Back to Zero?
When I wrote Blood Sun, I sent my hero, Max Gordon deep into the Mayan jungle. Part of my research at the time was to study the Mayan civilisation and, of course, the popular theory that because their calendar ended in 2012 then our world would also be finito. But, I have just come across some of my notes and I see that there's an alternative End-of-the-World date. You'd better check your things-to-do, because it's soonish.
The Mayans had two concepts of time - linear, recorded by their Long Count calendar and cyclical time, known as the Tzolkin calendar, which expresses cyclical patterns in human experience. So, yes their linear time runs out of ... well, time, on the 12th December 2012 but the other one, which spans everything from the beginnings of the universe to the progress of mankind (discuss) in evolutionary terms, that has a sell-by-date of 28th October 2011.
Maybe the Mayans had a point. World economy is down the tubes, there are uprisings, protests, global warming and now there's Comet Elenin, that's been nudged our way by a gust of solar wind. Let's hope he/she/it doesn't flounder on this rocky outcrop to which we cling and that we call home.
So, never mind putting the clocks back an hour here in the UK at the end of October, we should just re-set the odometer and start again. Wipe the slate clean. My mortgage provider won't be happy but I have wood to barter and sea shells to trade.
