Change the story, and you change the world

…or do you?

Here’s an excerpt from a new piece on Comic Book Resources about my upcoming comic book, Testament. The writer, Dave Richards, does a good job at tying the comic to my other work in both narrative and religion.

A story is a powerful concept. If enough people believe in a particular story, it can alter the way we perceive reality. “Testament,” a new ongoing series from Vertigo set to premier in December– by writer Douglas Rushkoff and artist Liam Sharpe– explores the effects a story can have on society. CBR News spoke to Rushkoff about the series, which uses biblical parallels to examine the fight for freedom in a future society.

Rushkoff’s interest in stories and the way they can influence reality deepened with the rise of the cyber phenomenon and hacking. “The question of the era seemed to be, ‘How much of our reality is programmable? Redesignable? Up for grabs?'” Rushkoff told CBR News. “The newfound power of coding, hacking, and computing threatened a lot of established institutions.”

His exploration of the idea of an open source reality and his Jewish background lead Rushkoff to examine the sacred texts of Judaism. “As I explored the Jewish texts– Torah, really, and the rest of the Bible– I saw that it was really saying close to the opposite of what most of us think it’s saying,” Rushkoff said. “There’s a lot of Bible-thumping going on these days– in Judaism and Christianity alike. And it has left the impression that it’s some sort of book of rules to follow, tenets to believe in and historical events to set in stone. Where it’s actually the story of a revolution– both of a bunch of people, and of human consciousness. It’s a proposition for an open source reality and a set of guidelines for how to break the news to real people who love to believe in idols.”