"What would twelve ordinary Americans give to save the Republic from extinction?" That's a difficult question to ask, and a much harder to answer. In every century Americans have lived several key figures have stood against the waves of anarchy and isolationism that have sought to divide our country. From the Gettysburg Address, to our art, our cinema, and the Constitution itself, hundreds if not millions of Americans stand every year to defy divisiveness in lieu of the greater prizes our nation was founded on. Not freedom, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, but of unity. Unity personified through any aspect in every century America has existed in.
And yet as the bonfire of the American century gets further and further from living memory, and a purported "Asian Century" rises with not one but two opposing superpowers to defy American global hegemony, the question of true unity becomes more essential now that it has at any point in the past 150 years. What would most Americans sacrifice to protect what the republic? If you were to walk through Times Square right now and ask ten people this question, I guarantee you'd get ten different answers. Lincoln said "a house divided against itself cannot stand", yet a culture war brews and remains in the heartland despite changes in political leadership.
The divisiveness of the 2016 and 2020 election cycles are a sleeping giant. Our nation wants division more than it ever has in its life cycle and with darker stakes than during the spring of 1861. America has enemies all around the globe, and they don't want America divided. They want it destroyed.
So maybe our original question is unanswerable. Maybe instead of thinking about asking the masses how to save the Republic, we should be asking a much bigger, more thoughtful version of our original question. And that is:
"What happens if you ignite a flame inside an oxygen tank surrounded by a vacuum?"
That's not difficult to answer. That's just science.
--
Set in the 23rd century in the midst of a species-wide expansion across the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way, Americans In Space is my forthcoming debut novel, told in graphic form, describing the loss of a space station on which twelve ordinary Americans venture to attempt to fix a communications error. The twist? Though the future is filled with the hope of technology beyond our wildest dreams, our twelve Americans are a little bit less so, each of them finding their character flaws in the doldrums of the 20th century, where revolution was the name of the game and racism, sexism, and sheer anarchy underscored some of America's finest moments.
How can anyone save themselves from a disaster such as this? That's my leading question, and the only question worth answering in todays multipolar-focused world.
--
Americans in Space has no release date yet, but I expect to be querying the final draft by the end of this year. In the meantime, take a look at these character and environment concepts for the novel, generated using DALL-E, Starry AI, and the Midjourney Beta.
And yes I'm hiring real artists, but for now here's what I'm willing to share with you.
Ciao.
