After Earth - Explanation

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I am very interested in the cli-fi genre as a form of fiction that allows me to convey climate related ideology. As of now, I have, what I believe to be, a rather exciting idea for a short story or novel. The story begins several decades into the future with a man who is forced to scavenge for food, water, and shelter. The reader is left wondering what happened to society that has forced this man into an unexpected and unappealing lifestyle. The character travels with his most prized possession. A journal in which he writes every day and often uses to reflect back on the world that once was. I plan on using the character’s journal as a flashback method that slowly reveals details about what happened to the earth prior to devastation.
Ultimately, something happens to the traveling character and the story flashes forward several years. A group of survivors in the new world come across this journal and use it as a sort of encyclopedia. They were born into the world after collapse and know very little about what came before. This journal is one of the only remaining sources of information, so they use it to their advantage with the goal of rebuilding society.
These are big plans I'm taking on that I most likely won't finish this semester, but I believe the readings we do in class will help fuel the plot of this story. Much of the predicted challenge as I write, will be creating a believable world that is rooted in the problems we face in our contemporary society (i.e. oil lust, greed, water scarcity, capitalism, etc.). time is another important component I want to work with in this story. I recently read a graphic novel called AD After Death. It is a wonderful story that has given me some inspiration and ideas. Finally, I'm using Hans Zimmer's Blue Planet score as an inspiration for world building. As of now, the concept is still being developed and I'm merely using a working title.

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