Read Maria's responses to popular apocalyptic literature. |
The Gone World is Tom Sweterlitsch mind-bending horror/thriller novel where the apocalypse meets time travel, and probably not the kind of time travel you’re used to. Sweterlitsch explores the concept of the multiverse. Shannon Moss, NCIS crime detective, travels to the future to investigate how past crimes were resolved and interview close contacts. The future world is merely a possibility of future that blinks out of existence as soon as the time traveler goes back to their original time or dies. There are innumerable possibilities of the future, and we see Moss discover different versions of the same future time periods. There is no traveling backward to a time before the present, known as terra firma. Sweterlitsch’s theory of time travel allows for a certain kind of resurrection. Individuals and objects can be “echoed”; different versions of the same person or thing can be created out of a time loop, and if the copy escapes the time loop, they will “echo” the original. When Shannon first encounters the time loop at the Vardogger, she is echoed, and the second version of herself is crucified by the QTNs that torture humans during the Terminus, the apocalyptic end of the human race brought on by a white hole that follows humans from an alien planet. The original Shannon dies, but is resurrected in the echo of herself, rescued off of her invisible upside down cross. Other characters seem to come back to life as well, such as Remarque, the commander of the USS Libra spaceship, once assassinated by her crew members, yet appearing in the Vardogger time knot. While many religions espouse faith in the afterlife, Christianity has beliefs and writings about the resurrection of the body. According to the Bible, Jesus resurrected from death 3 days after being crucified and buried in a tomb (Matthew 28:5-6; Mark 16:6). The Bible also teaches that Jesus ascended to heaven after coming back to life and he will one day return to earth again when everyone who believed in him will rise from the dead (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17). There are a plethora of other Christian themes, symbols, and allusions throughout the novel. Here are some examples. Nestor asks Shannon near the beginning of the story if she believes in the resurrection of the body—this foreshadows the figurative resurrection of echoing. At Nestor’s house, Shannon notices a painting of Jesus dead right after being taken off the cross. Karl Hyldekrugger, the character behind multiple murders and acts of torture, is referred to as “the Devil”. Nestor compares the Terminus to hell. It is an apocalypse in which a white hole (worse than a black hole) triggers a bitter winter storm and releases QTNS, small particles that infect humans, drive them mad, and ultimately kill them. These QTNs further allude to hell. They cause their victims to be lifted into the air, arms spread, feet pointing up and head down, as if being crucified on an upside down cross. Not quite the lake of fire as described in the New Testament, but the first symptoms of QTNs invading a person’s body is a sensation of burning from the inside out. I find it fascinating that Sweterlitsch chooses the upside down method of torture. In the Christian tradition, the apostle Peter, who knew Jesus personally and acted as the head of the early Christian church in the 1st century AD, was crucified upside down. Britannica.com gives a short summary of what is known of Peter’s death. Its says that Peter willingly chose the inverted execution because he felt unworthy to die in the same manner as Christ. This is the only notable inverted crucifixion to my knowledge. Why does Sweterlitsch weave so many Christian ideas into The Gone World? I spent quite a bit of time researching, looking for articles or interviews that would give me background information revealing why Christian themes are emphasized so much in the novel. And I found nothing… I have no idea what Sweterlitsch’s thoughts were behind these choices. In all of the resources I read and reviewed, the conversations focus on his inspiration for the novel and his theory of time travel. What I do know is that the Bible is the first major piece of apocalyptic literature with the book of Revelation. I can conjecture that Sweterlitsch wanted to nod to the Bible as a major literary work in the genre. I would also suppose that the spiritual aspects of The Gone World add an intentional spookiness to the narrative that creates a certain mood within the reader, playing off characteristics of the genre of horror. I love that the Sweterlitsch symbolizes death and resurrection in the echoes, but this ties into the story arc as a whole. The earth experiences something similar. When the Terminus appears in 1997, the earth is symbolically crucified. Then when Shannon blinks the future reality, we experience a return to the present 1985, the real terra firma. This is before anyone knows anything about the apocalypse, and hopefully they never will. The earth is reborn, resurrected. Just as Remarque. Just as Shannon. Just as Jesus.
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