The Would-be Lives of Adam Back

Put a gun in a man's life, what does he do? Like stashing a hundred-dollar bill or hiding a chocolate bar, a gun adds temptation. He struggles with the urge. He fights it, mulls it, considers it. It weighs on him. Eventually, he spends the cash, he eats the candy. He shoots the gun. He finds a need or one finds him, and he concedes, gives in, bows. Who's better for it? At best, unclear.

Leave the gun out. Now what? No secret money, no hidden sweets. No temptation. What does he do? He doesn't struggle or fight or mull or consider. He doesn't spend it or eat it. He doesn't shoot it – it isn't there to shoot. He does what he normally would've done. He goes on with his life, uninterrupted. Who's better for that? At best, unclear.

This story isn't about guns or gun politics – neither of these is the point. What is? The different lives that might spring from a single event, providing the man a gun – or not. What changes? What doesn't? This is a fictional study, a comparison of Adam Back's would-be lives – one with a gun, one without; one lived within a society sprung from the desire for power, one within the baseline, nothing new, no conspicuous autocratic lust.

The Would-be Lives of Adam Back is a tale of how an individual must adapt when his life is upended by violent cultural upheaval. It is told in two halves, each narrated by Adam himself – as things would have been and as they actually were. Did both Adams adapt? Did they thrive? What would both of you have done?