…a half-dozen glittering new towers stab through the San Jose gloom

November 14, 2022 5:42 PM

Migratory Patterns of The Modern American Skyscraper, a short story by Derrick Boden in Clarkesworld.

They call it the pinnacle of architectural innovation. An affordable housing revolution. They call it Plexus, and it built this neighborhood in seven days.

posted by signal (14 comments total)

Fun story. I drove through downtown Austin today, it is at least half new, glittering, beautiful buildings.

What brought all of the musicians here -- cheap rent, cheap yet great nightlife, no one caring about what you drove -- that is all gone now. I inked a mortgage in 1993 or I'd never, ever be able to live here.

Many loathe what Austin now is but I am not one of them, I think it's just a flat-out gorgeous town. Without even trying I saw three cranes, more new high-rises going up; I love it, every nail driven home, every screw holding them together is at least ten bucks in my pocket; the sound of construction is a fine music to my ears.

Anyways, I'm glad that ATX buildings are not pushing me further and further out, more like it's turning my little condo in the heart of this town into a black hole, suctioning in money day by day. I sure like that part.
posted by dancestoblue at 6:18 PM on November 14, 2022 [5 favorites]

But it does have a killer title, I must admit.
posted by newdaddy at 6:18 PM on November 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Assuming we have future generations with the time on their hands for literary history and criticism, one thing that'll be interesting is to track this shift in thinking, this undercurrent in fiction where young science fiction writers have a real grip on precarity--the gig economy, homeless-ishness, the unsteadiness of things. It's scary, scary stuff, drearily real and I think very different from any grand apocalyptic thinking. "All that is solid melts into blue goo that doesn't belong to you," as Marx might've written.
posted by mittens at 6:43 PM on November 14, 2022 [8 favorites]

The upswing of extreme inequality (wealth, but others too) is another cyclical historic thing that's evident. But, absolutely, the concept of Chaos is on the rise - but unlike SFF from the 60's and 70's, "order" is now not necessarily - and possibly by definition a counterdefinition - considered good. Counterpointed by Michael Moorcock's contemporary psychedelic settings.

Despite the pessimism of the 90's and 00's, there was always the promise that there would be other positive things going on despite end stage capitalism, even (finally trickled down) for the consumer. I think we've stalled out on TVs and stereos, RVs and Skidoos. Even cell phones. No revolution happened other than that physical features of consumer vehicles are on packaged service contracts - you don't pay the monthly fee, that part of your car no longer works. VR is a joke. We got the worst parts of the future without any of the fringe benefits.
posted by porpoise at 8:29 PM on November 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

A bit of a derail, but one of the painful legacies in San Jose is the airport being right near downtown means a hard cap on number of floors in buildings. Wish they'd moved it when they had a chance, but nimbys ruined that
posted by BrotherCaine at 9:10 PM on November 14, 2022

I think that the current period of immobility in the US is going to end. Most of the property is currently held by some of the boomers, and those folks are about move on. The whole society built around golf courses, cabins out in the sticks* and free parking is about to unwind. And apart from the few gen x who evaded the downturns and are set to afford to hold on to their parents now ‘worthless cabin’ I think most people will celebrate being able to afford a home again. Being able to afford to move.
posted by zenon at 6:57 AM on November 15, 2022 [2 favorites]

*like the partners family cabin with 5 bedrooms, 4 baths and a great room with 30 foot ceiling, that is sandwiched between a golf course and a lake. The local municipality is trying to run water services but they prefer pumping their own lake water, which they just filter before consuming. Because taxes, and there is no limit on running the pump.
posted by zenon at 7:03 AM on November 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

Property held by boomers is being bought by REITs which ensures everyone is fucked unless there is legislation about rent control.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:13 AM on November 15, 2022 [5 favorites]

I mean why go through the expense and drawn out trouble of building new housing when you can corner the market on existing stock and drive up prices into the stratosphere with no effort at all.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:17 AM on November 15, 2022 [2 favorites]

Yeah, not written by a Northern Californian - 'the 101' in the story gives it away.
posted by coberh at 9:39 AM on November 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

there would be other positive things going on despite end stage capitalism, even (finally trickled down) for the consumer

mRNA vaccines and the constant improvements in batteries and photovoltaics are real and difficult. Plus all the experiments in how global communication should be managed (ongoing).

What we don’t have and might never have is a new source of energy, and the hangover from the fossil fuels frenzy will outlast all of us. Even there, some fusion research has recently gotten to the stage of Huh, that’s funny. Low probability, but a chance.
posted by clew at 10:20 AM on November 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

I loved the idea of smart-ish goo coming to its own conclusion about how to meet its nominal goals. In the vein of Hard SF is Harder than Physics, is there a hint in there of where they were getting water? There aren’t any bodies west of the Rockies Mississippi that aren’t over claimed. Throw me a hydrogen bone, head canon.
posted by clew at 10:25 AM on November 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

One of the hardest things for me about the explosion of SF online is finding good recs to streamline the firehose. This one was good. Thanks for posting.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 11:53 AM on November 15, 2022 [3 favorites]

Good story! Thank you for bringing it here.
posted by evilmomlady at 4:40 PM on November 15, 2022 [1 favorite]