AN INTRODUCTION
PINNACLE FUTURE-ERA LOGO OF THE MANIFEST DESTINY PARTY
"And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"
- Revelation 6:10
"Come, let us take a muster speedily. Doomsday is near. Die all, die merrily."
- William Shakespeare
"The Earth is littered with the ruins of empires who believed they were eternal."
- Camille Paglia
"I am a jelly doughnut."
- Charles Oswald
- USEFUL LINKS -
"What Madness Is This?" Vol I: The Union Forever
(current continuity)
"What Madness Is This?" Vol II: Prophecies in the Dark
(current continuity)
The WMIT Community Discord
Current Continuity Wiki (WIP)
(maintained by readers)
Current Continuity TV Tropes Page
(maintained by readers)
The Official Youtube Channel of WMIT
The Star-Spangled Expanded Universe of WMIT
(short stories and tales written by WMIT fans)
The Official WMIT Flickr Page
The Original "What Madness Is This?"
The Original TV Tropes Page
(maintained by readers)
FORWARD:
Just as I did in the forward for Volume II: Prophecies in the Dark (linked above) on July 14, 2020, I wish to thank all the dedicated, patient, and friendly readers, commenters, and assorted pals who made this work possible. Since I started the "Madnessverse" in 2012--and the new reboot canon in September, 2018--I have watched a world that, in many ways, has spiraled into its own numb dystopia, from politics to everyday life on a personal level. Such conditions could make the authoring of such a titanic collection of dystopian stories as "WMIT" a chore, and a soul-sapping one at that, and even make it hard to just read along. Isn't reading fiction the foremost and earliest form of escapism? Why, then, would members of a real-life society beset by unrest, upheaval, pandemic, and generational change want to even read this series? The answer is complicated, but it lies with the true nature of "WMIT" at its most basic components.
At its core, "WMIT" is pure entertainment, a dark farce, a parody of alternate history as a genre, and a celebration of pulp villains and larger-than-life characters that are as memorable as they are twisted and disgusting. It breaks the walls between the alternate history genre and many others; particularly drawing influences from science-fiction, comedy, and the Lovecraftian and analogue horror genres. If you are looking for a purely academic, by-the-books alternate history tale, perhaps look elsewhere. But if you want to be entertained, if you want to experience the fantastic horrors, highs, and lows of the New United States and their quest to construct the New Jerusalem in a world where the Enlightenment was snuffed in the cradle and monarchs battle popes, fascists, anarchists, cultists, and the New Order of the Illuminati, then I might just have the story for you.
Some may not like it, considering it too funny, too dark, too unrealistic, too close to home, too long, too short, not detailed enough, way too detailed, etc, but there's been a whole lot of people giving me positive feedback through the years and I find it incredibly inspirational and fulfilling. I write this for free, knowing it's likely too "out there" and complicated for most publishers (although I do have a Patreon in my signature if you want to say "thanks for the rip-roaring tale" with a buck, haha!). I was asked what I wanted to do as a child by my parents, and instead of saying "doctor" or "pastor" like they wanted, I said, "I want to entertain people." When I make other people happy, I'm happy. I don't know any of you people in real life, but it means the world to me when I post something I worked hard on and get positive feedback and constructive criticism. As someone who suffers from anxiety and depression (what?! a depressed author?! never!), writing these stories has been one of the greatest, most fulfilling, and calming things I have ever done, even though, like everyone, I suffer from occasional burnout and some days real life just gets in the way.
I don't even write these stories to entertain others, because I write them, as a whole, to entertain myself with a massive worldbuilding experiment, but it just so happens that thousands of others are just as entertained, and that feeling is singularly magical. Much as the saying goes about doing a job you enjoy and never working a day in your life, writing a story you love as much as the readers means that all the pieces are falling, slowly, into place to create one hell of a story.
Everyone here propelled me through Volume I: The Union Forever, and you propelled me through Volume II: Prophecies in the Dark. And, "Jev-willing," you will propel me through the chaos and insanity of Volume III: The Pinnacle Future. I couldn't do it without you guys, gals, and pals.
Map of the World around the time of Charles Alasdair Oswald's Ascendancy to the Presidency
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