Oh how this resonates with me. Deeply. My heart broke with regard to the doves.
And as for climate... it's fascinate to see how people cope, or don't.
Some think that blocking roads or splashing paint on art is ridiculous, a waste of effort. I think it's simply an expression of climate grief expressed in the only way these activists know how. Most people know how horrific it all is and the easiest approach is to bury their heads in the sand because what else can they do? It all seems so completely overwhelming and hopeless. For five years I maintained a website where I shared climate and environmental news. My adult child begged me to stop due to how it was changing me into a thoroughly miserable and depressed person. I wrote a cli-fi novel instead.
"Hope without action behind it is only a recipe for deeper heartache." So true. And writing is an action that not only spreads a message but also gives the writer that alternative reality immersion, diversion.
I think Climate Fiction will eventually touch every other genre one way or another as human lives and lifestyles are consumed by one disaster after another.
Thank you for a thoughtful and articulate article. I struggle with the dynamic between hope and horror, between the drumbeat that climate fiction ought to offer hope and my gut sense that we are out of hope unless one chooses to take the VERY long view. Ultimately I came to the conclusion - indicated in your article - that community is where hope lies. An awareness that we are all in this together and must work together toward a neighborhood where cats are kept indoors or where it's possible to have a civil conversation with others about the fact that cats, pesticides, and sprinklers run during the height of the day impact all of us. Call me irrationally optimistic, but I believe we climate writers are the hope. Not rich, not famous, not even particularly well-known, but critical to the conversation nevertheless. Hugs and thank you to everyone.
Great article thank you!
Oh how this resonates with me. Deeply. My heart broke with regard to the doves.
And as for climate... it's fascinate to see how people cope, or don't.
Some think that blocking roads or splashing paint on art is ridiculous, a waste of effort. I think it's simply an expression of climate grief expressed in the only way these activists know how. Most people know how horrific it all is and the easiest approach is to bury their heads in the sand because what else can they do? It all seems so completely overwhelming and hopeless. For five years I maintained a website where I shared climate and environmental news. My adult child begged me to stop due to how it was changing me into a thoroughly miserable and depressed person. I wrote a cli-fi novel instead.
"Hope without action behind it is only a recipe for deeper heartache." So true. And writing is an action that not only spreads a message but also gives the writer that alternative reality immersion, diversion.
I think Climate Fiction will eventually touch every other genre one way or another as human lives and lifestyles are consumed by one disaster after another.
Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for a thoughtful and articulate article. I struggle with the dynamic between hope and horror, between the drumbeat that climate fiction ought to offer hope and my gut sense that we are out of hope unless one chooses to take the VERY long view. Ultimately I came to the conclusion - indicated in your article - that community is where hope lies. An awareness that we are all in this together and must work together toward a neighborhood where cats are kept indoors or where it's possible to have a civil conversation with others about the fact that cats, pesticides, and sprinklers run during the height of the day impact all of us. Call me irrationally optimistic, but I believe we climate writers are the hope. Not rich, not famous, not even particularly well-known, but critical to the conversation nevertheless. Hugs and thank you to everyone.