Is there a word for a post-post apocalyptic setting?

[conuly]

You know, so far after the apocalyptic event that even the initial rebuilding stage is over? Not only do the survivors have no living memory of the apocalypse, the post-apocalypse, or the rebuilding, but they may not think it has any real bearing on their lives other than when it needs to for the narration, just like you and I don't think that the late bronze age collapse has much bearing on OUR lives? What would I call that, other than the admittedly silly-sounding "post-post apocalyptic"?

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Comments

[sabotabby]

I don't know, but I want it. My hope was that Game of Thrones would turn out to be that, because it would explain the Wall and maybe even magic and would be cool as hell, but it was not that. I did try to convince a friend to rewrite her fantasy story to be post-apocalyptic but no one remembers the apocalypse, and if she doesn't do that, I may have to.

[mme_n_b]

If you want it -have you read the T. Kingfisher's Clocktaur/Swordheart/Paladin world books?
The "ancients" were an advanced civilization (more technologically advanced than us, but not by too much). The characters of this series live in a world where their artifacts are occasionally found, but, except for Paladin's Hope (and, to an arguably lesser extent, the two Clocktaur books), the interaction with the artifacts is not the center theme of the story. In some books (e. g. Paladin's Grace) neither the ancients nor their artifacts come up.

[sabotabby]

I've heard they're good! I think it just seemed like there was an intimidating amount of them and I like to read things in order.

[mme_n_b]

Nah, it's just 6 books in stand-alonge groups of
two(Clockwork Boys and Wonder Engine),
one (Swordheart, although this one has no mention of the ancients),
and three (Paladin's Grace/Strength/Hope).
The romance gets a bit repetitive (there's always a strong man who spends at least a page of text being careful not to intimidate any romantic partners, at least three more angsting about whether he's intimidated anyone, or made them accept his presence because they are weak/in need of help/dependent), and then up to a few chapters angsting about not being good enough for whichever actually quite strong/independent but badly hurt by prior partners person is the other half of the pair and dreaming about hurting said prior partners), but the worldbuilding is really lovely and thorough and the plots tight and unexpected.

[sabotabby]

That does sound worth checking out!

[conuly]

But let's be clear: Ursula Vernon really likes her angsty, self-loathing romances and also gnoles. She is quite fond of gnoles. Gnoles don't seem prone to being angsty OR self-loathing, which is probably why she hasn't featured them in a romance yet.

[crystalpyramid]

It seems like there should be -- it's definitely a trope, where you stumble on the existence of the past civilization in a twist ending.

[jesuswasbatman]

Or even not a big twist ending - it's never explicitly stated in the stories but according to the creator's public remarks elsewhere the SF comic Finder takes place in such a setting, explaining the occasional decaying artifacts of hypertechnology, and things like the occasional groups of what are clearly animals that have been uplifted to humanoid anatomy and sentience around.

[chanter1944]

The ever-excellent rix_scaedu has a setting something like this. The title of that setting is the Afterwhen. Seems like a fair term for a wider genre to me.

[redbird]

Not a word for it, but Le Guin's Always Coming Home is a bit like this. "A bit" because most of the people in that book aren't much interested in the pre-apocalyptic civilizations.

[conuly]

Yes, that's what I meant.

[bitterlawngnome]

I thought first of ACH too! There's also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz ... but that doesn't really help, does it.

reindeer eyes

[redbird]

Thank you for making me one of today's lucky 10,000.

Re: reindeer eyes

[conuly]

:)

[pauamma]

In one our-Earth instance, I believe it's called "Iron Age". (Or at least, was dubbed that millenia after it happened.)

[conuly]

Aren't we still in the iron age?

[pauamma]

We use (a lot of) iron, so I guess maybe, at least technically. But bronze was still used during the Iron Age (and in fact is still used today) but the name was changed anyway. So I would call today the Aluminium and Plastic Age, or perhaps the Internet Age, or the Early Climate Catastrophe Age.

[frith]

I'd go with revival. I see that word as re-vivre, re-living, back to life. Post-post-apocalypse, it's back to living and growth. Revival.