reading
Recently I've been reading Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter's Long Earth series. I'm up to The Long Mars right now. It's tremendous escapist fun.
The books are also the antithesis to apocalypse stories. Create a machine with brass parts powered by a potato, bam you're on a parallel Earth. Some folks are lucky enough to have the innate talent for 'stepping', TP & SB's term for hopping between parallel worlds.
No more room on Earth? A new virgin planet is perpendicular to our own. Plenty of elbow room and freedom for all.
The latter two ideals are part and parcel of apocalypse fiction. The brooding teenager mentality of "Everyone sucks, I wish they were dead so I can remake the world in my own image and shit's gonna be so cash!" is the unimaginative thesis of contemporary doomporn. In this case, one can just move away and start anew. No mass murder necessary.
Better yet, one can return home for supplies or once they realize the pioneer life isn't for neckbeards who haven't done anything more strenuous than play Call of Duty in their mom's basement.
SF needs more escapist fiction.
The books are also the antithesis to apocalypse stories. Create a machine with brass parts powered by a potato, bam you're on a parallel Earth. Some folks are lucky enough to have the innate talent for 'stepping', TP & SB's term for hopping between parallel worlds.
No more room on Earth? A new virgin planet is perpendicular to our own. Plenty of elbow room and freedom for all.
The latter two ideals are part and parcel of apocalypse fiction. The brooding teenager mentality of "Everyone sucks, I wish they were dead so I can remake the world in my own image and shit's gonna be so cash!" is the unimaginative thesis of contemporary doomporn. In this case, one can just move away and start anew. No mass murder necessary.
Better yet, one can return home for supplies or once they realize the pioneer life isn't for neckbeards who haven't done anything more strenuous than play Call of Duty in their mom's basement.
SF needs more escapist fiction.