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Final Great War: Difference between revisions
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==Themes== | ==Themes== | ||
===Coping with loss=== | ===Coping with loss=== | ||
The novels deal generally with human coping mechanisms. They examine them not only on their face, but also to what extent human beings will go to rationalize their experiences, and whether or not they are able to transmit that into survival techniques. The first novel deals extensively with the six main characters coping from loss related to the Third Great War or the period in its aftermath; the three characters who form the Survivors Union eventually overcome their trauma and set aside some coping mechanisms while the three that disappear are eventually overcome by their rationalizations, leading to their death. The theme remains throughout the novels and becomes especially prominent again in the later novels, as external threats to mankind wane in favor of inter-survivor conflict and war. | |||
===Value divergence=== | ===Value divergence=== | ||
The latter novels of the series approach how individuals who shared many goals and attributes initially inevitably diverge into different factions and point of view. Geronato used existential threats like zombies and starvation in the early novels to demonstrate the lengths to which people will unite against external threats, and then uses that same phenomenon later to show the "disappointment" of old alliances and friendships breaking down as conditions change. | |||
===Subjectivity of history=== | ===Subjectivity of history=== | ||
All of the ''Final Great War'' novels include descriptions of major narrative events that have contradictions, sometimes blatant, in how they are described by the characters. While initially jarring for the reader, by the conclusion of the first novel most readers are able of determining the specific consistent biases of the individual characters. On this topic, Geronato has stated that "It is evident most of history is remembered completely differently, not only major world events, but the conversation you had with your neighbor this morning. I felt that level of subjectivity was not properly reflected in literature in our country ([[Urcea]]) at the time of writing the first book." In some of the novels, major in-world events are called different names by different individuals depending on their affiliation; the narrative uses this to build a reader's expectation of different events (i.e. the same battle being called a glorious victory of one place name or the massacre of a different place name), only for that event to be revealed as the same occurrence later on. Geronato has called this the "battle name effect", and stated in an interview "It allows you to compartmentalize what your favorite character is up to. Only when the twist comes do you have second thoughts; is he a heroic knight or a rapacious butcher?". | All of the ''Final Great War'' novels include descriptions of major narrative events that have contradictions, sometimes blatant, in how they are described by the characters. While initially jarring for the reader, by the conclusion of the first novel most readers are able of determining the specific consistent biases of the individual characters. On this topic, Geronato has stated that "It is evident most of history is remembered completely differently, not only major world events, but the conversation you had with your neighbor this morning. I felt that level of subjectivity was not properly reflected in literature in our country ([[Urcea]]) at the time of writing the first book." In some of the novels, major in-world events are called different names by different individuals depending on their affiliation; the narrative uses this to build a reader's expectation of different events (i.e. the same battle being called a glorious victory of one place name or the massacre of a different place name), only for that event to be revealed as the same occurrence later on. Geronato has called this the "battle name effect", and stated in an interview "It allows you to compartmentalize what your favorite character is up to. Only when the twist comes do you have second thoughts; is he a heroic knight or a rapacious butcher?". | ||
===The continuity of time=== | ===The continuity of time=== | ||
A major focus of the latter ''Final Great War'' novels is the continuance of human history. Beginning with ''Into Ploughshares'' and culminating in ''Next Great War'', the characters and world of the series begin to lose the general importance of the cybernetic plague and third great war. The characters begin to focus more on contemporary issues with other survivors and the future, with the organizations and states they create entirely moving past it by the end of ''Next Great War''. Geronato explains that his intention was to explicitly reject the notion of a man-made apocalypse as being possible entirely, instead stating that "So long as man persists, history continues...there are no chapters or books of history, only a continued thread of those still living". Geronato also stated that "The {{wp|eschaton}} will be a divine event, not a human one, and humans will continue as we always have and always will until that day." Scholars have noted that Geronato's novels reject both {{wp|presentism}} and some of the implications of {{wp|Whig historiography}} by demonstrating a consistent human nature. | A major focus of the latter ''Final Great War'' novels is the continuance of human history. Beginning with ''Into Ploughshares'' and culminating in ''Next Great War'', the characters and world of the series begin to lose the general importance of the cybernetic plague and third great war. The characters begin to focus more on contemporary issues with other survivors and the future, with the organizations and states they create entirely moving past it by the end of ''Next Great War''. Geronato explains that his intention was to explicitly reject the notion of a man-made apocalypse as being possible entirely, instead stating that "So long as man persists, history continues...there are no chapters or books of history, only a continued thread of those still living". Geronato also stated that "The {{wp|eschaton}} will be a divine event, not a human one, and humans will continue as we always have and always will until that day." Scholars have noted that Geronato's novels reject both {{wp|presentism}} and some of the implications of {{wp|Whig historiography}} by demonstrating a consistent human nature. | ||