A reporter friend of mine is writing an article this week for an article next week in a magazine in Holland -- ''Vrij Nederland'' -- and the article is geared towards the
People's Climate March in NYC, the UN-summit, and Naomi Klein's new
non-fiction book about Climate Change.
Somewhere in there the reporter said she hopes to mention the need for ''stories''.
and she said ''Danny, a question for you: You've been at this for awhile now. There
are a number of books, and good ones, out there which fall in the cli
fi genre----are you still looking/hoping for that one piece of fiction
which will have a huge impact (like On The Beach or Uncle Tom's Cabin)
and which will galvanize the movement?''
SO I answered her this way and she will likely just use once sentence or two from all this but there was my reply to her: "I do believe that literature still has power to impact individual
societies as UNCLE TOM's CABIN by Harriet Beecher Stowe did in the USA
in 1852 with her powerful novel that was anti-slavery and which
"helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War" to free the slaves in
America, according to some literary historians and civil rights
activists. That was slavery in the USA.''
''In 1957, Australian-British writer Nevil Shute published ON THE BEACH,
a novel about the impact of nuclear war and was set in Australia and
the entire world, so his novel had a global impact for many years.
"Stories" -- and the stories within novels -- still have the power
to impact readers (and national leaders and politicians) even today,
and the reason I am so deeply involved with trying to raise the
profile of cli fi literature today is that i really do believe that
there is a novel out there, as yet unpublished, even as yet unwritten
but gestating in some writer's brain even now and will be written in
the next ten years, a global cli fi novel in English or Dutch or
German or Finnish or Spanish or Portuguese that will have the same
kind of explosive WAKE UP CALL impact that UNCLE TOMS CABIN and ON THE
BEACH DID. I believe this. I feel it in my heart. I can also see
people reading it soon. But I don't know who the writer will be or
what the title will be or when it was be published, but I feel such a
novel will touch readers hearts and minds, deeply, and cause all
national leaders worldwide to WAKE UP to the climate issues we are
faciing as a global commnity.''
''If so, why? ''Why do I feel this way? It's a gut feeling. I've been
thinking about this all my life! ''
And do you think that is possible in this day and age, the reporter asked me. "Yes, I really
do feel a powerful climate-change-themed novel can wake up the world,
even today. Yes, there is a lot that works against this now, with 500
TV stations and hundreds of distracting websites and Youtube video
jokes and comedy routines, -- we do live in a very distracted world --
but I still have a vision of an important novel waking the world up,
this time about the very real threats that global warming and climate
change pose for the next 30 generations of human beings.''
''Dear Reporter in Holland -- of course, i know you can't use all this. so good editor that
you are, if you do have space, USE whatever soundbites works best for
your piece, one sentence sure. choose the best words. SMILE'' -- danny