The concept
of ‘The Price of Man’ came about as an idea for a prequel to the Star Series,
the story of a girl living in a young Port Homeland as humankind leaves en
masse for the New World and those left behind make what they can of life here
on Earth. Chronologically the story is set much closer to the present day than
originally intended, long before the founding of Port Homeland. As my awareness
of Starhawk’s environmental and political movements increased, and as my
involvement in student politics became a large part of my life, the emphasis
for the novel shifted towards the grave economic, environmental and social issues faced by those who stay behind on Earth.
The first
chapter, ‘Songs after midnight’, began entirely as a dream and started as an
independent short story. It came to me during Price of Man’s very early
development and I figured it fit in well with the back story of mankind leaving
Earth for life in the stars, but uncertain of what they’ll find or what sort of
life they’ll have. It very much plays on human fear of death or the unknown,
starting a new life somewhere new and uncharted, and the story subtly blends
both of these themes. The original plan for the opening of the story showed the
excitement of the US space race, followed by the horror of the Challenger
disaster (which did feature in the dream very prominently), but then remedied
by the fact that exploration still continued (if not by the crew of Challenger
– I took this as a metaphor for both the successes and dangers of space
exploration.) Note also that ‘The Final Countdown’, the opening scene that
depicts the above, came out early in 1986, the same time of the same year as
the Challenger disaster. This occurred in the story by freak coincidence and I
was blown away when I first noticed it.
The second
chapter, Times of Hope and Chaos, was also based on a dream I had a few weeks
after the first, and also initially intended to be an independent short story.
The name came from a workshop ran by Starhawk, one of the main influences of
the story, I attended in Glastonbury in May 2013, the bulk of which explored
the environmental and political catastrophes we face and how to build
successful, cooperative communities out of it. This second dream added a new
layer to the story, presented to me in two parts; the first a woman and her
children escaping from natural disaster, and the second part a man fleeing
political persecution. I was able to incorporate this easily into my story and
thus created the characters of Sam, Maggie and Lucas, the running back-story to
Gloria’s main narrative, characters who didn’t feature at all in initial plans
before the dream.
The quotes
that are interspersed between chapters are from famous writers, political and
religious leaders whose words I find inspiring and relevant to the message of
the story. Each quote is meant to relate to the chapter it precedes, and
sometimes it supports the behaviour and words of the characters within it,
sometimes it goes against it. Either way, the quotes, like the rest of the
book, is intended to present many different viewpoints to many different
arguments. I hadn’t expected Martin Luther King Jr., a Christian and avid
pacifist, to be the main advocate for the message of the story in these quotes,
for a world where Christianity and organised religion have been largely
abandoned for atheism and spirituality, and violence becomes seemingly the only
option for uprising or even for defence. Martin Luther King Jr., though,
envisioned an America free from racism, from war, from poverty and segregation
and for all mankind to walk together as brothers and sisters, using his faith
as his vehicle to spread the word of love and brotherhood.
As a work
originating in MTS, the story draws heavily on music, more so than was
originally intended for this book. The main musical influences were the
ideologies of rebellion, anarchy and awareness of political corruption and
social control from Green Day, and the sombre sense of hopelessness in a time of
war, loneliness and loss of Brandon Flower’s solo album ‘Flamingo.’ Here the
war is more metaphorical but carries with it frequent imagery of battle and
loss in war.
As
unreliable as Wikipedia may seem, it was an invaluable source of information
for research on different political ideologies and economic systems,
geographical information about the south-western states and cultural
information about the US (for a US citizen, I was surprised by how much I
didn’t know! (even though I’ve never lived there.)) Most of the ideas about
permaculture and an alternative, earth-based, community-based lifestyle I drew
from Starhawk’s non-fiction ‘The Earth Path’ and fiction ‘The Fifth Sacred
Thing.’
The theme of
the ‘Promised Land’ prevailed through many of the song lyrics and through
Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches. It’s presented many different ways,
initially as the place of escape where only the richest can reach, somewhere
barely imaginable for those left behind; as the story progresses, it becomes a
vision of a hidden paradise here on Earth for young, idealistic Gloria, and for
Sam it becomes a metaphor for the world after the revolution has been won. Like
many themes of the story it’s left largely open ended until the very end, as it
means different things to different people. Everyone Gloria encounters on her
journey sees and interprets the world in different ways, to the point that she
loses her firm sense of the world’s problems and how they should be dealt with,
and a new worldview is built on what she’s seen and experienced.
The ‘end of
days’ is something that’s represented in popular culture as a looming
apocalypse over mankind for our various wrongdoings, religious, financial,
social, environmental, economic in nature. ‘The Price of Man’ shows many of
these financial collapses, social breakdown and natural disasters take place,
with many more threatened at every turn. The title is intended not only to
refer to the price paid for mankind’s love of and obsession with money, but
also the impact that wrong decisions made now have on our future in terms of
environmental awareness and social structure. I’ve chosen the ending I have not
to dictate how I think everyone in the future should live – it’s not a path for
everyone. Starhawk’s work can be controversial and often unpopular, but it’s a
path I would choose for myself given the availability of the right community
and infrastructure. Here I present it as a possible solution, one of many, and
one that I hope will inspire others to consider this difficult to achieve yet
wholly fulfilling lifestyle. Many of my themes and ideas represented will be
controversial and raise debate, but precisely because these things are
impossible to ignore! Enjoy, my friends. x
