Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1)

by Neal Shusterman

When I wrote SCYTHE, I wanted it to be a study of the human condition, and pose important questions about the future of humanity. While an author always hopes that their work gains an audience, I never imagined it would strike such a chord, and become as popular as it has. The book was inspired by two things. First, I wanted to flip the idea of “dystopia” by telling a story about what happens to our world when things go right, instead of wrong. What happens when we manage to succeed in achieving all of our highest goals? Because even our dreams have consequences when they become realities. Secondly, I was grappling with the emotional toll of the deaths of my parents, who passed within three months of each other. With my mother, I was left in the unenviable position of making the choice to turn off the machines that were keeping her alive, and allow her to pass naturally, with dignity. The idea of compassion guiding how we face the end of life infuses the book—particularly in the character of Scythe Faraday. I hope you enjoy Scythe, and the author annotations you’ll find throughout this edition.

Humanity is innocent; humanity is guilty, and both states are undeniably true.

From the very beginning, I wanted the book to express understanding and compassion for humanity, and the struggle that fills the human condition. We have the capacity for great deeds, as well as terrible ones. We have all been guilty of both at some point in our lives. With this observation by Scythe Curie in the first journal entry we read, I wanted to make it clear that there is no judgment. Scythes are not (or aren’t meant to be) agents of wrath and vengeance, punishing us for our wrongdoings. Scythe Curie recognizes that we are still the children we once were; scared, willful, loving, hopeful, naïve, and occasionally intolerable. The things that make us human extend to both ends of the spectrums between right and wrong, good and evil, brave and cowardly. A good scythe must embrace all aspects of humanity. I opened with this journal entry, because it sets the philosophical tone of the book. Throughout the book I try to pause for a breath when I can, to really give readers things to think about—things that will hopefully resonate with them.

Hope in the shadow of fear is the world’s most powerful motivator.

This is a basic truth of our existence. If you look through history – not just the history of the world, but the history of your own life, you’re bound to find examples of it. When something terrifies us, we look for the slightest ray of hope, and it can motivate us to do things that we never thought ourselves capable. Things that are amazing… but also things that are amazingly misguided as well. I LOVE when I stumble upon little truths like this. It’s like finding diamonds while digging in the dirt—and a lot of writing is like digging, trying to get to the bottom of questions you haven’t yet thought to ask, and hoping to find something of value along the way.

The ending of human life used to be in the hands of nature. But we stole it. Now we have a monopoly on death. We are its sole distributor.

In building the world for SCYTHE, I came to realize that the human race was not so much playing god, as negating nature. Nature is what happens when there’s no intervention. And the reality of nature is incredibly cruel. Survival of the fittest, evolutionary success to the most ruthless. When it comes to the end of life, nature is all about pain and suffering. We have always intervened to ease pain, and make life—and death—easier. Death WILL eventually be defeated. There will come a time when, we deny nature its due. So what happens when we break the cycle of life? Will we find the wisdom to handle the responsibility? When we become “the sole distributor” of death, how will we manage it? Will we destroy the world through overpopulation, creating even more misery? Or will we find a humane way to keep the population in check? The scythedom was supposed to be the humane solution—and for honorable scythes, it is. Unfortunately not all scythes are honorable…

What must life have been like in the Age of Mortality? Full of passions, both good and bad. Fear giving rise to faith. Despair giving meaning to elation. They say even the winters were colder and the summers were warmer in those days.

We all dream of immortality. Even if you say you don’t want to live forever, in one way or another you do, whether it’s faith in an afterlife, or the thought of living on through your children, or the works you leave behind. We want to know that we’ve left a meaningful footprint behind. But what happens when we never lift our foot? Physical immortality will have substantial consequences. I wanted to explore the ones that weren’t so obvious. The loss of passion, the fading of faith, the narrowing of the band of human emotion. The winter of our discontent is no longer made glorious summer, because the winter isn’t so bad, and the summer isn’t so glorious. What would a world without passion and despair be like? Would art be dull? Would thrill-seekers search for more absurd ways to get their hearts pumping? Would people try to recapture the religion, by inventing a post-mortal one? When you ask enough questions, suddenly you’ve found that you’ve built a world.

The greatest achievement of the human race was not conquering death. It was ending government.

I’m sure, like me, you are fairly disgusted by the world of politics. So often the people who are supposed to be public servants serve nothing but their own egos and interests. I suppose this was a bit of wish-fulfillment for me. Conquering death? That’s easy! But to get rid of dysfunctional government systems? That would take the Thunderhead!

The emperor not only had no clothes—turns out he had no testicles either.

It’s funny that two of the most highlighted sections in the book are on this page—because they speak so directly to our times. I can imagine how the people in power around the world would bluster if the Thunderhead said “Thanks, I can handle it from here. Don’t slam the door on the way out.” And the idea of the blustering ones having absolutely no power to do anything about it? Damn, that makes me feel good. I have to admit, I laughed out loud when I came up this line. The proverbial emperor with neither clothes nor testicles. And probably very small hands.

The Scythe Commandments 1) Thou shalt kill. 2) Thou shalt kill with no bias, bigotry, or malice aforethought. 3) Thou shalt grant an annum of immunity to the beloved of those who accept your coming, and to anyone else you deem worthy. 4) Thou shalt kill the beloved of those who resist. 5) Thou shalt serve humanity for the full span of thy days, and thy family shall have immunity as recompense for as long as you live. 6) Thou shalt lead an exemplary life in word and deed, and keep a journal of each and every day. 7) Thou shalt kill no scythe beyond thyself. 8) Thou shalt claim no earthly possessions, save thy robes, ring, and journal. 9) Thou shalt have neither spouse nor spawn. 10) Thou shalt be beholden to no laws beyond these.

The scythe commandments begins with “Thou Shalt Kill,” an intentionally provocative statement, but only the beginning of a list that took a great deal of thought. I decided to make them commandments, because there is something very old-testament about scythes in general. I wanted to invoke that sense of awe and the idea of a single set of inviolate rules. Coming up with the scythe commandments took a lot of time. I had more than twenty at one point, and had to whittle them down, combining some of them, removing the ones that didn’t feel important enough to be laws. After solidifying them, the challenge was to build the scythedom around them. These laws are the basis for everything that scythes do. Of course, as with any law, there are ways to manipulate the interpretation. The last one is the most important: “Thou shalt be beholden to no laws beyond these.” The idea that scythes are above all other law gives them an incredible amount of power. Power that can be wielded wisely, but also corruptly…

People can read anything, but no one does. All they do is play games and watch cat holograms.”

The more things change the more they stay the same. I think this section gets highlighted so often because we’ve all been there. The more streaming platforms we have, the fewer things we feel like watching. The more books on our kindle, the less likely we are to read them. One of the consequences of having the world at our fingertips is that we lose interest in all of it. Nothing’s rare anymore—nothing has psychological value when it’s no more than a click away. When I was a kid, if you missed something on TV, you missed it. You’d have to wait until it showed up on reruns maybe a year later. Sitting down to watch something like The Wizard of Oz was a huge family holiday event, because it only came on once a year. To try to recapture that, we made Spirited Away our family movie when my kids were younger, and I only allowed us to watch it one a year. Same thing with The Nightmare Before Christmas. Had to keep them special! So, back to the quote—with the entire library of human literature at our fingertips, what do we spend our time doing? You know the answer!

It reminds me that in spite of our lofty ideals and the many safeguards to protect the Scythedom from corruption and depravity, we must always be vigilant, because power comes infected with the only disease left to us: the virus called human nature.

I wrote this years before COVID. It has even greater resonance now. I like it, because it’s a metaphor with many layers. The dark side of human nature as a virus. It can lay dormant, it pops up in surges and clusters. It can spread silently, insidiously, with remarkable speed. Vigilance is the only defense against the “virus” that comes with power. Awareness the only vaccine.

Nature deemed that to be born was an automatic sentence to death, and then brought about that death with vicious consistency.

I have a love/hate relationship with nature. So often we talk of nature as a wonderful thing. The natural world. A return to nature. But that’s only seeing one side of the coin. As I mentioned before, nature is brutal, cruel, and outrageously unfair. Nature kicks the needy and crushes the weak. No discussion of nature should forget that fact. Of course, it’s hubris to think we can do better—but we try, because we have to. It is in OUR nature to challenge nature. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don’t. And when we face the consequences of our battle against nature, we have no one but ourselves to blame. It will take a whole lot of wisdom to make sure our gains outweigh our fails.

“I never took life for sport. You see, there are some who seek celebrity to change the world, and others who seek it to ensnare the world.

This is another one of those uncovered truths that delighted me when I found it. A simple statement, but so true. Does a person seek power to make the world a better place… or to make the world a better place for themselves? Can you think of public figures that fit into those two categories? Or how about public figures who began one way, and slid to the other side?

Continue Reading…

I hope you enjoyed SCYTHE and my annotations. I hope you’ll read the rest of the series – and my new book ROXY, which I co-wrote with my son Jarrod (With whom I also wrote DRY). ROXY is a unique and thought-provoking look at the opioid crisis, but from an unexpected point of view: The point of view of the drugs themselves, who exist like the Greek gods in their eternal party in the sky, coming down to earth to wreak havoc on our lives. Roxy is Oxycontin. She’s beautiful, seductive and dangerous. She’ll take away your pain, but once you fall for her she won’t let you go. I hope you find ROXY a powerful and meaningful read! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56980350-roxy