K-Pax Redux: A Play, Screenplay, and a Report

by Gene Brewer

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B-TIK is one of the most beautiful small WORLDS in the GALAXY. In fact, the EARTH could truly become a paradise if the human inhabitants stopped trying their very best to ""multiply and subdue"" it. Their cancerous population growth, mindless consumption of its natural resources, and catastrophic elevation of themselves to superiority over all the other species who co-habit their PLANET have corrupted it for everyone, including themselves.

Given their evolutionary history, however, perhaps the PLANET was doomed from the beginning. In any case, their self-centeredness has outlived its usefulness, if it ever had any. The ""idea"" that they are entitled to everything they can get their hands on is reinforced daily by their governments, their laws, their parents, their schools, their entertainment media, their religions. If they are to survive the next century, their juvenile egos will have to mature and learn to rely on values other than family, country, and gods to give their lives meaning. Countless humans have said to me, ""It's more complicated than that!"" But to a child, everything is complicated. Apparently nothing short of genetic manipulation will fix the defect, and even that is [fraught] with difficulties--who is going to decide which genes to manipulate?

As B-TIK moves inexorably toward catastrophe, there will be more and more sapiens who will slowly awaken and wonder what went wrong. Unfortunately, it is almost too late to reverse the damage, even though a simple treatment of all their social and environmental illnesses--the elimination of capital, nations, religions, and parental indoctrination--is readily available. Yet, with only a quarter of a century left to initiate the necessary changes, the majority of them continue to go on with their robotic ways as if there will be no tomorrow. Ironic, no?

Without these adjustments the prognosis is not good, and the sapiens will not survive another century. If they manage to evolve before they self-destruct, however, they could become admirable citizens of the UNIVERSE, and certainly some of the more interesting ones. But they still have a long way to go. Even after a thousand centuries of experience, they are yet children.

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405 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2007

About the author

Gene R. Brewer was born and raised in Muncie, Indiana and educated at DePauw University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before becoming a novelist Dr. Brewer studied DNA replication and cell division at several major research institutions, including St. Jude Children's REsearch Hospital (Memphis) and Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland). He is the author of the acclaimed K-PAX trilogy, a memoir (Creating K-PAX), a story for young adults ("Alejandro" in Twice Told), and the stage adaptation of his novel, K-PAX. He lives in New York City and Vermont with his wife and their dog Flower. Hobbies are flying, running, chess, astronomy/cosmology, music, theater, and of course, reading (favorite author: Kurt Vonnegut). Passions include ecology, animal rights*, and his wife, Karen.