In Fiction, There Can Be Truth

Like any geek, I enjoy a good science fiction or fantasy story (yes, even as a Christian I still enjoy them--but that's another post).

Recently, I've been working my way through Terry Brooks' original Shannara trilogy, and something struck me. I'll get to that in a moment, a little background on Shannara is probably wise right about now.

Basically, the area the stories take place in is divided into four "lands." There's the Westland, where the Elves live; the Eastland, home of the Dwarves; the Southland, where Man (that is, humans) live; and the Northland, where the trouble comes from... Trolls, Gnomes, undead, demons... you get the idea.

In each of the three original Shannara novels, one of the three "good" lands faces danger. In Sword of Shannara (the first book), it's the Southland; in Elfstones of Shannara, the Elves of the Westland are endangered; and in Wishsong of Shannara, it's the Eastland and the Dwarves.

Here's the part that caught my eye: In the original Sword of Shannara, the evil forces march directly on the Southland. In the latter two books, there's every evidence that the evil won't stop at conquering the Westland or Eastland, but will continue on and attack each of the other lands. And, in each case, even in Sword, the people of the Southland would rather believe that the evil either isn't real or won't bother them.

Given that Sword of Shannara was published in 1977, with the other two following in 1983 and 1985, it seems that Brooks was prescient about the attitudes of people who are not right on the front lines of a war with evil.

Or maybe the Southland is just governed by Democrats.