Good for the arts
February 23, 2017 2:42 AM   Subscribe

Slate is publishing short stories that "imagine the dystopian future of Trump's America" in the Trump Story Project. Direct links plus a bonus below the fold.

Nisi Shawl, Slippernet
Elizabeth Bear, What Someone Else Does Not Want Printed
Lauren Beukes, Patriot Points
Jeff VanderMeer, Trump Land
Saladin Ahmed, Clay and Smokeless Fire
Edan Lepucki, Chorus
Ben H. Winters, Fifth Avenue
Héctor Tobar, The Daylight Underground

Bonus: Fireside Fiction brings you The Revolution, Brought to You by Nike by Andrea Phillips
posted by Joe in Australia (32 comments total) 48 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is a terrible idea, because I don't see how Fate will be able to resist demonstrating how totally reality can outstrip your dystopic imagination.
posted by Segundus at 3:01 AM on February 23, 2017 [11 favorites]


The screaming in my head hasn't stopped for nearly 4 months and I'm already living through a fairly dystopian present. I appreciate your post and will probably read these, maybe in a year or so.
posted by hippybear at 3:09 AM on February 23, 2017 [8 favorites]


Ok I agree, this is definitely a hideous idea. But someone has to read them.

Hold tight everyone I'm going in. If I don't post back within two hours assume I have gone to sit in a cardboard box and howl indefinitely, and that it is not safe to read the stories.
posted by greenish at 4:08 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


The "Chorus" one is pretty good.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:38 AM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]


Dystopian future?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 5:10 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]


I chose Chorus to start with too, and I concur.
posted by greenish at 5:26 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


So... are they accepting submissions for Bannon / Eric Trump slash fiction?

Edit: even autocorrect fought me writing Bannon's name.
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:42 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


I like the nod to the Handmaids Tale in Chorus.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 5:45 AM on February 23, 2017


Clay and Smokeless Fire is phenomenal, I am overwhelmed.
posted by greenish at 5:53 AM on February 23, 2017


I've already read The Road, thanks.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:08 AM on February 23, 2017 [7 favorites]


Oh dammnit! This is my zine project. Well, at least I know there's an audience.
posted by polly_dactyl at 6:22 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


Nice! I've got an idea for a short story basically on the premise there's this massive ongoing public crisis because Trump and Putin et al's propagandizing and psiops have accidentally created a whole in the fabric of meaning itself, sort of like the ozone layer hole we discovered a few years back, with a world built around the resulting existential crisis and panic. Probably won't get around to writing it with everything else I'm dealing with these days, so anybody who finds a spark of inspiration in that idea, feel free to take it and run with it.
posted by saulgoodman at 6:32 AM on February 23, 2017


My idea: A Python program that combines the title "We Are So Fucked" with the day's top Trump story. Run it as a cron job every 24 hours. Saves a lot of typing and while it's not by nature predictive, it's also never wrong.
posted by tommasz at 6:56 AM on February 23, 2017 [4 favorites]


It's tricky being a dystopian science fiction writer right now - you spend years writing grim warnings of a nightmare Future and then people just decide to do all of them, all at once, regardless.
posted by Artw at 7:09 AM on February 23, 2017 [14 favorites]


And the POV's name in Elizabeth Bear's.
posted by Mogur at 7:19 AM on February 23, 2017


Chorus is fantastic. So fantastic, in fact, that even though I was pretty meh on California, I'll probably give her next novel a chance.
posted by thivaia at 7:22 AM on February 23, 2017


Artw: you mind if I pass that quote around as coming from an established sf/comic writer, because that is darkly comic gold right there. I can make it an anonymous quote if you don't want to risk being goon mobbed online for calling it like it is.
posted by saulgoodman at 7:30 AM on February 23, 2017


Er, feel free. I'm not *that* much of famous person though.

(Next Dredd story in stores next week! Its, er, probably a story that read better pre-Trump)
posted by Artw at 7:32 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


I went and found Ian A.T's classic post-apocalyptic Metafilter server story. Change the first few words on the second paragraph to reference Trump...and well it holds up pretty well....
posted by inflatablekiwi at 7:54 AM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


What I'm afraid of is that the Trump administration will read these looking for new ideas.
posted by Xoc at 8:08 AM on February 23, 2017


Saladin's Clay and Smokeless Fire is amazing.
posted by dreamling at 9:11 AM on February 23, 2017


That Patriot Points program seems pretty great!

(immediately goes about changing every social media post ever to be a true patriot)
posted by numaner at 9:19 AM on February 23, 2017


Oh my God, seconding dreamling. Some of these are much better than others, but the Saladin Ahmed one is not only really moving, but a splendid little bit of world-building. Ugh, so good.

link.
posted by joyceanmachine at 9:27 AM on February 23, 2017


These are all wonderful.
posted by cass at 9:38 AM on February 23, 2017


In The Revolution, Brought to You by Nike, the protagonist annoys some deplorables:

She’d been quoted in that initial launch day press release, and ever since then she’d been buried under a tsunami of death and rape threats on social media, calls to her office phone number, and hacking attempts. She’d lost control of her Pinterest account, not that that mattered so much, and her Metafilter account, which was a lot more upsetting. [emphasis added]
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 12:35 PM on February 23, 2017 [10 favorites]


Dammit, cortex, get on this shit.
posted by Artw at 12:48 PM on February 23, 2017


Yes hello I am very proud to have my Nike story linked here thank you OMG
posted by Andrhia at 2:20 PM on February 23, 2017 [24 favorites]


Damnit Andrhia, I can't cry at work.
posted by mikurski at 4:23 PM on February 23, 2017 [3 favorites]


Thank you so much Andrhia. I absolutely needed that burst of optimism, even if it was at the hands of Nike.

And I think you may get validated as a prophet one day. I was surprised the Super Bowl commercials were often unfriendly or hostile to Trump's vision of America. I could almost see a youth-oriented brand taking an incredibly bold stand as Trump's popularity plummets.
posted by honestcoyote at 7:25 PM on February 23, 2017 [2 favorites]


I was surprised the Super Bowl commercials were often unfriendly or hostile to Trump's vision of America.

I suspect that it's more that the generic wholesome vision of themselves that people have and adverts like to play on just happens to be at odds with the Trumpian world view. There's nothing in that Budweiser ad that should be controversial in the slightest, for instance.
posted by Artw at 8:27 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


Not sure if anyone's read (or posted on, though I did do a searchy thing) Strange Trilogy by Canadian born Elliott Hall?

Highly recommended if you like to cry and inwardly scream in terror.
posted by Myeral at 7:57 AM on February 24, 2017


Andrhia, that story was fantastic. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read something optimistic for once.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 8:50 AM on February 24, 2017 [1 favorite]


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