End of the World by Graeme

[ChrisR]

The timing of this story as a Pick of the Month title is a bit scary - ominous even - considering the prediction by Dr. Stephen Hawking the other day:

[ http://newsok.com/article/5527200 ].

Not to mention Graeme's flash of genius!

[Chris James]

​How many of these end of the world as we know it stories are there? Graeme's theme may not be new in a literary sense but the gay angle gives us much to think about. Could I? That is a very difficult question to answer. Enjoyed the story once again, Graeme.

I don't think Stephen Hawking is an alarmist, he just works with a set of facts many of us cannot decipher. In many ways Hawking is telling us we must seek out a new planet if we are to survive and from what I see in our fractured society there is little thought to doing so. I am glad he has cast this failed planet scenario a thousand years off....at least I won't have to worry about it.

[Graeme]

Thank you! No, the story concept is not new. It was inspired by two SF novels, one had the survivors in an underwater city, and the other had them in an orbiting space station. Both novels explored the psychology of the survivors as well as the technical challenges. What I wanted to do was look at the impact on modern rights: gay rights and women's rights. Can they survive when placed against the survival of the species?

[Merkin]

How like humanity with our obsession over our 'use it up, throw it away' disposable culture! Sure, let's look for another planet to trash, instead of giving thought and effort to restoring the one we happen to inhabit.

[Cole Parker]

Some of that view with some of its people is changing, James, but it seems way too little and way too late. Even our newly minted president says global warming is a myth. With that kind of leadership, the planet seem destined for doom.

C

[colinian]

Some of that view with some of its people is changing, James, but it seems way too little and way too late. Even our newly minted president says global warming is a myth. With that kind of leadership, the planet seem destined for doom.

C

Ah, but our sometimes truculent president-elect has, like many have predicted, changed his mind on many things he promised most bombastically during the presidential campaign. On November 22nd he said in an interview with the New York Times (read the report in Atlantic Magazine online here): “I think there is some connectivity” between humans and the changing climate, he told the Times reporters and editors.

Colin

[Cole Parker]

He also said he's reluctant to prosecute the lady he called a crook throughout his campaign, inciting cries of, "Lock her up!" I agree: he says whatever is convenient at the time with not a care in the world whether he means it or not.

[ChrisR]

I agree: he says whatever is convenient at the time with not a care in the world whether he means it or not.

Which sounds amazingly like every other politician I've ever seen.

Like the one, whose name evades me at the moment, who declared rather definitively "I did not have sex with that woman." Just the sort of honesty the nation needs.

[dude]

Which sounds amazingly like every other politician I've ever seen.

Like the one, whose name evades me at the moment, who declared rather definitively "I did not have sex with that woman." Just the sort of honesty the nation needs.

And the one who maintained "I am NOT a crook!"

[ChrisR]

And the one who maintained "I am NOT a crook!"

Isn't that a little bit unfair - comparing mere amateurs to the unquestioned pro?

Besides which, Richard the Nixonian was perhaps the most honest campaigner I've ever seen. I vividly recall seeing his lawn posters throughout the East Bay that proclaimed:

Don't Change Dicks

In the Middle of a Screw

Vote for Nixon

In '72

[Merkin]

Wonderful. Wish we'd had some like that here in the Bible Belt. I hope one of those shows up on Antique Road Show one of these days!