It’s the same case for writers today: it’ll be a few decades before some of our current blind spots become evident. You see that both in terms of what they choose to pay attention to and in terms of their blind spots: there’s so much they don't realize they’re taking for granted. It’s so interesting to go back and read old science-fiction stories and see how, no matter how distant they seem to be in time or place from the world they were written in, how imbued with the values of that world they still are. What role does an author have in translating or filtering the world in which they live?īRIAN EVENSON: I think it’s impossible to write something that doesn’t have some connection to the world in which you live. Perhaps most prominently, there’s the high city in “To Breathe the Air,” which requires the story’s narrator to wear a mask. Today, as our wealthiest citizens race to leave the planet and climate change takes its toll on our forests, oceans, and air, Evenson’s unblinking stories of genetic mutations and ecological disaster read as both cautionary and strangely transcendent.ĭAVID PEAK: Several stories in The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell are set in worlds or realities that are either unsafe or no longer recognizable. Everything is a lie, and nothing is true. Its stories often depict mysterious worlds in which several realities splinter apart. Photo: Kristen Tracey, © 2021.īrian Evenson’s latest collection, The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell, was published by Coffee House Press in August.
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