Well, I had intended to make something of a weekly post here, but thanks to a delay at the start of the week due to an issue with my eye (massive floaters suddenly appeared in my left eye; turns out it was a blood vessel that detached after some laser surgery I had a few months ago. The Doctor doesn’t seem to think it’s indicative of anything worse, though, so that’s good. And it’s mostly cleared up now, so that’s good.), and the fact that I wound up having to work on Saturday, I’ve been behind schedule. Short weekends suck…
Anyway, on to the meat of this little collection of rambling thoughts…
I watched a few videos this week relating to what made the original Fallout setting (read that as pre-Bethesda) unique and why the modern incarnations, especially Fallout 4 (not even going into Fallout 76 territory), just didn’t get what made the setting unique. Probably the best one, and associated article on it, can be found here. So, with half a dozen videos watched, I’ve begun delving into retrofuturism and even learned a new word/topic to explore, hauntology. Though I’ve only begun my delve into these areas, I’m finding both to be quite fascinating, and very intriguing from a fiction-writing perspective.
I really enjoy the Fallout setting. Even though I was brought in when Bethesda revived it with Fallout 3, I find that my preferences are for the story and setting of the original two, as well as New Vegas (which I’m still playing even now). Delving into the lore of the world, and reading through the Fallout Bible has been a wonderful experience. I’ve run a few tabletop RPGs in the Fallout world over the years, and of course, took some liberties to make it more tailored to my players and my personal preferences (meaning there were some kinkier aspects and storylines). There were some attempts at fiction there with the characters that I populated my world with, and several notes I’ve written over the years that would basically craft stories and a world based on the setting combined with various game mods and developments in the tabletop games.
So, that’s what has been running through my mind…what would that situation look like if it were rooted in the retrofuture of the 80s? How would the cyberpunk aesthetic or the more industrial dieselpunk aesthetics go into forming a post-apocalyptic setting? Would it be hair-metal raider gangs? Neon glows throughout the ravaged cities? Humanlike-androids with a penchant for murdering humans or industrial loading robots roaming the shattered landscape? Highly prized lost tech from the lost future, such as flying cars and human-enhancing cyber-tech?
Certainly, a lot of ideas have already been developed over the years as to the future dystopias as envisioned from the 80s, but as I delve deeper into the concept of hauntology and the idea of lost futures, it seems like a potentially very interesting setting to develop and explore. It seems that I can’t focus too long in one area these days, as I was just on a kick last week about a superhero setting, and before that, I was rattling around in my science-fantasy setting trying to add a few more details here and there, so it seems only natural I’m in a completely different realm this week. Thus far, I have an idea for a story in mind, as modified from the Fallout tabletop games I’ve run before, but perhaps I will modify them to fit this potential new setting I’ve started developing.
What are your thoughts on this line of thinking? Am I just treading over ground that’s already been covered, or could this idea hold some merit and lead to some potentially good things, assuming I can devote myself to developing it? Have you had any related ideas, or thoughts about the idea of hauntology and how it relates to lost futures?
I hope everyone is doing well, and having a good weekend! Best of luck on the week to come!
