my way to work today. What if the world, for whatever reason, had a brush with an apocalyptic ending, just like the dinosaurs? Well, their end was pretty damning wasn’t it? Anywho, lets just say ours wasn’t and we were lucky enough not to die out. Of course lots of our advancements would be lost to our all-consuming need of survival. We actually have an account of this happening on more than one occasion in history; when something happened that caused us to go backwards instead of forward. All we need to refer to for proof of that are the dark ages.

I would like to think that books will still be a thing after we started our return back into proper societies. And no, not just because I’m an author and I love books, but that probably has something to do with it… Moving right along.

A question that really interests me is, what books would be of importance during our rebuilding? It makes sense that books on religion, agriculture, and survival will be of the utmost importance. It makes the most sense that different regions would pick different subjects they find the most significant. A book on how to survive in the rainforest would be ignored by survivors living in the deserts of Arizona since we would no longer be allotted the free time to learn more than is needed. But what cultural histories, arts, and traditions will be taught? And that’s assuming we all continue to believe reading is a necessary skill in this new world. I know, can we say scary?!

I guess most of us would assume it would be our most prevalent beliefs that would find a way to continue to exist. But what would stop us from going back further and latching on to an older belief system? Who knows, our future selves may just start a resurgence of polygamous gods and Zeus may reign supreme once more.

Weird to think of, right? In that reality it would at least be something a large group of people had believed in before. However, what if we started to believe in something that we never had credence in in the past, but still has some relevance to our past knowledge? Like a religion based around the worship of Stephen King or one of his characters.

Sad, I didn’t actually make that up, this is really a thing. Granted they don’t seriously worship a car, but who knows how things can shape up in our distant future?

But seriously, that wouldn’t even be the first time we made up characters to fit what we wanted to believe. Robin Hood and King Arthur were most likely made up typescripts to play out our fantasies of the good and just ready to save the day for the poor and broken. And we buy into the illusion every single time. So it’s hard to think it will be any different in this future I’m imagining. I know, these “what ifs” and “maybe so's” could go on forever, but I do know one thing for sure. That it would be a very interesting time to be had, whatever the outcome. Happy Friday everyone!

Alanah Winters

What Books Will Make it in the End or the New Beginning?

Click here to read The Masquerade: Everyone is Invited