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Thank you for finding the time to read through my blog and this author’s note (tedious as it may seem to scroll all the way down to the very first post).
My name is Bea, and I started this blog both as a requirement for my MBB 100 writing class and as a passion project to tide me through stressful afternoons. It is quite ironic that I’m submitting a creative writing project for a course on scientific writing, but I hope this blog helps me revive my writing skills well enough that I can mold the story as immersive as possible while improving my skills overall.
To start off, I’d like to set the context of the story I’m writing.
The Last Generation is a collection of vignettes written by a cast of nine characters as they set upon humanity’s final quest to save their species after the apocalypse decimated the majority of the population 350 years ago.
In this story, much of culture and history has either been destroyed by the apocalypse or forgotten as time went on. Since electricity had been abruptly cut off, all computerized records were lost; many surviving documents — engraved, written, carved, painted, or otherwise — were obliterated 350 years ago. Humans were forced to rely on what meager information they could find in an attempt to salvage the character and the memory of the previous society. More on the methods they used will be revealed in future posts.
While some humans did survive the apocalypse and settled in large colonies, many died off as the Earth soon effectively proved to be a barren wasteland. The population steadily continued to decline until new life began to grow again on the planet. As of the timeline in this story, only a few of the greater colonies remained on Earth (or so they thought...?).
The main character is a human from the Great Caves. Together with a companion, they are sent by their colony to fulfill a prophecy passed down from the original generation who established the Great Caves as their home and fortress. Nobody understands or remembers much about the prophecy, however — but one thing that everyone is sure of is that fulfilling it will entail the safety and survival of humankind.
Many of the posts on this blog are stylized as her and her companions’ (yes, there will be more of them) journal entries as they go about their journey. A lot of the lore will be revealed as they press further on and discover the strange world their ancestors left behind... and the equally stranger occupants that sprouted from the bowels of this newly-reborn land.
I relied on a few vintage natural history encyclopedias, books, lithographs, and various other documents on the Internet to establish the tone and aesthetic of the story. These pictures will also help me weave together a more immersive experience by incorporating them into the posts themselves. Some of the references I used are listed below — I’ll be updating the list as the story goes on.
Expect this story to be slightly comedic, a tinge magical, and, hopefully, an interesting exercise for me and an enjoyable read for you.
Thanks again, and welcome the last generation.
Sincerely,
Bea
REFERENCES
+ Actinologia Britannica: A History of the British Sea-Anemones and Corals. Philip Henry Gosse (1860).
+ Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature). Ernst Haeckel (1899-1904).
+ The Aquarium: An Unveiling of the Wonders of the Deep Sea. Philip Henry Gosse (1856).
+ Bäume: Betrachtungen und Gedichte (Trees: Reflections and Poems). Hermann Hesse (1984).
+ The Birds of New Guinea and the Adjacent Papuan Islands, Vol. 1. John Gould, Richard B. Sharpe & William Matthew Harte (1875).
+ Das Meer. Matthias Jacob Schleiden (1923).
+ Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium. August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof (1758).
+ Wonders of the Sea. Gladys Pratt Freund (1941).
+ Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria: Pictures and Descriptions of the Living Species of All Classes of the Victorian Indigenous Animals, Vol. 1. Frederick McCoy (1823-1899).
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