This week and next, I\u2019m going to be writing about ways I\u2019m interested in making my art more political. This is the internet, I realize 2007-2010 is the time of stone tablets. But that was when I was in writing workshops\u2014before The Antiracist Writing Workshop<\/em>, before it was made clear that writing about how badly you feel for treating women terribly doesn\u2019t excuse you from continuing to treat women terribly, Junot Diaz. Without getting into a whole history, Trayvon Martin\u2019s 2012 murder was a radicalizing event for me, followed quickly by GamerGate, the rise of BLM, the rise of MAGA, Me Too, the Manosphere<\/a>, the open class war<\/a>, and everything else our current moment is built upon. Back in 2012, I felt I had an incomplete education of how to merge literature and social engagement\/politics. I feel like I was taught\u2014and this is far less true of poetry workshops than fiction, and less true of fiction workshops than in lit classes\u2014that both art with an agenda and art that fell into a genre were emphatically uncool. <\/p> I think the last 20 years have shown that genre, when played with right, is pretty cool. The last 10 years have shown *at least me* that everything is political, even choosing \u201cnot to be political.\u201d <\/p> Sci-fi is probably our genre least afraid of getting involved with politics. There is leftist sci-fi\u2014Star Trek<\/em>, Alien<\/em>. There is conservative sci-fi\u2014whatever animates Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and their fanboys (I say \u201cboys\u201d deliberately). Except that\u2019s not quite right, is it? Elon\u2019s favorite book is The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide To The Galaxy<\/em>, which I would describe as to the left of liberal, but not necessarily threatening the status quo (although maybe that\u2019s just me in the 21st century instead of the 1980s). Without knowing much about Douglas Adams, I imagine he\u2019d view Elon Musk the way Zaphod Beeblebox views anything more important than his own ego.1<\/a> Thiel, of course, is in love with <\/a>The Lord Of The Rings<\/a> <\/em>(fantasy, not sci-fi, but they\u2019re cousins). So much so that he named his surveillance company after the viewing device Sauron and Saruman use to spy on poor Pippin. <\/p> Something that turns me off from sci-fi is how many sci-fi fans are white supremacist dorks who want to ruin the world. I suppose something I\u2019m trying to find out this year is: is that sci-fi\u2019s fault? <\/p> If my perception of who I interact with on the internet and the number of journals there are dedicated to the genre is correct, sci-fi is our most popular genre. Who knows? Could just be me going \u201coh ok, everyone\u2019s into sci-fi, guess I\u2019ll be over here with my werewolves.\u201d But it seems that way. Popularity is a great way to attract fans who suck\u2014just ask any band that sells out.2<\/a> While I don\u2019t think it\u2019s sci-fi\u2019s problem that powerful people don\u2019t get it, I do wonder how<\/em> something like Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide<\/em> can be so fully absorbed by the \u201cwomen should get a vote, just 1\/3 of one\u201d crowd. The people who get so concerned <\/em>with rules and world-building that it spills over into their political analysis. Instead of \u201chey, let\u2019s have free healthcare,\u201d these types of guys twist themselves into knots being like, \u201cwell, from the evolutionary psychology perspective, what is the purpose of the postmenopausal woman?<\/a>\u201d These types of guys joke about the Market Department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation being first against the wall when the revolution comes, but if you talk about real-life revolution? They don\u2019t care if it\u2019s right-wing or left, just so long as can feel smug about how they totally called it. Noir and horror have these types of guys in the form of, say, True Detective<\/a><\/em> creator Nic-A-Lotta-Pizza<\/a>, guys who relish the grimdark a little too much and believe giving speaking roles to women and POC means society is collapsing. But at least those guys tend to end up at the end of a bar somewhere, instead of becoming some president\u2019s Grima Wormtongue. <\/p> Maybe these are two different things, but what I\u2019m trying to get at is: how do we solve the problem of the Torment Nexus<\/a>? In case you\u2019re unfamiliar, the Torment Nexus originated in 2021, with a tweet from Alex Blechman: <\/p> Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale<\/p> Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from the classic sci-fi novel Don\u2019t Create The Torment Nexus<\/p><\/blockquote> Since Alex\u2019s tweet, it seems the problem of the Torment Nexus has only gotten worse. Political leaders keep calling generative AI \u201cinevitable,\u201d even though the product that currently exists is neither generative AI nor inevitable. No technology is inevitable. People are living perfectly happy lives at this very moment without cars, for instance. Not even uncontacted tribes or whatever\u2014that was me until 2018. But these guys, these Silicon Valley guys and the grindset hustlers they inspire? They can\u2019t read. Not for comprehension, anyway. They see Captain Kirk as Space Roger Sterling, not Space Enlightened Liberal Hero. They see interstellar exploration as a Solution To Climate Change That Also Allows Us To Create Ancient Rome On Mars. They see a few pedestrian deaths in the name of getting electric cars right as harmless casualties of progress<\/a>, not human tragedies. They\u2019d certainly never question whether we need interstellar travel (or cars) in the first place. <\/p> What I\u2019m saying is I\u2019d love to see sci-fi written by someone who appreciates, say, \u2018s work. Someone who creates villains while listening to Ed Zitron\u2019s podcast. Characters who aren\u2019t enthusiastic about tech for tech\u2019s sake. Characters who question orders but are powerless to stop them. I said earlier that Alien<\/em> is leftist sci-fi (said it on the Lazy & Entitled Podcast Halloween Spooktacular<\/a>, too). That\u2019s because the characters are working stiffs victimized by a greedy corporation. They aren\u2019t military leaders excited about space travel, they aren\u2019t former Special Forces Officers Highly Trained For Situations Like This. They are workers\u2014people\u2014in a situation beyond their control. And it makes the idea of interstellar corporations look so catastrophically horrible that you begin to wonder if humanity has ever done anything similarly large-scale stupid.<\/p> That\u2019s our moment right now. A bunch of loser sci-fi nerds3<\/a> who couldn\u2019t get a date with a woman that they built are making life worse for the rest of us. A bunch of dorks who can\u2019t read being all \u201ctechnology is inevitable! Look! I built a spaceship worse than NASA in the 60s and dumped a billion barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico and we\u2019re gonna colonize Mars<\/a>!\u201d The problem with out-of-control stupid rich people is that they can<\/em> absolutely<\/em> have civilization-altering effects. I don\u2019t know what to do about all of this. The surveillance state makes protesting a greater risk than before. Technology that makes us more isolated means those in power have less incentive to listen to protest. I guess my solution is to try to write like Barton Fink? <\/p> In all seriousness, put more common people in genre art. Give me Annihilation<\/em> but with Frances McDormand\u2019s Burn After Reading<\/em> character in the Natalie Portman role. Give me the story of Mouse or Switch getting unplugged from the Matrix. Give me the The Last Jedi<\/em> sequel we should\u2019ve gotten, with Rey staying a nobody who nevertheless rises to the occasion. Like, idk, if a bartender were to become and important politician or something. <\/p> Sorry you got an email, <\/p> Chris<\/p>![\"The](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/029af82a-feb1-4e87-93ec-095c63514325_300x225.jpeg\")
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