Finished reading „The Lost Cause“ by @pluralistic
Excellent read and as usual quite on top of the current problems—climate change in this case.
One bit nagged me at the end though. Spoiler in the next toot… #thelostcause
Reading @pluralistic's #TheLostCause and will say more about the actual book on Bookwyrm later, but I'm weirdly struck by the fact it's the second book I've read in the past couple of months set in new future where Twitter still exists. Like it's fascinating the assumptions we make about what is an immutable part of our world and how quickly those assumptions can be overturned, even for authors whose whole thing is anticipating the future and questioning the present
Never thought I would want to visit Burbank, CA but now I do.
Cory does a masterful job of grounding what the future, at least as far as the climate emergency looks like, in a feeling of realness. The book doesn't hyperventilate nor does it paint a too rosey tech bro future. What it does is tell a story that feels hopeful and horrifying at the same time with characters who you miss when the last sentence is read.
The best part of #TheLostCause, @pluralistic 's hopeful look at our inevitably difficult future, is that it portrays a hope that is not based on magical thinking or fantastical technologies, but on choices.
The book is also full of humour, pathos, insight, and thoughtfulness that run along an engaging plot that might have you reading into the wee hours.
I'm reading @pluralistic's new book The Lost Cause, and among the things I'm loving about it is the future slang. For example, we definitely need to start referring to the 1% as plutes (short for plutocrats).
The novel was captivating as I got the #drmfree ebook and #audiobook two nights ago.
I am left very hopeful, in the sense that " #Hope [...] is the belief that what we do matters.", and that's a point that the tale really does drive home.
We need to stand up together and act now for a chance to mitigate its backdrop of a mid-century #ClimateEmergency, but also #solidarity is what might make it bearable.
My next novel is #TheLostCause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through #Kickstarter:
My next novel is The Lost Cause, a solarpunk adventure about "the first generation in a century that doesn't fear the future." It comes out on Nov 14, and its early fans include Naomi Klein:
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
My next novel is #TheLostCause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through Kickstarter:
"Corporate crime" is an oxymoron in America. While it's true that the most consequential and profligate theft in America is #WageTheft, its mechanisms are so obscure and, well, dull that it's easy to sell us on the false impression that the real problem is shoplifting:
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
My next novel is #TheLostCause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through Kickstarter:
My next novel is #TheLostCause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through #Kickstarter:
My next novel is #TheLostCause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through #Kickstarter:
My next novel is #TheLostCause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through #Kickstarter:
If end-stage capitalism has a motto, it's this: "Stop hitting yourself." The great failure of "voting with your wallet" is that you're casting ballots in a one party system (The Capitalism Party), and the people with the thickest wallets get the most votes.
--
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
My next novel is #TheLostCause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through #Kickstarter:
My next novel is #TheLostCause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through #Kickstarter:
Noted #socialist agitator #AdamSmith once wrote, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
--
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
My next novel is #TheLostCause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through #Kickstarter:
My next novel is #TheLostCause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through #Kickstarter:
When I think about how the old, good internet turned into the #enshitternet, I imagine a series of small compromises, each seemingly reasonable at the time, each contributing to a cultural norm of making good things worse, and worse, and worse.
--
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
My next novel is #TheLostCause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through #Kickstarter:
The second decade of the 21st century is truly a bounteous time. My backyard has produced a bumper crop of an invasive species of mosquito that is genuinely innovative: rather than confining itself to biting in the dusk and dawn golden hours, these stinging clouds of flying vampires bite at every hour that God sends:
Science fiction doesn't have to be a warning. It can also be a wellspring of hope. That's what I tried to do with #TheLostCause, my forthcoming #GreenNewDeal novel, which @billmckibben called "The first great YIMBY novel":
#Germany is the "world champion in remembrance," celebrated for its post-#Holocaust policies of ensuring that every German never forgot what had been done in their names, and in holding themselves and future generations accountable for the Nazis' crimes.
--
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
The American #CivilWar was retold as "#TheLostCause," fought over states' rights, not over the right of the ultra-wealthy to terrorize kidnapped Africans and their descendants into working to death.
This wasn't how they did it in Germany. Nazi symbols and historical revisionism were banned (even the Berlin production of "The Producers" had to be performed without swastikas). The criminals were tried and executed. Every student learned what had been done.