1976: A "2X21" Story About Early Days
I finished “1976” a few months ago, as part of a longer work, which was originally entitled “2X21”. Looking for a less cryptic title, “2X21” morphed into “Box Of Stars”.
I wrote “1976” over the course of 30 days, as an installment in a “Box of Stars”, just like prior installments, the original “2X21”, “1648”, “1961”, “1987”, and “1999”.
“1976”, like the prior series, is a novella in its own right.
It’s also a building block in the novel, “Box of Stars”. The main character of “1976” is John Cadmus, who was introduced in “2X21” as a kind of Einstein and Edison of a post-war solar system-wide civilization. In “2X21”, Cadmus is an older man who is credited with the discovery of “the Manifold”, which I imagined as important as fire, electricity, and nuclear power.
“1976: Early Days, Golden Years” was the full title for this series.
It’s both an origin story for one of the most important characters in “Box of Stars” and a history that looked back the origin stories, circa 1976, of some of the most significant entities of the late 20th and early 21st century, Apple Computer and Microsoft. In 1976, it’s all “year one” for what will become 2 of the world’s largest companies by the 2020s. Back then, they were just startups founded by brilliant college dropouts who saw something in a new field that few others were aware of.
I imagined in part that John Cadmus, as a young man, would be a kind of pioneer too.
The vibe of the series was fed by the music of David Bowie, hence the “golden years” reference in the series’ title.