Fire Bad, Tree Pretty.

Anyone with a name that starts with a “Z”, ends with an “i”, and isn’t some kind of Italian pasta, IS SERIOUS

Excerpts from Alex and Henry's emails

+ Bonus:

Red, White and Royal Blue (2023) + text posts

Alicia: Honestly, honey, I’m surprised you didn’t propose to him

Jack: Oh God no

Alicia: ???

“shoot first ask questions never”

“never offer mercy”

“torture works”

“Strong Government may be doing Bad Things but it is the only thing stopping people from becoming roaming bands of cannibal rapists unless Strong Men with police or military training maintain order once society collapses”

But also in the less easily recognizable reactionary beliefs like

“power vacuums are real and inevitable” (implying that unless you plan to exert a similar level of power and take the top of the hierarchy then you should not seek to dismantle power)

“the people who survive are the best— the strongest and smartest and most resourceful, the ones who deserve it most.” (implying that eugenics is an inevitable biological force rather than a political ideology)

“If someone who deserves to live dies, it is due to the actions of a villain, ‘good’ ‘important’ people do not just die from sickness or hunger or chance or mundane accidents” (more eugenics tbh, or at very least a just world ideology & confusing storytelling conventions with how the world works)

I think this becomes an issue when people—who have not studied, for example, the way that communities engage in mutual aid during natural disasters even if disconnected beforehand—will assume that collapse will inevitably lead to evil cannibal hoards as the biggest threat to survival and therefore the most important thing to prepare for, instead of understanding that collapse is much more likely to lead to an absolute need for community interdependence and cooperation to survive in the face of environmental disaster. I think it’s an issue if you can’t picture disabled people during collapse because you watched a hundred depictions of post apocalyptic shows where disabled people are eerily absent or die immediately, instead of internalizing the much more likely reality that if you survive disaster even if you were able-bodied previously, you and everyone you know will likely be surviving as disabled people.

wow, I checked some reviews & I can see why you recommended it!

"[At first] I found The Lightest Object in the Universe to be deeply frustrating. Here I am reading a novel about the end of the world [...] where were the nuke pooches, the marauding cannibal, road warriors, the blood thirsty packs [...]? The problem wasn't with Kimi Eisele, [...] the problem was me."

sounds like it's doing a good job of subverting these tropes to have a reader suddenly realize that their expectation of these ideas (as the obvious narrative of what happens in an apocalyptic scenario) has been cultivated through other stories in the genre. that the ubiquity of this one view of humanity and crisis in what they've read in the genre had reached a point where it was genuinely limiting this reader's imagination! that there are possibilities outside of these repeated stories.

The Special Period also led to Cubans repurposing various things to make ends meet, such as turning semi-trucks in to public transportation "camels." The government also cut defense spending by 86% while increasing welfare and health spending.

I also have to mention that even outside the Special Period, since 2000, hurricane deaths in Cuba have been in the mere tens at most because of how thoroughly in advance they prepare and engage the community with respect to evacuation and support.