I was frittering around on, I think it was YouTube, but maybe it was Facebook a while ago and someone asked if “you” would be remembered in 100 years. And I had to answer with a resounding,”Maybe.”
I mean, for one thing, define “remembered.” If you’re asking if anyone alive today will still be alive *to* remember me in 100 years, well, if Evelyn’s daughter makes it to 100 years and six months, that will, in fact, be 100 years from now and I certainly hope that Evelyn and I will stay friends long enough for her to still remember me at that point.
If you mean if someone who will know me during the rest of my life will still remember me in 2123, even if they haven’t remembered me for that whole time, I mean it seems likely? I’m not old yet, and still should have decades left to go. If I live 30 more years, and, say, Alex has a child in another 15 years or so, my grandchild will be 15 when I die. If that “child” lives to be 85, then Bob’s your uncle. I’m remembered in 100 years.
What if it’s not me, personally, that’s remembered? What if it’s a trace of my existence that’s remembered. I write, and I take photographs, and I knit, and I’ve made the odd piece of jewelry. If every single one of those things are wiped out before 2123, then I suspect society will have bigger problems than whether I’m remembered.
Does archaeology count? What if something catastrophic happens and one of my knitting pieces is found in the wreckage of what used to be San Antonio, or if I make something, like a shawl or a blanket, which is passed down through the years and someone remembered that their great-grandmother’s friend made that for their grandmother. I mean, it’s been at least 100 years, and my name’s gone from the story, but I’m being remembered. Right?
So it seems that there is a better than 0%, but maybe not a 100%, chance that I will be remembered, in one way or another.
So, a resounding “maybe.”
Today’s Gratuitous Amazon Link brings us back to the Riordanverse, this time with the first Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard book, The Sword of Summer. For once, we don’t have to worry about how our hero, in this case, Annabeth’s cousin Magnus, will survive the adventure, because he doesn’t. Yep. The whole series starts with the death of the protagonist. Magnus then ascends to Valhalla and the story progresses from there.