As many of you know, I have been struggling with Post-Covid syndrome and a number of other ailments that have put me out of work. I have diaried about it numerous times over the past couple of months:
Here is the beginning of the saga
My struggles with Long-Haul COVID
Finally breaking down and asking for help on Sep 06
Since then, my wife and I have tried our absolute best to lower our bills and adjust to our new financial reality. While this has been largely successful, I find myself once again in financial dire straights. We have debt collectors calling us non-stop as we could no longer afford to pay credit cards, our account has twenty dollars in it and my wife still has to buy gas, we still need to buy food, I still need meds, cat food, hygiene supplies for the month. We had *just enough* to cover outstanding bills this time, and inflation is really, really hitting us hard. So, I am once again coming to dkos for help. I hate having to do this, but I literally have nowhere else to turn. Please, if you can help us, either donate to the gofundme I have set up here:
Help rexymeteorite survive post-Covid Syndrome!
Or donate to my wifes venmo directly here:
@Elizabeth-Brown-25029
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Last time I begged dailykos for money, I felt absolutely guilty about it. I did not like to come to you guys hat in hand and ask for cash with nothing to give back. This is my second fundraising diary out of three this year and instead of just...begging for money, I wanted to give something back.
Recently, I have been writing a book based on George Orwell’s 1984 called 2036. I wanted to give dailykos something for supporting me through this, so I will post Chapters 1-3 and the preface in this diary. I really wanted to have the entire thing completed by the time I posted it on dailykos, but unfortunately, immediate financial needs kind of took over. Here is the concept art for the cover!
Here is a part of the preface to get y’all warmed up!
0.2
So, before you begin reading this I would like to clue you into my thought process going into it. I would like to think that the story makes sense without this miniature explanation and set-up, but who knows? I am not even sure the plot makes sense to me yet, let alone anyone else, so this is as much for me as it is for you all reading this. So let’s start with the premise of the story – like I said before, I have truly believed that Orwell was correct in almost every detail in 1984. I consider it one of the deepest pieces of fiction to come out of the Twentieth Century, one that still has reverberations all the way to today and beyond. The setup for the book is, what if what Orwell wrote is much more than supposition – but truth that has yet to be written. “Slow down,” you may say to yourself, “The year 1984 was like 40 years ago, how has it yet to have happened?” Well, that's part of the reasoning for the book.
Orwell was correct in every last detail, at least where the universe of 2036 is concerned; just one hundred years too early. I have always thought that was a big disconnect in the book, being a child of the 1990s, and one that kind of removed me from fully feeling the impact of 1984 until I was much older and had the ability to overlook it. I worry that the timeline of 1984 may be like that for a lot of people. Clearly, the things that happened in 1984 didn’t come to pass, the year 1984 is over, how could the book have any relevance to 2022 and the future? I could see that being a big sticking point for a lot of people, just as people reading 2036 beyond the year 2036 may see that as a sticking point. So what Orwell did, and what I intend to do, is transcend time in a way. Make the contents of the story relevant, even if the timing of the story is not. So I guess what I am saying is, I know the inherent weakness of putting a year and timeline so close together in proximity, and I understand that it may take some people out of the story when they realize that events haven’t happened exactly how I imagined them. I’ll be the first to say that I am absolutely no Nostradamus, the purpose of this story isn’t to be historically accurate, of course (and I don’t think that was Orwell’s point either, I was just young and dumb). The point of my story is a thought experiment – what if people continued to be apathetic about democracy as we know it? What if people became more and more cruel? I know that society is a reflection of what is actually in people’s hearts. This story is an expression of fear that what is in people’s hearts now is nothing but greed and cruelty. In a way, it's a reflection upon my view of the world – pessimistic, dark, angry. It's a reflection of my life in the current moment. It's a reflection on the times in which we live. But most importantly, right now, for me, it's therapy. It's hope. It’s clarity in a time in my life when there is so much doubt, so much shame, so much embarrassment.
If you see parallels between the characters in the novel and some famous political figures, those parallels are not coincidental. If you follow U.S. news and current events in the early 2020s, you’ll know most if not all references to political figures contained in this book. They are absolutely, one hundred percent, intentional. The reason why these are intentional is the same reason why set this book to a time so close in the future. I believe things are accelerating to a conclusion. Things have been set in motion that once set, in my opinion, cannot be undone. And, yeah, maybe I am just suffering from a bit of paranoid delusion, but I truly believe that the U.S. is so far down the rabbit hole that the only inevitable conclusion is one of fascism, nationalism, jingoism, authoritarianism and cruelty. This story is an expression of fear of that conclusion. While it may not be exactly where we go, it seems as if the ultimate destination is the same no matter what we do. So, the impending doom I feel happening around me will be the context I use to write this story.
It’s kind of strange, but 2036 is meant to operate as both a prequel and sequel to 1984. It is a prequel in the way that it seeks to explain core questions about Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia I have had ever since I was a teenager and read the book and saw the movie for the first time. First and foremost among them being “how in the world it the U.S. cede its sovereignty to form a government with the U.K. and other Western countries to form Oceania?”, “how did the American people accept a party like Ingsoc, you know, English Socialism?”, “how did the American people lose their vaunted individuality?”, just to name a few. 2036 is a sequel to 1984 in the way that it seeks to bring the concepts of 1984 into the Twenty-first Century. I always felt the “TV watches you…wooOOOoooo….” kind of hard to believe. I am sure the concept was really novel when 1984 was originally written, but it’s become sort of cliche, probably partially because of 1984. One goal of 2036 is to add into the mix things like social media, the internet age, smartphones and cell towers, troll factories, “fake news”, modern propaganda and information warfare and modern politics to make 1984 that much more believable to a new generation of teenagers (like I was when I read 1984) and adults alike.
Originally when I conceptualized this novel, I hadn’t intended to use 1984 at all. I simply wanted to write a story about a man living at the end of democracy, with everything he really cared about falling apart around him – personally, professionally, politically, economically. But, as it turns out, I am quite shit at world building. A few months ago I rediscovered 1984 when I purchased the audiobook for a small amount, maybe five bucks. Insomnia is a bitch and I have been on quite the audiobook kick as of late. I started listening to it to go to sleep, but found myself staying up out of sheer horror about the amount of things I found in the “proto-1984” phase of development in actual reality when I was listening. It was extremely hard to go to bed being that aghast about how absolutely correct Orwell was about society and politics. So I decided, instead of crafting my own crappily thought out 2-dimensional world, I would use this pre-built amazing, vibrant world and add my story to it. I am not even sure if I can make money off of any of this legally, just because I don’t know what of and how much of 1984 is copyrighted. Could be that Ingsoc and Oceania belong to Orwell’s family, and by writing this I am taking food out of his great-great-great grandchildrens mouths. If that's the case, I’m happy to leave this consigned to the dustbin of fanfics on the internet. I mean, really, if it makes me feel any better at all, it's accomplished all it set out to do in the first place. If it's good, if it proves to be something that people connect with, if it proves to be an economic boon to me (and god knows I need one), so much the better. The goal, however, is simply to express my anxieties on paper in a way that makes me somehow feel better about them. We will see how I feel at the end of this. So, if dystopian worlds and political thrillers are something you enjoy, and you aren’t expecting the absolute fucking excellence of George Orwell, genius, nazi-puncher, teacher, and philosopher, then this preface has done its job.
So without further ado, here is 2036, chapters 1-3 and preface. I will post the rest, of course, when I am finished writing it at the end of November.
2036 by Adam and Elizabeth Brown
Like I said, this is Chapter 1 through about Chapter 4.2. I am in the middle of writing the climax and conclusion of the tale, plus an Epilogue and Afterword. I want to have it done by end November, but I am glad I could give you all a sneak peak in. I hope this is enough to justify a donation...if not, a tip and rec would be appreciated for visibility, or even constructive criticism of my idea or publishing hints in lieu of actual money would be very appreciated.
Thanks again dkos for all the support.