Title
The Present Tense
Story Statement
Adam White, the black sheep of a politically powerful family, thinks he could solve a widespread psychological illness that causes people to think that they don’t exist, along with the help of Tecla Ghelli, a propaganda advisor who is harboring a dangerous secret.
Setting
In the year 3047, Geryon is the only existing continent after global warming has flooded the planet. A seemingly utopian society, the continent is governed by a single technologically advanced state that allows people – and sometimes forces them – to download the entirety of their memories on to computers and occasionally “delete” them, thereby censoring memories and knowledge bases. As such, memories are used to control people and what they know. In particular, knowledge of written language has been completely deleted since the Reconstruction; language was deemed divisive and had to be eradicated. Knowledge is exclusively transmitted orally or through images.
Antagonistic Force
There are three antagonistic forces:
widespread psychological illness that torments huge swaths of the population
Adam’s brother who secretly manipulates his father against him
The state which covertly uses psychological warfare to control the population
Genre and comparable
Speculative sci fi with elements of political and psychological fiction
Yoko Ogawa's The Memory Police
Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life
Esme Weijun Wang’s The Collected Schizophrenias
David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks
The manuscript will appeal to anyone who is searching for a psychologically acute, dark and satirical novel that verges on the absurd and questions the status quo.
Inner conflict
Adam grapples with the Affliction and the need to be accepted by his father, a former reality TV show tycoon and current Prime Minister. As a result, he agrees to work Tecla and rehabilitate his tarnished public image to help advertise the state’s questionable treatment plans for the Affliction
Secondary conflict
Tecla is part of a clandestine group that preserves written language. She is paranoid that she will be discovered and is conflicted about serving as head of propaganda for the State.
Log line
A cautionary tale of the stakes of democracy and the contagion of ideas, the novel reflects on the importance of memory and language in a hyper-technological state.
Alternative title
Ship of Fools
Raw Nerves
