Kim Stanley Robinson on “Utopian” Science Fiction

Kim Stanley Robinson on “Utopian” Science Fiction

One of the premier writers of thinky sci-fi, Kim Stanley Robinson opened his book “The Ministry for the Future” with an all too plausible scenario: a lethal heat wave descends on India, with vast, horrifying consequences. It’s a sobering read, especially after July, 2021, was declared the hottest month on record. And yet Robinson tells Bill McKibben that his work is not dystopian; his central concern is how the globe could respond to such a disaster and begin to halt the momentum of global warming. “That whole dystopian postapocalyptic strain—it doesn’t serve as a warning, it doesn’t make you change your behavior,” Robinson notes. “I reject all that. I write as a utopian science-fiction writer.” But, “at the moment we’re at right now in world history,” he admits, “I have to set a pretty low bar for ‘utopia.’ If we dodge a mass-extinction event in this century, that’s utopian writing. That’s the best we can expect from where we are right now. Having put that story on the table as being possible, it suggests that we ought to be trying for it.”

Jaksot(150)

Naftali Bennett and the New Hard Line in Israeli Politics

Naftali Bennett and the New Hard Line in Israeli Politics

In 2013, David Remnick published a profile of Naftali Bennett.  He wrote that Bennett was something new in Israeli politics, a man who would “build a sturdy electoral bridge between the religious and ...

21 Kesä 202113min

Merrick Garland's Impossible Job

Merrick Garland's Impossible Job

Merrick Garland made his legal reputation as a temperate moderate dedicated to keeping politics out of the justice system. Yet in the past few years, he has found himself at the center of two of the m...

17 Kesä 202117min

A Rift over Racism Divides the Southern Baptist Convention

A Rift over Racism Divides the Southern Baptist Convention

Next week, the Southern Baptist Convention will hold its annual meeting. It’s the largest Protestant denomination in the country, and, as the group gathers to elect a new president, it is facing a cri...

14 Kesä 202115min

Naomi Osaka and the Rights of Professional Athletes

Naomi Osaka and the Rights of Professional Athletes

Last month, Naomi Osaka, the second-ranked women’s tennis player in the world, announced that she would not speak to the press during the French Open. The referee fined her fifteen thousand dollars, a...

11 Kesä 202120min

The Early Days of ACT-UP, and Its Lessons for Today’s Activists

The Early Days of ACT-UP, and Its Lessons for Today’s Activists

Sarah Schulman is a novelist and playwright as well as a well-known activist and documentarian. She was an early member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, and, for twenty years, she and the filmm...

7 Kesä 202117min

Biden’s Plan to Reshape the American Economy

Biden’s Plan to Reshape the American Economy

A semblance of pre-pandemic life has resumed across the country, but the economic signs are mixed, even after the strong jobs report for May. Supply chains are bottlenecked, unemployment is just under...

4 Kesä 202119min

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