In today’s Big Idea, Cory Doctorow talks about his new novel The Lost Cause, but he also talks about why so many of science fiction writers work in the genre at all. Both topics are, unsurprisingly, fascinating.
CORY DOCTOROW:
Danger is scary, but helplessness is scarier.
For the 45 years since we were first warned that climate change could render our planet uninhabitable, we’ve been strapped into a bus headed over the cliff’s edge, watching our doom draw ever-nearer as the first class passengers tell us to stop screaming, it’s all in our heads.
The cliff draws nearer, and the toffs tell us that we’ll “innovate” our way out of this, putting wings on the bus while it’s in motion. The cliff draws nearer still, and they assure us that the only alternative is to go so fast that we jump the chasm.
Our impending doom is only part of the terror in this scenario. What makes this a nightmare is the inevitability of it all. That feeling of being strapped in, patted on the head, told to sort our recycling more diligently and “shop green.”
The Lost Cause is my next novel. It’s a hopeful novel of climate disaster...
The Lost Cause: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s
Read more at: The Big Idea: Cory Doctorow
Recent Comments