just started reading FFF trash hero, and then I thought: Say an apocalypse (of whatever variety) comes to real life Earth. Then say in 1000 years time someone finds a working laptop with a bunch of Apocalypse related novels stored on it (or safely stored paperbacks, if laptop doesn’t work, whatever) Then wouldn’t these novels that we are currently reading as “fiction” become a prophecy “bible” type “holy” books?
Hmm that's an interesting train of thought. I'm sure that if apocalypse related novels are discovered someone will also discover non-fiction historical records. Guess it depends on what kind of world there is 1000 years from now. Humanity might be extinct.
Well, even poorly written fiction can be considered a holy text if it's presented in the right way, by enough people.
Not really. It's more likely that it will be considered as historical book than a holy book. The people of the future may think that the events in those novels really happened, until they check with other more credible sources and discovered that those novels were completely fiction. Still, they wouldn't know for sure if that's the case, after all, there is 100 years in our history that was unaccounted for. It was like someone in the past changed the date for whatever reason. Let's go with real world example, The Alphabet of Ben Sira. This book tells of Biblical Adam being a douchebag who raped his own mother and wife until she couldn't take it anymore and escaped to Earth. Adam whambulanced to God and asked Him to bring his wife back. God sent Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof to bring Adam's wife and mother back. She refused, and after thousands of years of fighting, she stated that she would bring misfortune and illness to Adam's children, unless they were anointed with the names of the three angels who fought her to a standstill. Adam still didn't have his mother and wife back. So God gave him a temporary wife, Naamah, an angel with a pleasant voice and demeanor. She couldn't stand him either. Just like Adam's first wife, Naamah also ran away. So Adam whambulanced back to God and told him his wife ran away again. God had a headache, so he ripped off one of Adam's ribs and made Eve. Then Eve and Adam pissed God off, so God kicked them down to Syria. In the Alphabet of Ben Sira, the first human was not Adam. It was his mother (and sister). She wasn't created from earth, but instead was a primordial creature that existed when Earth was still bubbling. Shortly after her creation, she made Adam's form following her own using earth and God breathed life into it. There's just one problem. Jewish scholars labeled the book as fiction and a satire of Judaism. However, they don't have real evidence to say that it's fiction, only circumstantial evidence based on how the book completely turned over everything written in Torah and Psalms as well as their traditions. We recently found that the Dead Sea Scrolls mentioned Adam's mother by name, though only as part of a ritual on chasing her away. Scholars also recently found that the Alphabet of Ben Sira was actually based on a much earlier work. Is it real or is it fiction? Nobody really can say for sure. Everyone has an opinion, just like everyone has farts. Your future readers may suffer the same predicament.
Evidence that humans had imagined (or foretold of) such events, yes. Holy books? Doubtful. It's not like they could guide future generations thru the dangers of the apocalypse, provide useful solutions, etc. In short, they're unlikely to be helpful to survival, hence, dispensable.
some apocalypse novels do have interesting survival ideas... well perhaps for the start of the disaster...
All apocalyptic WN were full of magic elements and other mythical things,so it was impossible for it to become a holy book. if you found a book with similar setting as your life but it was full with magic,Friendship,heroic battles or maybe Romance+Happy ending. Compared to the reality,when you running,hiding or even starving in a broken world ,when you read this book at that time? it feels like the author mocking you and spit on your face.
What about those books (eg stone slates etc) or the books preserved in museums - they are over 1000 yo, but you are right, unless it’s some person crazy about their pristine comics collection stored in a super duper sucured room, the paperbacks will probably be used for fire to warm up during apocalypse. Or perhaps some pages would miraculously survive and become that “there was a prophecy “ type object....
Close, the bible. Around 300 years after the fact more then 50 men made up of clergy and the then Pope and emperor of Rome Constantine did one of the first major edits to the known bible to remove inconsistencies and shape it into one of the best known fictional stories based on historical events.
Especially considering the so called agnostic bible...books found among the lost sea scrolls (still considered the oldest version of the Old Testament) that never made it into the official bible.. Yep, completely agree!
Ai-chan thinks 1000 years is plausible. After all, Dead Sea Scrolls were older than that. And the oldest known Bible, Codex Vaticanicu, was believed to have been made in the 4th century. The document titled Mozarab Misal of Silos was made in the 11th century and still exists now. Granted, for paper to last long, it needs to have the right conditions, but it's not impossible. All you'd need is to put it in a place with salt so that the salt takes the moisture from the air, for the chamber to be sealed and for there to be no light. There are caves that fulfill those conditions, though admittedly, our rooms wouldn't be such an ideal place. DVDs can last pretty long as long as you keep it away from moisture and light. It will still eventually rots though. Ai-chan had a look and thought that SSD drives would be able to last that long, but it was wrong. Apparently, SSD drives start to lose data if you keep them unpowered for too long. So unless you have a system that does nothing but provide power to the SSD drive, it won't even last more than 2 weeks. At least according to this article https://www.extremetech.com/computing/205382-ssds-can-lose-data-in-as-little-as-7-days-without-power . Apparently, normal HDD drives is better at data retention than SSD drives. HDD drives can last pretty much indefinitely even if you don't use them for a thousand years. This is providing that nothing in the drive system is mechanically damaged, rusted or magnetically compromised. So unless we go back to stone tools, paper is still the best material to last 1000 years. However, let's go a step further. Let's use bendable glass as writing material from now on. You can even use holographic technology on it and unless it's melted due to heat, it would probably last forever.