The Course of Empires, Chapter 1: The Savage State

The lonely boulder sat looking out to the sea as it had for thousands of centuries before. The rainstorm slowly drifted away to the west, as the previous two thousand score had done before it. In the east, the sky slowly brightened as if the sun itself was chasing the storm clouds away. The river eased its leisurely way down its course down from the distant mountain peaks as it joined the salty waters of the cove. A curtain of mist swirled around the cliff, which dropped away beneath the lonely boulder and over the sandy beach beneath the crude dwellings of the local natives. Made of deer and sabretooth cat hides and supported by sapling trunks and mammoth tusks, the houses sheltered the mothers as they suckled their infants and the elders as they prepared the week’s haul of nuts and berries for consumption.

Meanwhile, in the forest on the other side of the river, the men of the village were returning from the hunt after sheltering in a cave overnight to escape the rain. Even as they returned within sight of the village, a good-sized buck came splashing over a rocky creek with an arrow lodged in its back. Its assailant chased after it, whooping with excitement, his bearskin garment flapping in the breeze. The deer’s struggles were quickly subdued as blood pumped from its pierced heart into the creek waters. The hunter picked the cadaver’s head up and called to his companions standing on a rock ledge about a quarter of a mile away. His signal was met with shouts of approval from the others. His message received, he hoisted the carcass onto his back and followed the creek down to the river, where others from his village were waiting with canoes to transport the hunters back to their homes and loved ones.

The valley below the lonely boulder would see little change for the next few millennia. Humanity would continue living in close harmony with nature for many more centuries. This particular tribe was nomadic and would depart from the area in a few months as winter approached, taking all trace of their presence with them. In that age, the human was still largely at the mercy of Mother Nature and her random and uncaring ways. But they had something other animals did not: the ability to reason and improve their standing.

Author’s Commentary

This was the very first of my fiction writing projects that I posted on DeviantArt. It was originally the first part of a five-part short story I wrote in a creative writing class in response to an “ekphrastic” prompt. Ekphrasis, for those who are unaware, is, as Wikipedia puts it, “a vivid, often dramatic, verbal description of a work of art, either real or imagined.” I’ll leave it to you to determine whether or not any of those adjectives apply to my work here.

This story is based on a series of five paintings by Thomas Cole, “The Course of Empire,” composed between 1833 and 1836. It portrays a symbolic depiction of the rise and fall of human civilization, contrasting humanity’s ephemeral nature with their natural surroundings, most notably a lonely boulder that sits on top of a cliff looking down, solid and unchanging, as hunter-gatherers, ancient pagans, and Greco-Roman-style empires rise and crumble around it.

I’m unsure what inspired me to write about this series of paintings. Maybe because I was at a point in my life where I was pondering my existential place in the universe and questioning my loyalty to the American empire as it began to crumble around me. Indeed, not only did I compose the story around the same time that Donald Trump was elected president, but this was also the same period where the seeds for “The Divine Conspiracy” were planted.

I’m also unsure why I separated the five parts when I originally uploaded them to DeviantArt. The story as a whole is short enough.

But I’m rambling at this point. Please tell me what you think of this piece in the comments. I should have the following four chapters submitted for your approval before Easter. Feel free to review the “Savage State” painting above to see how well I did!

And that’s all I have to say about that. Until next time, guys!