TCOM context

• Demodystopia

  A subgenre of dystopia about drastic population changes. Developed as a genre due to low fertility rates during the Great Depression and falling mortality rates after WWII. The ageing population rose throughout the 20th century - exacerbating the difference in treatment between the youth and the elderly.
• Fertility - Authorial Intent

  When asked about the origins of her novel, P. D. James always referred to a book review she had read in The Sunday Times:

  
  

  "The book reviewed dealt with the dramatic and so far unexplained fall in the fertility rate of western man. Apparently young men today are only half as fertile as were their fathers. The reviewer pointed out that, of the millions of life forms which have inhabited our planet, nearly all have in time died or were destroyed, as were the dinosaurs. Man's span on earth is as the blinking of an eye. I began to imagine what the world would be like, and more specifically what England would be like, a quarter of a century after a catastrophic year in which the human race was struck by universal infertility (1999, 197)."
• The Five Fishes - Ichtus

  The resistance group The Five Fishes uses the symbol of the fish, ICHTUS in Greek, used by Christians ever since they were persecuted by the Roman authorities in the first centuries of the faith.
• Religion - Authorial Intent


  P.D James was a practicing member of the Church of England (Anglican). In her autobiography, she remarks: "The novel was not intended to be a Christian fable but that, in fact, was what I wrote"
• Human Life - Authorial Intent


  One of P. D. James's personal concerns clearly present in The Children of Men is her concern about the lack of respect for human life in a faithless society where civilisation has broken down. In an interview, she describes Xan Lyppiatt's England as one where the "country has given way solely to pleasure and the old will become a nuisance who are expected to kill themselves" and says she worries about "the attitude towards the old" in her own time which may be moving in this direction.
• P.D James' inspirations


  P.D James was influenced by Dorothy L. Sayers. She follows Sayers' analysis of the reaction of the English people to crisis - Sayer exploring the crisis of WWII.

  
  

  Sayers refers to a population disheartened by "the sense of our individual helplessness in the grip of uncontrollable outside forces" This leads to a kind of inertia where people are "desperately tempted to try and call a halt to the march of events", crying out to the authorities: "Give us stability! [...] We do not want this perpetual change and disturbance; we want stability", while abdicating all responsibilities from themselves - allowing a totalitarian government to take over.

  
  

  This reaction to crisis being specifically an English one.

  
  

  Reference: James, P. D. "Dorothy L. Sayers: Her Novels Today." SEVEN 10 (1993): 19-30.
• Extreme Christian culture - Roaring Roger


  Two religious superstars, one male and one female, embodying two extreme forms of Christian culture that James did not appreciate, dominate the post-Omega years.

  
  

  Roaring Roger is a typical hellfire preacher, "moulding himself on the popular idea of an Old Testament prophet" and denouncing just about everything as "text after damning Old Testament text" falls from his lips. He resembles in some ways certain American TV evangelists of the period like Jimmy Swaggart or Jerry Falwell and gets rich by insinuating that "repentance is best demonstrated by a contribution to [his] campaign expenses".

  
  

  However, as he dares not denounce the Omegas' excesses and inertia takes hold of society, his messages no longer seem relevant by 2021.
• Extreme Christian culture - Rosie McClure


  The other superstar, Rosie McClure from Alabama, preaches a form of "religious hedonism" based on the Beatles' song "All You Need is Love," with a message of universal salvation.

  
  

  From James's point of view, Rosie's religion is an illusion as she denies the reality of evil and depicts a God with no moral values except the desire "that all his children shall be happy".

  
  

  Both Roger and Rosie have abandoned the religion of the New Testament and its message of sacrifice and redemption. Rosie has even "virtually abolished the Second Person of the Trinity together with His cross, substituting a golden orb of the sun in glory, like a garish Victorian pub sign", calling people to a Christianity without Christ and without judgement.

  
  

  The cross was important to James partly because, as she wrote elsewhere, "it had been carried with its message of love and forgiveness into the darkest hells of human imagining". Without it, for her, the message of the Church has no power.