"Wicked, complex, systemic… a task for the Transformative Three."

September 30, 2024 8:22 AM

Two speculative stories about the "nothing about us without us" nuances of international disaster relief and economic development work. From November 2023, by Cory Doctorow: "The Canadian Miracle". Reactor's summary: "A contentious election and radicalized locals interfere with Canadian recovery workers’ efforts at the site of a catastrophic flood in near-future Mississippi." (Audio: Part 1, 2.) And: July 2024, by Auke Pols, a researcher in responsible innovation and sustainable tech: the novelette "The Transformative Three and the Clean Cooking Revolution (grant no. 437-775)", in The Future Fire.

"The Canadian Miracle" is set in the same future as Doctorow's 2023 work The Lost Cause, a "solarpunk novel of Green New Deal world threatened by seagoing anarcho-capitalist billionaire wreckers and their white nationalist militia shock-troops".

Pols says that "The Transformative Three and the Clean Cooking Revolution (grant no. 437-775)":

was inspired by watching one too many superhero movies in which hyper-competent individuals solve world problems (usually other hyper-competent individuals) through technology and violence. Which made me wonder what superpowers one would really need to tackle wicked issues in international development, an area in which I’ve done both research and teaching. Unsurprisingly, it quickly became clear that the story would become a kind of antithesis of the classic superhero story. For one, the focus is on communities and institutions rather than individuals. Instead of flashy destruction, it is about creation, patience, hard work and upscaling. And most importantly, it is about setting aside individual agency and your own convictions and being open to the wants and needs of the other. In the words of Ernesto Sirolli: “Want to help someone? Shut up and listen!” All this made it a challenge to write—but a deliciously subversive one!

and asks colleagues, "do let me know what superpower you would like to have if you were a practitioner in this field!"

posted by brainwane (10 comments total)

As somebody who is living in near-future Mississippi right now—with another storm on its way this week—I’m gonna take a pass on reading about how I’m gonna die and deserve it.
posted by Countess Elena at 8:27 AM on September 30

The note from Pols lives at a http://press.futurefire.net URL that some browsers don't like, I think because of a TLS/SSL cert issue, FYI.

If you like reading about this sort of topic as addressed in speculative fiction, I recommend Kelly Robson's novella Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, about a project manager in grant-funded river ecosystem restoration, and Shauna Gordon-McKeon's short story "Sunlight" (previously), on the tradeoffs of systematically treating important local businesses as community resources (including when it comes to governance)!
posted by brainwane at 8:28 AM on September 30

Countess Elena, Doctorow's story absolutely does NOT take the stance that you or any Mississippian deserves any calamities. In the story, a small group of radicalized locals are against the foreign aid workers, but neither the narrative as a whole nor the point of view character argue that any of the Mississippi residents, including those opposing the aid work, therefore deserve pain or death.

I don't write this to try to persuade you to read it but just to help you know that, if you thought the author (or I) had that stance, that's not the case.

My best wishes on getting through the storm unscathed.
posted by brainwane at 8:32 AM on September 30 [7 favorites]

Fair enough, I’m sorry I snapped. I didn’t mean to threadshit. I really enjoy your story posts.
posted by Countess Elena at 8:49 AM on September 30 [3 favorites]

Countess Elena, I appreciate you sharing how the description of that story came across so that I could make things clearer! Glad you enjoy these posts and hope the next one is more appealing to you, and that I do a better job describing what I'm linking to. :-)
posted by brainwane at 9:15 AM on September 30 [2 favorites]

Cory Doctorow is tiresome, IMO. I understand a knee-jerk reaction to a story by him. I just sighed.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 10:18 AM on September 30 [1 favorite]

It’s been cool to see him mature as a writer. I also found him tiresome in his earlier works, but Walkaways somehow felt like a big jump. I actually care about the characters in some of his books, now 😁
posted by sixswitch at 10:45 AM on September 30

Wow, “The Transformative Three…” was a rollercoaster. Like the best short stories, it made me want a lot more while understanding that maybe this is the best form for the amount of story and ideas in the concept.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:29 PM on September 30 [1 favorite]

Countess Elena, I had a visceral reaction to the start of the story as well. Oxford is one of my two hometowns in Mississippi, and it took me a second to parse "flooding" with "Oxford." I had trouble reading it, because I kept dreading the inevitable end. I cried a little at getting something different at the end.

I hope you are well and safe.
posted by gwydapllew at 11:59 AM on October 1 [3 favorites]

I love "earth trek" fiction like this, thanks brainwane! If anyone wants an 23 page "earth trek" story that's far away from Mississippi, hurricanes, and toxic US politics, then try Bulk Food by Peter Watts & Laurie Channer.

There are no villains per se in Peter Watts' novels, as he observes in “Attack of the Hope Police: Delusional Optimism at the End of the World?” (previously). Cixin Liu lacks villains too. Are folks who dislike Doctorow's fiction annoyed by his characters broadly or just the villians?
posted by jeffburdges at 4:01 PM on October 11 [1 favorite]