The Lucky Strike

I like this “Outspoken Authors” series a lot, though - gosh - they could use a bit more editing. I keep catching typos in these things!

Anyway, this one - like the Cory Doctorow one - is just super interesting cuz the subject (Kim Stanley Robinson) is super interesting. The format is the same: first, a short story by the author, and then a long interview. The short story was an alternative history of a WW2 bomber pilot struggling with his mission: dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It's fine, whatever.

The interview confirms much of what you imagine Kim Stanley Robinson to be like: a curmudgeony, cranky dude who lives in a utopian commune (!) in Davis, CA, is best buds with a Marxist prof, used to write his mind-blowing sci-fi in cafes all the time, hates all the descriptors they've used of his work (“humanist” - bah! “hard sf” - hum bug!) and now goes on hyper-minimalist treks through the Sierras. Like... yeah, of course he does. I was VERY intrigued by the suburban utopians, where do I sign up!? I was also intrigued by his acumenly insight that “hard sf” is often code for “right-wing sf that hates poor people”. Gosh, that is kinda true. I also liked that KSR found sci-fi late-ish in life, cuz that “I grew up with sci-fi, I read Asimov in the cradle, check out my bonafides” bullshit is so tiresome sometimes, yes.

Also, sigh, Kim Stanley Robinson - YOU SO SMART. RED MARS IS SO GOOD. Even 2312 had such smart moments! This just made me get pumped about the new book about a flooded NYC.

OH YES, and he had a WONDERFUL point where he was bah-humbug-ing the way his work has been labelled, and he said, “utopian sf - but that's just me, you, and Ursula”. YES! I was just like, YES YES OMG THAT'S SO TRUE THAT'S WHY I LOVE YOU PEOPLE. And when he spoke of how easy and lazy it is to write dystopias, but how hard and important it is to write convincing utopias!!!

And so I light another candle at my shrine to KSR. Ommmmm.