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Dystopias, Disasters and Other Futurescapes
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From: Tessa Michaelson <tessa_at_pagosalibrary.org>
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:43:44 -0600
Megan's thoughtful introduction to this theme brought several thoughts to mind. For me, it's hard to tell if writing trends have changed, or if it's just the reality in which I'm living and reading. For example, when I read Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien, the post-nuclear world he created seemed possible, but not tangible. However, I got goose bumps reading Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi while simultaneously reading daily headlines about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Futuristic fiction suddenly seemed not so futuristic.more like inevitable. Author Gary Shteyngart, talking on NPR's Fresh Air program about his new novel set in the near-future, said "There's no present left. This is the problem for a novelist is the present is gone. We're all living in the future constantly." In the context of the CCBC-Net discussion, this makes sense to me. In an age of technology and instantaneous growth--with so much newness, upgrades, and development-I feel like I don't have to imagine as hard as I used to
. I've already been given a taste of what's possible. While sometimes that spoonful of future has a flavor of doom, I think it helps me relish reality. For now.
Tessa Michaelson Schmidt
Librarian
Ruby M. Sisson Memorial Library
811 San Juan Street
PO Box 849
Pagosa Springs, CO 81147
(970) 264-2209
tessa_at_pagosalibrary.org
http://pagosa.colibraries.org/
Received on Wed 04 Aug 2010 12:43:44 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:43:44 -0600
Megan's thoughtful introduction to this theme brought several thoughts to mind. For me, it's hard to tell if writing trends have changed, or if it's just the reality in which I'm living and reading. For example, when I read Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien, the post-nuclear world he created seemed possible, but not tangible. However, I got goose bumps reading Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi while simultaneously reading daily headlines about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Futuristic fiction suddenly seemed not so futuristic.more like inevitable. Author Gary Shteyngart, talking on NPR's Fresh Air program about his new novel set in the near-future, said "There's no present left. This is the problem for a novelist is the present is gone. We're all living in the future constantly." In the context of the CCBC-Net discussion, this makes sense to me. In an age of technology and instantaneous growth--with so much newness, upgrades, and development-I feel like I don't have to imagine as hard as I used to
. I've already been given a taste of what's possible. While sometimes that spoonful of future has a flavor of doom, I think it helps me relish reality. For now.
Tessa Michaelson Schmidt
Librarian
Ruby M. Sisson Memorial Library
811 San Juan Street
PO Box 849
Pagosa Springs, CO 81147
(970) 264-2209
tessa_at_pagosalibrary.org
http://pagosa.colibraries.org/
Received on Wed 04 Aug 2010 12:43:44 PM CDT
