History Literature / TheElectricState

* AlternateHistory: At some point in this world America had a second civil war. Between that and the advanced understanding of the brain this world has diverged significantly from our own. None of the current states are mentioned by name, with most of the story taking place in "Pacifica," which seems to be modern California, but one makeshift home does have the Bear Flag Republic flag hanging from it. The RPG Kickstarter clarifies a few things: first that Pacifica used to be called California, and that the PointOfDivergence from our time was the invention of neuronics in the 1960's.

* AlternateHistory: At some point in this world America had a second civil war. Between that and the advanced understanding of the brain this world has diverged significantly from our own. None of the current states are mentioned by name, with most of the story taking place in "Pacifica," which seems to be modern California, but one makeshift home does have the Bear Flag Republic flag hanging from it.

* DaddysGirl: Michelle never knew her biological father, but she actually had a healthy relationship to her grandfather and seems to have bonded at least a little with Ted, her foster father, sharing a love of Nirvana and other kinds of music. Conversely, her JunkieParent mother made her help with the dangerous process of salvaging industrial chemicals from old warships to feed her addiction and left Michelle badly traumatized, while her foster mother Brigitte was a self-righteous harpy; Michelle admits early on she doesn't care that Brigitte is dead.

* DaddysGirl: Michelle never knew her biological father, but she actually had a healthy relationship to her grandfather and seems to have bonded at least a little with Ted, her foster father, sharing a love of [[Music/Nirvana Nirvana]] and other kinds of music. Conversely, her JunkieParent mother made her help with the dangerous process of salvaging industrial chemicals from old warships to feed her addiction and left Michelle badly traumatized, while her foster mother Brigitte was a self-righteous harpy; Michelle admits early on she doesn't care that Brigitte is dead.

* DaddysGirl: Michelle never knew her biological father, but she actually had a healthy relationship to her grandfather and seems to have bonded at least a little with Ted, her foster father, sharing a love of [[Music/Nirvana]] and other kinds of music. Conversely, her JunkieParent mother made her help with the dangerous process of salvaging industrial chemicals from old warships to feed her addiction and left Michelle badly traumatized, while her foster mother Brigitte was a self-righteous harpy; Michelle admits early on she doesn't care that Brigitte is dead.

* DaddysGirl: Michelle never knew her biological father, but she actually had a healthy relationship to her grandfather and seems to have bonded at least a little with Ted, her foster father, sharing a love of Music/Nirvana and other kinds of music. Conversely, her JunkieParent mother made her help with the dangerous process of salvaging industrial chemicals from old warships to feed her addiction and left Michelle badly traumatized, while her foster mother Brigitte was a self-righteous harpy; Michelle admits early on she doesn't care that Brigitte is dead.

* DaddysGirl: Michelle never knew her biological father, but she actually had a healthy relationship to her grandfather and seems to have bonded at least a little with Ted, her foster father, sharing a love of Nirvana and other kinds of music. Conversely, her JunkieParent mother made her help with the dangerous process of salvaging industrial chemicals from old warships to feed her addiction and left Michelle badly traumatized, while her foster mother Brigitte was a self-righteous harpy; Michelle admits early on she doesn't care that Brigitte is dead.

* DaddysGirl: Michelle never knew her biological father, but she actually had a healthy relationship to her grandfather and seems to have bonded at least a little with Ted, her foster father, sharing a love of Music/Nirvana and other kinds of music. Conversely, her JunkieParent mother made her help with the dangerous process of salvaging industrial chemicals from old warships to feed her addiction and left Michelle badly traumatized, while her foster mother Brigitte was a self-righteous harpy; Michelle admits early on she doesn't care that Brigitte is dead.

* DaddysGirl: Michelle never knew her biological father, but she actually had a healthy relationship to her grandfather and seems to have bonded at least a little with Ted, her foster father, sharing a love of Nirvana and other kinds of music. Conversely, her JunkieParent mother made her help with the dangerous process of salvaging industrial chemicals from old warships to feed her addiction and left Michelle badly traumatized, while her foster mother Brigitte was a self-righteous harpy; Michelle admits early on she doesn't care that Brigitte is dead.

* DaddysGirl: Michelle never knew her biological father, but she actually had a healthy relationship to her grandfather and seems to have bonded slightly better with Ted, her foster father, over Nirvana and other kinds of music, than with his wife. Conversely, her JunkieParent mother made her help with the dangerous process of salvaging industrial chemicals from old warships to feed her addiction and left Michelle badly traumatized, while Brigitte was a self-righteous harpy; Michelle admits early on she doesn't care that Brigitte is dead.

* EmoTeen: Justified. While Michelle is a juvenile delinquent with morbid fascinations who dyes her hair black because she hates the thought of being mistaken for a "generic" happy blonde, resents the very idea of being a productive member of society, and lashes out at many of the people around her whether they deserve it or not, she also [[FreudianExcuse had a really traumatic, crappy childhood and in her teenage years her life did indeed have many problems, up to and including societal and potentially civilizational collapse]].

** Street names for it never come up, but the chemical neurite is somehow involved in the neurocasting process, and Michelle knows how to make street drugs out of it thanks to her mother making her help feed her own addiction to the stuff.
** Neurocasting through the use of Mode Six stimulus helmets is vaguely treated this way, but it's implied that people get addicted to the feeling of being part of a superintelligent whole more than just the euphoria of it.

** Michelle's foster mother Brigitte isn't wrong about Michelle's birth mother being a neglectful junkie who messed up Michelle's life and emotional development, but she wrongly attributes it to lacking discipline rather than becoming physically and psychologically dependent in military service, and is seemingly just as concerned with Michelle's nonconformism as her juvenile delinquency (at least, before Michelle smashes her nose into a table). Even setting that aside, grinding Michelle's nose in it like that was obviously an awful way to try to get through to her.
** Amanda's abusive reverend father is right about neurocaster helmets being the doom of humanity, but his arguments are based on religious fanaticism rather than their obvious issues, and his solutions tend towards trying to treat them as a means to winnow out the unworthy rather than a problem to solve.
* JunkieParent: Michelle's birth mother lived a nomadic existence, travelling to sites where old war machines existed to scavenge neurite to cook into drugs. It's mentioned she was a veteran, discharged [[spoiler: after surviving the first HiveMind emergence and giving birth to a son with no father]], and was rendered physically and psychologically dependent as a result of exposure [[spoiler: to what was probably Mode Six.]]

* KnightTemplar: Agent Walter [[spoiler: decides to try to kill Skip to foil whatever plans the HiveMind and Convergence have for him, but whatever happens to him he fails.]]
* LotusEaterMachine: This is the "neurocasters" boiled down to their bare essentials.
* TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody: Creepily inverted. Using the first iteration of the Mode Six technology somehow had catastrophic effects on the reproductive systems of military pilots, leaving them unable to have viable offspring. The civilian version of that technology can not only seemingly keep the human body alive under conditions like totally lacking nourishment or being completely submerged in water that ''should'' kill it so long as it has power, but causes both men and women to start uncontrollably lactating while wearing them.
* TheNeedless: Downplayed in that the stimulus visor hooked up to their brains ''do'' still require power, but so long as they're getting it neurocasting human beings are basically science fiction undead; their warping bodies might wither away but they don't require food, sleep, or even oxygen as the helmets keep their brains technically alive and their decaying muscles twitching.
* NonMaliciousMonster: While the zombie-like hordes of stimulus-helmeted humans and gigantic wired-up behemoths they build are creepy and alien as all get-out, they don't seem to be actively harming anyone. Even while one is shown [[NaughtyTentacles seemingly having tentacle-sex with a woman]], it's repeately confirmed that the act was consensual. [[spoiler: Potentially, the one exception, attacking Walter, might be the least-alien thing the HiveMind does; what parent ''wouldn't'' protect its child?]]

* AmbiguousEnding: Once Michelle and Skip reach Point Linden, things get a bit less clear. [[spoiler: They recover Skip's human body, but whether they're able to nurse it back to health such that removing the stimulus helmet won't kill him isn't clear. Either shortly before or shortly after they arrive, Walter shows up, potentially intent on killing Skip to prevent the growing HiveMind from having a physical form, only to be intercepted by a huge looming figure of one of the rebuilt hive drones, intent on either stopping him from foiling its plans or protecting its offspring. In the last few pages, Skip and Michelle's empty car is shown parked next to the ocean, the kayak gone and Skip's visor and robot body discarded next to the sea, so whether or not he survived isn't clear. And Walter's red car is shown parked somewhere green, with the door open and the lights on, discovered by a surprised woman, meaning ''his'' fate is also unclear.]]

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Although the ever-growing HiveMind of neurocast humans and the machines they put together is very alien and looks ''incredibly'' ominous, they almost never seem to take aggressive action, and Michelle easily travels through their territory without being bothered. Michelle admits she's fascinated even as she is regularly creeped out by the ominous sights she witnesses there. Two cop cars are found empty and riddled with bullets, but there are [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters other explanations readily availible]]. [[spoiler: The two possible exceptions, potentially shooting up the cop cars and maybe killing Walter before he can kill Skip's human body, not only raises more than a few questions but [[MamaBear has its own potential alternate explanation]].]]

* NonMaliciousMonster: While the zombie-like hordes of stimulus-helmeted humans and gigantic wired-up behemoths they build are creepy and alien as all get-out, they don't seem to be actively harming anyone. Even while [[NaughtyTentacles seemingly having tentacle-sex with a woman]], it's repeately confirmed that the act was consensual. [[spoiler: Potentially, the one exception, attacking Walter, might be the least-alien thing the HiveMind does; what parent ''wouldn't'' protect its child?]]

* EmoTeen: Justified. While Michelle is a juvenile delinquent with morbid fascinations who resents the very idea of being a productive member of society and lashes out at many of the people around her whether they deserve it or not, she also [[FreudianExcuse had a really crappy childhood and in her teenage years did indeed have many problems, up to and including civilizational collapse]].

* JustBeforeTheEnd: Almost everyone in the rusting ruins America has either completely lost their humanity to a stimulus device, and in the few places where law and order still hold sway the population seems too apathetic and worn down to resist giving in.

* JunkieParent: Michelle's birth mother lived a nomadic existence, travelling to sites where old war machines existed to scavenge neurite to cook into drugs. It's mentioned she was a veteran, discharged [[spoiler: after surviving the first HiveMind emergence and giving birth to a son with no father]], and

* TheNineties: ''The Electric State'' takes place in an alternate 1990s where the United States has fallen due to the overuse of VR technology.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Although the ever-growing HiveMind of neurocast humans and the machines they put together is very alien and looks ''incredibly'' ominous, they almost never seem to take aggressive action, and Michelle easily travels through their territory without being bothered, although she is regularly creeped out by the ominous sights she witnesses there. Two cop cars are found empty and riddled with bullets, but there are [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters other explanations readily availible]]. [[spoiler: The two possible exceptions, potentially shooting up the cop cars and maybe killing Walter before he can kill Skip's human body, not only raises more than a few questions but [[MamaBear has its own potential alternate explanation.]]

* DaddysGirl: Michelle never knew her biological father, but she actually had a healthy relationship to her grandfather and seems to have bonded slightly better with Ted, her foster father, over Nirvana and other kinds of music. Conversely, her JunkieParent mother made her help with the dangerous process of salvaging industrial chemicals from old warships to feed her addiction and left Michelle badly traumatized, while Brigitte was a self-righteous harpy; Michelle admits she doesn't care that Brigitte is dead.
* DissonantSerenity: Ted is alarmingly chill about his body undergoing uncontrollable lactation and later the death of his wife as he lapses into stimulus addiction. It turns out this is almost true of America in general. Also, being built out of old advertising automatons, lots of the hive mind drones have creepy, fixed smiles. One of them even leans out of a barn and waves at Skip and Michelle as they pass by.

* TheImmune: Michelle has a congenital eye defect that makes it impossible to use stimulus helmets.

** Michelle's foster mother Brigitte isn't wrong about Michelle's birth mother being a neglectful junkie who messed up Michelle's life and emotional development, but she wrongly attributes it to lacking discipline rather than becoming physically and psychologically dependent in military service, and is seemingly just as concerned with Michelle's nonconformism as her juvenile delinquency (at least, before Michelle smashes her nose into a table).

* SceneryGorn: The initial draw of the book is roadtripping through and rubbernecking at the broken ruins of an America destroyed by its own worst impulses. Giant husk-like automatons litter the landscape, surrounded by rotting advertising and the few surviving settlements whose inhabitants seem to care more about keeping power flowing than survival. And that's before getting to the parts where humanity ''isn't'' still running the show.
* SequelGoesForeign: Downplayed. Although it's more of a SpiritualSuccessor, the previous two books were set in Sweden, this installment is set in the United States.

* AlternateHistory: At some point in this world America had a second civil war. Between that and the advanced understanding of the brain this world has diverged significantly from our own.
* BrainUploading: A form of this was used for everything from everyday arcade games to military drone control but it seems that "true" mind uploading has been a relatively recent (and perhaps unintentional) development.

* SequelGoesForeign: While the previous two books were set in Sweden, this installment is set in the United States.

''The Electric State'' is a [[ScienceFiction Sci-Fi]] AlternateHistory graphic novel written and illustrated by Simon Stålenhag and published in 2018, the 6th of September. Taking place in a otherworldly 1990s it displays the journey of a young adult and her robotic companion across a fractured, VR addicted United States.

* SequelGoesForeign: While the previous two books were set in Sweden, this installment is set in the United States.

A film adaptation is in the works. Creator/TheRussoBrothers will direct and Creator/MillieBobbieBrown and Creator/ChrisPratt will star.

* LotusEaterMachine: This is the "neurocasters" boiled down to their bare essentials.

* LotusEaterMachine: This is the "neurocasters" boiled down to their bare essentials.
* BrainUploading: A form of this was used for everything from everyday arcade games to military drone control but it seems that "true" mind uploading has been a relatively recent(and perhaps unintentional) development.

* AlternateHistory: At some point in this world america had a second civil war. Between that and the advanced understanding of the brain this world has diverged significantly from our own.