Sometimes I’m asked how I came up with the idea of Reset, a story about old lovers trying to find their way back to each other in a society where memories are erased every four years in the name of peace. It’s such a loaded question—one I can’t answer in one sitting. So, I’ve decided to break it up into several posts. This one is about the world itself.
The post-apocalyptic utopia of Reset was inspired by the lyrics of “Imagine” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. I must have listened to the song 1,000 times. Somewhere along the way, the Four Cities was born. There, peace is preached, protected, and cherished. The catalyst for this ideal was a war. Not just any war but a war so destructive, it wiped out most of the world—the Last War.
Imagine a society so traumatized by war that it would do anything, anything, to ensure the same atrocity won’t ever reoccur. A world where peace is the utmost precious commodity. Where every decision made is to minimize conflict, to save lives, and to ensure continual survival of the human race.
Can you?
From there I began to build this society piece by piece, answering one crucial question after another. How are the resources divided? Where do the people live? What do they do for jobs? How are things traded? How are the children born and raised? How are they educated? How is policing handled? I was building a utopia, but one that comes with a great cost. Memories.
One of the questions I asked my beta readers who were helping me evaluate the story was whether they would trade their memory for peace. The answers varied. Each made sense in its own way. I would love to hear from my readers at the end of reading Reset what their answers would be. I really do.
War is over! posters in various languages, a project by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, can be downloaded here
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