Expecting a modern take on 1984, which I didn’t finish because I lost interest.
Plot Points
[Lee Harvey Oswald] The more people believe in something, the more true that thing becomes. The more reality tips in the favor of that belief. What happened in Antartica was that a group of men managed to make enough people believe in the truth of a flat earth for it to manifest in reality… Retroactively, the earth would always have been flat. And the people would rightly rise up in fury having been lied to by everyone for decades. #tulpa
is more chilling because it tells of how misinformation affects a specific individual. A mother lost her son in a school shooting, but conspiracy theorists posit that the son was a crisis actor used to drum up support for gun control. The mother’s conviction that her son was murdered is starting to wane. The Dept of Truth obliterates her leads, further devastating her.
[Lee Harvey Oswald] The most dangerous thing in the world is a simple story. That’s what keeps most conspiracies from catching on with the general public - they are too convoluted. Convolution is our friend. It helps fracture belief so it doesn’t coalesce in any one stable form and become truth.
References
- Department of Truth Vol 1 #1. The End of the World. James Tynion IV; Martin Simmonds. imagecomics.fandom.com . Accessed Feb 18, 2022.
- Tulpa - Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org . Accessed Feb 18, 2022.
- Department of Truth Vol 1 #3. Black and White. James Tynion IV; Martin Simmonds. imagecomics.fandom.com . Accessed Feb 18, 2022.
- Department of Truth Vol 1 #4. The Eyes in the Walls. James Tynion IV; Martin Simmonds. imagecomics.fandom.com . Accessed Feb 18, 2022.
draws on the tulpa concept: an object or being that is created through spiritual or mental powers . I’ve encountered this idea before in Gaiman’s American Gods, and in LeGuin’s The Lathe of Heaven .