Rachel: The moment has come.

Well, I just finished doing a chunk of math (I got an A on my test! :D) and now I have decided that it is time to unwind and finally talk about Death List in detail. Be prepared to be talked TO DEATH, but if you're even remotely interested in what the heck my book is even about read on. I'll try to make it as clear as possible, even though I'm fairly certain that some of this only makes sense inside my how head. So here we go.

First of all, as I'm sure I've already stated, Death List takes place in the future. I originally had the year as 2262, but as I've sort of developed my understanding of my own idea it has become apparent to me that the story takes place farther in the future than that. I see it being almost a thousand years in the future from now, which is something that is kind of hard for me to work with because I personally don't believe that mankind has another thousand years left...but whatever. It's in the future. Moving on.

As time progressed and mankind did as well, problems started to increase.I've written a prologue for this book that sort of details the ups and downs of man up until when the book actually starts, but I don't know that I like it so I'll leave it out and just tell you that overpopulation became mankind's number-one issue. Cities had grown to cover expanses that were sometimes as large as states, and, once they had grown out of space to spread outwards, they had spread upwards. The end product of this was an endless sea of skyscrapers so tall that they blocked out the smog-blackened sky as far as the eye could see. Cars and things of that nature were outlawed so that streets could be demolished to make more room for buildings in which people could live, so these "supercities" were absolutely PACKED. As a result of their massive populations, supercities were filthy and filled with disease and despite the multitude of buildings, there was still a massive homeless population. There was not enough food and water to go around, so people were starving to death left and right...but there was nowhere to put them. Electricity could no longer support the huge population, so humans were reduced to living in squalor and darkness. Basically the human race had overpopulated itself into certain extinction. And it probably would have gone extinct (we'll assume) if it hadn't been for one man's idea.

Cornelius Gallagher was the inventor of a phenomenon known as the Death List. The concept of the List was simple, and it works like this:

1. When someone is born, the Date of their birth is entered into a supercomputer operated by a particular city. A number of other things are recorded as well. In fact, here's an example:


To the caretaker(s) of Ezekiel Cato Everton:

Congratulations on your newborn son/daughter. Please keep record of the following information concerning your child, as it is possible that it may be necessary for future identification purposes. All of the figures below may be subject to change depending on your child’s predetermined lifespan:


Weight: 7 lbs, 6 oz

Hair: None

Hair color: N/A

Eye color: Blue/green

Skin: White

Race: Caucasian

Distinctive Markings: None.

2. After this is recorded, the Date that the individual this person will die is chosen. This is how the Death List provides a solution to overpopulation; people aren't really allowed to live. Dates are random (or they're supposed to be) with the exception that they can't come sooner than two weeks after a person is born. A very small number of individuals are allowed to live their lives out until they die naturally (The Golden Few, they are called) but these people are extremely rare. Anyway, here's an the other half of the letter above with the Date information included:

The following is the date of Ezekiel Cato Everton’s expiration. This date is chosen by random and is not affected by race, family or personal affiliations, financial situations, physical or mental conditions, or any other factor.

Date of Death: August 4th, 2262

The caretakers of Ezekiel Cato Everton are expected to respect this date and behave accordingly. Any attempts by Ezekiel Cato Everton to avoid carrying out his/her duty to the world will be met with consequences of a severe nature. Any attempts by caretakers or other persons of a close relation to assist Ezekiel Cato Everton in an attempt to avoid doing his/her duty to the world will be reprimanded accordingly. Once again, congratulations on your newborn child.

Sincerely,

The Department of Gallagherite Affairs in association with The Department of Newborns and Listings

So that's what that looks like. Obviously, all of this is pretty simple, if kind of macabre. Gallagher spent the rest of his life working to get the Death List ratified. Long story short, it didn't come easily, but eventually it was instated in China, Japan, America, and a few other countries. Others disagreed with the policies and refused to have the List put into place. The book takes place in the U.S., so what I describe from this point forward is strictly from America's point of view. I have no idea what the other Death-List-ruled countries did, but this is what happened in my homeland. 

Because Europe was pretty anti-Death List and refused to ratify it, lots of Americans were fleeing the country so that they didn't have to live by the Death List's laws. To deal with the problem, the U.S. government made all travel beyond the country illegal and impossible to do, which was the beginning of the corruption that started to take place. There were a lot of riots and nasty rebellions and whatnot, but eventually everyone settled into the Death List and it became a part of life. The population shrunk successfully and life began to improve dramatically. Long story short AGAIN, mankind was saved and was on the mend. Now we skip forward to "present-day" U.S., or specifically Paradise City. 

Paradise City is where all of my characters originate from. The thing about cities in this new world is that they are like their own separate worlds within a world. They are cut off from one another and, as a result, have developed completely unique cultures and customs. They are SO cut off, in fact, that they don't even know about the existence of cities--or anything else--beyond their own city. This is largely due to what the government has done. In order to keep people under control, it has severely limited the information that is available to the public. Ugh...okay, I'm kind of spiraling into something else here. Let me try to organize this better so that I don't get lost in my own thoughts......okay. So now that you know what lead up to the Death List (roughly) and what it is (roughly), here is the deal with life in Paradise City. 

Life in Paradise City:

Paradise City is a walled-in metropolis that is constructed from the remains of the supercity it used to be. People commute around the city by foot, by pod, or by monorail. "Pods" are basically oval-shaped little cars that are big enough for two people, and are used because streets were never built back into the city and everyone has to travel on extra-wide sidewalks. Most of the buildings in the city are skyscrapers, but there are also a handful of single-story buildings, which are mostly restaurants or other businesses. There are also "pixel buildings", which are essentially skyscrapers that are like giant televisions and are used for advertising. A section of the western portion of the city is composed of new family-oriented housing, and none of that is skyscrapers. It's pretty new.

Life in Paradise City is centered mostly around the Death List. This is more due to the fact that it's impossible to forget about the day you are scheduled to die than anything else. Yellow pods are the transportation that the government sends to pick up people whose Dates are near, and whenever one is seen driving along the sidewalk it evokes fear/a sobering melancholy-ness in those who see it. There is school in the city, but only up through high school; once one turns eighteen, the government assigns them a job more or less at random unless they have an obvious skill. Education doesn't really consist of anything except constant brainwashing to teach children to respect and revere the Death List and all it entails, which is often referred to as "one's duty to the world." So education is substandard, which is exactly what the government wants, and here's why.

The government fears that, if the public is allowed to have knowledge and information and ideas, then everyone will start to rebel against the Death List. The best way to keep people controlled is to control their input of info and to keep strict rules, they figure. In order to do this, the government manipulates every aspect of Paradisian life, more so than any Paradisians know. The internet still exists, but there is a government sector and a public sector. The government sector is a mystery to everyone, but it is rumoured to contain endless information. The public sector is mostly the current social network, Greenlight, and a lot of really limited/watered-down information. People can access the public sector of the internet through the only legal personal technological device, the Celph. Celphs are basically little tablets that are composed from the only legal technology left (most advanced technology was destroyed after a period known as the Techno Age). These Celphs are one of the only things that are actually futuristic in this futuristic world because the government tweaked the way that cities evolved as they shrank. Many of the things in Paradise City, from clothing styles to the way family life is structured, is a lot like it is today because the government wanted its subjects to remain in a "safe time," and it was determined that the early 2000's were simple enough to keep the possibility of successful rebellion at a minimum but advanced enough for people to live in a comfortable environment. In this way Paradisians are like goldfish in a bowl; their world is dictated by what the people outside of it decide, but they aren't any the wiser about it. I could go on about the government corruption because there is still more to say, but you get the idea. There is, however, one major aspect of corruption that is important for you all to know. The population of the United States is under 50,000 people, so the Death List is no longer necessary AT ALL, but the government doesn't want people to know that because it fears losing control; hence the walls around Paradise City. Oh, and one more thing, and this is a big one. Big enough for a new paragraph.

In addition to having a problem with control, the government has also developed an obsession with perfection. All of the power it has has gone to its head, and it has started to use that power to work to create a perfect human being. It goes about doing this by having entire departments dedicated to sifting through information sent in by hospitals when babies are born. This information is more in-depth than just hair colour and race. A lot of it has to do with the way the newborn's brain is wired, what their genetics are, and how "good" they are likely to be physically or mentally based on early information. If the people in the Department of Newborns and Listings doesn't see anything of interest in someone, then their Date is assigned at random. But if they DO see something that they would like to study or use in their mission to create a perfect race, then the person becomes one of the Golden Few. I don't have this entire process fully planned out yet, but at least you know that this creepy thing is going on. 

Okay, so that's the basics with my book when it comes to general information. Now we come to the actual story line. Because it is so complicated, I won't go into too much detail about it and will just be kind of general with it so that you at least have an idea as to what occurs in the duration of the book.

What the hell goes on:

As you all know, the story is told from a bunch of different people, so there's a lot of different plots. But there is one consistency among all of my characters, and that is that they all end of escaping from Paradise City and journeying out into the world. Some of them have more success than others in surviving outside of the city, but this is really all I can tell you without getting into too much detail. Just know that everyone goes on an epic journey of self-discovery and whatnot. I plan to tell you what happens with everyone (sorry, haha) but this post has been long and confusing enough, so I think I'll wrap it up for now. Sorry that a lot of this doesn't really make a whole lot of sense and is kind of rambling, but if you have any questions I'll be happy to clarify if you're not sure what I was talking about. Now I'll stop torturing you all and stop typing.

-Iridian