Why this year-old piece, “Yes, New York City Really is Apocalyptic right now,” can inspire creativity
This piece came out a year ago. Hello? Anyone remember this climate EMERGENCY? When the sky turned BRIGHT ORANGE?
We humans seems to have short memories. But creative humans seem to always be on the lookout for, well, inspiration. And apocalyptic climate fiction, at least by seeing what my Columbia students are doing, is a rising theme in literature.
My memory is short enough that I was wondering why all of a sudden people are reading this story. I getnew notifications in my in-box every day.
But when I look at the bios of people commenting, highlighting, sending me DMs…I see a number of science fiction writer. I see what you’re doing — you’re using this piece as a writing prompt. And I highly approve ! Art comes out of a lot of extreme situations — like this one. And art is also about witnessing and remembering. I hope if this piece inspires you, you’ll let me know what came out of it!
Do you want to know what it’s like in one of the most important cities in the world where it’s helpful against being blanketed by climate change smoke from 400 forest fires burning simultaneously in Canada? Sounds like a movie, right?
