It’s A Puzzlement:  Parody or History?

Is it Science Fiction or is it Historical Fiction?

When you create a book or other media, you are asked to choose the category and sub-categories in which your work should be listed (e.g., for purposes of marketing and library catalogues).  Typically, you must choose from a listing of available categories.  And sometimes those provided on the list don’t fit your work.

When I published “The Great New Deal” in early 2021, I faced that dilemma.  The available categories didn’t fit perfectly.  After more than a year of the Biden presidency, the dilemma is even greater.  Though “The Great New Deal” does not specifically reference this administration or this year of 2022, the fictional tale and current reality seem to be converging daily.

Science Fiction uses a fictional narrative to depict things in the future, something the author thinks could occur based on current scientific knowledge or hypotheses.  The books by Andy Weir (“The Martian” and “Project Hail Mary”) and William R. Forstchen are great examples of this genre.

Historical Fiction (not to be confused with alternative history) takes historical events and uses a fictional narrative to provide more “behind the scenes” details (often based on scholarly research) and tell an interesting story.  Many books by C.J. Sansom and Jeff Shaara fall in this genre.

Things that were written in late 2020 (often, before the 2020 election) and early 2021 as fictional parody are coming true.  It seems that my novel is moving from Science Fiction to Historical Fiction.  Allow me to name a few examples.

First, the loss of trust in our public health agencies, parodied in chapters 6 and 7.  The constant gaffes and handler intervention at presidential appearances, parodied in chapter 8.  The battle between censors and free speech, depicted in many chapters (the new “DHS Disinformation Board” sounds a lot like the “Public Safety Fact Check Board” in my novel).  A final example: the current struggling economy and inflation created by massive unfunded government spending and other bad policies sounds a lot like the Existential Crisis which the fictional politicians try to solve in the novel, as parodied in chapter 15.

There are more I could mention, but you’ll have to read “The Great New Deal” and look for them yourself.  As I published this book, I anticipated this administration would likely take us down a foolish path, which is why the novel’s subtitle reads “A (not quite) fictional preview of future history.”

This should lead one to wonder, what’s next?  It seems that some powerful people are using my novel as a play book, unfortunately.  But I’m confident in how this all will end- that’s already recorded in the Bible’s End Times prophecies, which are also described in “The Great New Deal.”  I look forward to seeing those become our reality, too.  “Amen. Come Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20)