1961: A "2X21" Story About Secrets
The 3d Installment of the "2X21" Series is about secrets, inspired by the Cold War
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted an update here. I’ve been busy actually writing and sharing it on Twitter and with friends.
A few months ago, I finished the 3d installment of the 2X21 series, and called it “1961”.
I focused on the very first character introduced in the “universe” of “2X21”, "Jacob”.
Jacob is the son of a war veteran and hero in the distant future - he was named after his father, Commander Jacob Chinua Tagore. “Jakey Jr.” was not the first son named after his father. There was a son born years before, but died in a tragic weapons test, right before the end of “The Long War”, which is the prologue to “2X21”.
’The Long War’ was inspired by the history of long and “forever wars”, like the “30 Year War” in the 1600s, Vietnam and unconsciously, the one that just ended in the Middle East, the latest of many wars going back millennia.
The story “1961” is inspired by the history of Cold War secrets and an exploration of what became of “Jakey Jr.”. Jacob Jr. grew up in a life of secrets and becomes a spy.
The story was the 3d cohort of a writing group I joined, “Ship 30”, as an escape, exploration, and expiation for hard horrible things that happened over a slow 3 year period. That period ended, in a way, in January of 2021 when my father passed away.
Why did I join Ship 30 and why have I written tens of thousands of words, packaged in hundreds of pages of real history and imagine future?
Everybody has the “answers” but I was struggling to find the questions. That’s why.
I wrote about “time” in January, then about “space” (in every sense of the word) in February. When Nicholas Cole, aka Cole, suggested fiction to the cohort, I went for it, with no clue about what I would write. I had an image of a man falling almost forever through the interior of a ship made from a hollowed out asteroid, a “DeepShip”.
Here is an early chapter of “1961”, with formatting based on 1960s CIA documents.
The original story, “2X21” was about an A.I,, “ALEPH”, who becomes a member of the Tagore family, take the name of “Al Tagore”, and becomes a surrogate father, “Uncle AL”, for “Jacob Jr.” in both “2X21” and “1961”.
As you can see, “2X21” is a detailed fictional universe, packed in just a few pieces.
Here was the original series, “2X21”, below, as a twitter thread.
I organized the 30+ pieces into 1 timeline, into a Notion page.
First, here’s the original twitter “thread”.
https://rift-paprika-601.notion.site/2X21-A-STORY-49f6b4fca8364ed19a844aaedc5c1ca0
Back to “1961”, Here is the twitter thread for the story.
I also created a Notion page, with its own soundtrack, for the story.
The Notion page for 1961:
https://rift-paprika-601.notion.site/1961-A-2X21-STORY-43e7bf4acd654fc1a3821412046b3328
There’s also a link in this graphic I made, from images of the Berlin wall and cold war.
There is, just like for “2X21” and the “1648” stories, a soundtrack. It’s inspired by the secret, cold war and espionage ideas that inspired “1961”.
Here’s the first 2 tracks, which came to mind, as I decided to write and name the series. ”Sour Times” from Portishead, and “Ipcress Files” from John Barry (who composed the James Bond theme)
I’m in the middle of writing and finishing the latest “season” of “2X21”, called “1987”, which is about the 1980s and money culture.
There, the main character was a secondary character from “1648” and “1961”, Fernanda Marie Therese Roque, a powerhouse head of the “Roque Cooperative”, a rich “DAO”.
This was another long update but it’s filled with so much.
I still think about Dad a lot, and a few weeks ago he was in a sad dream,
which was hard but also a relief. He’s still with me.