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Meet Christopher Hunter --- Part Two
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Q: Apocalypse as the result of a worldwide disease or outbreak is a popular theme in science fiction and fantasy. Why is this a theme that you wanted to tackle?
A: There's something very appealing about turning civilization on its head and hitting the reset button. I liked the idea of putting characters in that circumstance and seeing how they would deal with the challenge. I believe there's a deep seeded familiarity that we tap into with this genre. Our recorded history spans for about 5,000 to 10,000 year, but that's only a fraction of how long we've been around as a species. We are more adapted to who we were before than who we are now. Stripping away life as we know it is almost like going home after a long day of playing pretend. In a way, it's going back to the essence of who we are. It’s going back to the things that truly matter. Things like raw, day to day survival, as opposed to worrying about our 401ks. Also, it reflects a fear that we have about the amount of people we now have on this planet. Having billions and billions of humans running around is a relatively new phenomenon. In just a few short generations, we have multiplied something like seven fold. It's not natural. Somewhere inside, I believe we know this. Apocalyptic fiction plays to that awareness. Now, I'm not saying I want to see billions of people die in reality. If the events of my book, or any other book on the subject came true, that would really suck. But, at least in the universe of my fictional story, a correction has taken place.
Q: The President of East America is Joseph McArthur and it’s hard not to think of another famous American, Douglas McArthur. Is there a political subtext to the book?
A: There is a STRONG political subtext to this series! Government and its role, or rather, former role, plays a prominent part in Martin's narrative, which is only right from someone who was slated to be a history teacher. "The Days and Months" is as much a cautionary tale as it is anything else. There really are some surprises in store for anyone who appreciates social speculation. 2068 is very different from 2011, especially for what we now call the United States of America. And just to address the McArthur thing (plenty of people have brought this up), there is no relation between the fictional President of East America and Douglas McArthur. They both share a really cool surname, I'll admit that much. But the similarity is entirely coincidental.
Q: In addition to the political thread, technology also seems to loom large as a threat, can you talk a little bit about technology’s place in your universe?
A: It wasn't my intent to make technology a key factor in this series. I didn't want to beat people over the head with the idea that this series is set in the future, but undeniably, some things had be different from what we are used to today to make this 2068 plausible. In the future of this series, mankind got a lot of things right. Global warming didn't devastate the planet, water shortage is not an issue, energy is no longer a pressing concern, and people are not starving. But as we all know, technology cuts both ways. It can do great things, but also, it can do serious harm. One group's nuclear plant is another group's nuclear bomb; one group's satellite can find a victim stranded in the mountains while another group's satellite can blow an enemy to smithereens with pin-point accuracy. It all depends. In the case of this series, someone took bio-technology and used it for a very sinister purpose. This is definitely fiction, fiction that's more parody than fact; but if someone had the right scientific know-how, the right luck, and the wrong intent, there's no telling what that person could be capable of. There's no telling what we could be vulnerable to.
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