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Guest Post: The Entertainment Value of Genetic Evolution

Guest Post by Joe Hart

In the near future the female birthrate drops below 1 percent.

It happens within a matter of years and scientists worldwide are dumbfounded as to the cause. Panic ensues. Civil war follows shortly thereafter and America becomes a battlefield between a government research agency that will stop at nothing to find a cure, and the citizens who are willing to fight for their civil rights.

Fast-forward twenty-five years.

A group of young women are being kept in a remote, high-security facility. They are told it was discovered that a virus caused the lack of female births and that the virus became lethal to humans in the years following the “Dearth” as it was called. Beyond their protective walls is a dangerous wasteland and they are humanity’s last hope.

This is the premise for my latest novel The Last Girl, the first book in a dystopian thriller trilogy.

As frightening as this sounds the genetic fragility of our species is a very real thing that pop culture has played off of for decades.

The X-Men, Jurassic Park, The Wayward Pines trilogy by Blake Crouch, and The Brilliance Saga by Marcus Sakey are just a few examples. While researching the science behind my trilogy it became abundantly clear that a minor change on the genetic level could have massive repercussions, and if the Zika virus has shown us anything it’s that our stability as a species is delicately balanced in the natural world.

So if these genetic diseases and mutations are so terrifying, why are we drawn to them for entertainment?

I think the answer lies in the same fragility that comes with being human. We want to be better. We want to win. If there is a challenge we want to meet it head on and best it purely by our will and intelligence. Objectively, as well as creatively, we see humankind as fighting the good fight; striving to find a cure, a solution, a path that will lead us into the clear, but there are always repercussions for the actions we take.

The struggle with nature and the loose hold we have over it can be seen in many movies and books but two great examples are Godzilla and Jurassic Park.

Godzilla’s power stems directly from nuclear radiation, this being a social commentary on the way that we’re affecting the world around us with our energy needs and uses. A monster created as a byproduct of our ever-increasing need for stability in an unstable world is something I think everyone can relate to. 

And Jurassic Park; the frivolity of mere entertainment, egotism, and greed driving scientists to conjure creatures from our past who have zero regard for our sanctity of life is another look at the genetic responsibility we carry when altering the human germline. To quote Ian Malcolm, “…your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

The heroes in the fiction we create who prevail over the villains are our collective subconscious shining through. We hope for every step forward in the scientific realm we will be able to hold our ground against nature and its balance. We hope to conquer disease and destroy our weaknesses like boogeymen in the dark, and it is a noble thing. But of course every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so the question is if we continue to change things on a genetic level, what will the equal reaction be?

It’s the stuff of fiction but there’s a possibility that someday we might find out for real.

Joe Hart’s The Last Girl is available now

Joe Hart was born and raised in northern Minnesota. Having dedicated himself to writing horror and thriller fiction since the age of nine, he is now the author of eight novels that include The River Is Dark, Lineage, and The Last Girl. When not writing, he enjoys reading, exercising, exploring the great outdoors, and watching movies with his family. For more information on his upcoming novels and access to his blog, visit www.joehartbooks.com and follow on Twitter @AuthorJoeHart
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