Paolo Bacigalupi: A Broken Future
Paolo Bacigalupi: A Man From Simple Roots
Paolo Bacigalupi was born in Paoina, Colorado in 1972. Along with his self-identified "hippie parents", he was raised in Western Colorado on a 15 acre farm of apple orchards, juniper trees, and hay fields. Bacigalupi decided to attend college at Oberline College in Oberlin, Ohio. It was here that Paolo decided to major in Chinese because he felt that "an educated person should speak more than one language". After his time at Oberlin, Paolo traveled for several years on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, spending most of his time in China (Vorda).Watch this video to get a sense of Paolo's personality!
Paolo Bacigalupi as a Writer
As a writer, Paolo is generally associated with being a science-fiction/dystopian novelist. But according to Paolo, that is not necessarily the case. For him, being labeled as a science fiction writer creates a wall between him and the reader since his writing does not fall under traditional science fiction (Heller). In terms of being a dystopian writer, Paolo prefers to be known as a writer of broken futures. If he uses the word dystopia as his genre, Paolo would be signifying the creation of an ideal world that is actually disastrous for the people that live in it. But as a broken futures writer, the characters in his stories agree that they are in a terrible place, and nobody intended for it to be this way (Urry). The characters are forced to live with the consequences of humanity's decisions; they are living inside the broken future that was created for them. These doomed futures are often created by unexpected and dismissed dangers.
In his writing, Paolo focuses intensely on the relationships and social dynamics of humanity in times of turmoil. More specifically, he examines the increased self-interest experienced by any given individual when scarcity intersects with their social interactions. In an interview with NPR, Paolo touched on the fact that he views humanity as inherent reactors (Heller). By this, he means that people solely worry about the initial problem at hand rather than the long term effects that can arise from the problem. There is always a "quick fix", but humanity continually avoids the overlooking issue. People focus on how to help themselves in the short term rather than to collaborate together on a solution for the long term. As these larger issues are overlooked by a lack of action, humanity's world continues to spiral downward. In terms of humanity's future, Paolo is not particularly optimistic (Gwinn). Time and time again, humanity chooses what is convenient and profitable over anything else. People are convinced that technology and science will bail out any problems that are faced by society. However, Paolo points out that in everything humanity does, they will always choose the simple over the complex. This directly relates to Bacigalupi's role with art from the Anthropocene. In the video attached, Paolo further talks about this moral dilemma between whether his characters should act or not in his work.
The Anthropocene: Ruins of Selfish Action
Often viewed as the direct effects that society has had on the natural world, The Anthropocene is a term polarized by America today. Originally introduced in 1999 during a conference regarding the Holocene (MacFarlane), the word "Anthropocene" continues to grow in popularity. Fifteen years later, the word was officially added to the dictionary and has become more prominent since. Some of the biggest examples of The Anthropocene include the Industrial Revolution, deforestation, and major droughts among others. Generally, the human impact on the environment comes from a very negative lens, and rightfully so. The state of our environment is at the fault of society, and it is therefore society's responsibility to create a positive impact. However, the state of the Anthropocene is not as well known as it needs to be. Increased awareness is a necessary first step.Artists across the world have taken initiative in regards to increasing awareness about the Anthropocene. These "Artists of the Anthropocene" shape our understanding in unique ways. However, I argue that true art of the Anthropocene shows and accepts the negative effects that selfish human activity has had on our environment while also inviting humanity to act upon their mistakes. The artist accomplishes this by examining the negative social interactions humans experience because of these consequences. As situations become bleaker, society becomes more divided. To create a positive impact, humanity must accept the responsibility of their actions and throw away their selfish desires in order to work together.
Bacigalupi and The Anthropocene
Paolo seamlessly fits into my definition of an artist of the Anthropocene. His work in literature heavily emphasizes the unexpected danger humanity can experience if they do not take action when regarding long term problems. In society's eyes, these issues are considered inevitable. So since no one will act on them, they try and live as well as they can on a day to day basis. As humanity focuses on the day to day, they fight amongst themselves when dealing with ideas such as scarcity. Paolo is able to effectively portray this with an erie, edgy style of writing throughout his novels. As he is descriptive yet darkly blunt, the reader receives a clear vision of the world humanity has created and how far an individual will go to maintain his/her self interest.When actual strife occurs in our world, humanity would rather be entirely self-interested and fight amongst themselves than to genuinely work together for the greater good. Although Paoloa tends to be pessimistic towards the future of society, hope still remains in him that we can discard our problems and work together for the long term. This hope is seen in his works. But although this hope does exist, Paolo believes society has a long way to go to reach that point. We can see these themes of the Anthropocene most notably in his New York Times best selling book: The Water Knife.
The Water Knife (2015)
The Water Knife is arguably Paolo's most notable work as a novelist. The book is set in America several years into the future. In this future, droughts continue to progress in Western America, making water the most valuable commodity around (Hamilton). Various cities, led by a few individuals, fight constantly for the remaining water that resides in the Colorado River. A "water knife" is one who works for a powerful individual to obtain water by any means necessary (Bacigalupi).This book correlates directly with the Anthropocene as the characters in the novel have accepted the fact that humanity did nothing to stop the effects of water shortages; the shortages were viewed as inevitable. Instead, humanity allowed the shortages to divide society altogether. As time progressed, characters in the novel became more self interested and fought for themselves. Characters would kill just based off of paranoia, and morality was generally thrown out the window. However, hope for the future still resided in humanity as a main character decided to redistribute the water to common people. But since she was shot, Paolo truly shows how far society has to go in order to truly solve the problems they have created.
“We knew it was all going to go to hell, and we just stood by and watched it happen anyway. There ought to be a prize for that kind of stupidity.”
Paolo uses his characters as puppets for his own message. In the quote above, the character openly acknowledges that the water shortage crisis is at the fault of society as a whole. Humanity refused to act because the problem was not a short term focus. As Paolo states, humanity will always pick the short term over the long term. It is only when the long term actually arrives that people will worry about the consequences of their actions. Paolo's writing is also very blunt. It is through this direct but dark undertone in his writing that slaps the reader in the face to say "humanity did not act to save our environment, and the consequences of this negligence are our fault."
In this context, it is very clear to see how inevitable the characters in Bacigalupi's work view the shortage of water in America. Although things seem inevitable, it is this direct lack of action that allows the consequences of humanity to occur in the first place. Our society becomes entrenched in a "the world will end regardless" mantra. Rather, what needs to happen is for humanity to take action together, regardless if one thinks their actions cannot stop the inevitable. This inevitability strips away the purpose of living for people in The Water Knife. While knowing that an individual could die at any moment, a person becomes desensitized and exclusively self interested.“Everyone dies. We’re all dead in the end, no matter what we do. It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. It’s all the same in the end.”
As the amount of water decreases in this broken future, so does the amount of loyalty. Trust is thrown out the window, and every character in the novel would gladly kill their friend or spouse to push their own agenda (this happens several times throughout the novel). In Bacigalupi's work, it is this intersection of a self interested society and the natural world in times of scarcity that depict the Anthropocene. This self interest only further cements the doom of humanity. As people focus their time solely on controlling water, their chance of long term survival only decreases. The only way to stop the consequences of humanity's actions, however, is to collaboratively attack the issues head on. The first step to this is for humanity to focus on others rather than themselves.“I trust that everyone is out for themselves these days. That’s turning out to be a very reliable assumption.”
“It’s not that simple, Angel. I’ve spent too much time with those people, and too much time with all their suffering to just walk away when there’s something I can do to help them.”
There are some humans in Bacigalupi's broken future that are willing and able to foster positive change. But as the death of this leader shows, humanity as a whole has yet to reach that point. It is only when society can collectively push away self interests for the prosperity of the world that Bacigalupi's hope can be fulfilled. Until then, we continue to scrap and claw against others for the benefit of only ourselves.
Looking Forward
Our natural world continues to crumble due to the effects and negligence of humanity. To create a communal effort to foster change, there needs to be greater awareness of the effects humanity has had on the world. Paolo Bacigalupi, among others, represent artists who show and accept the negative effects that selfish human activity has had on our environment while also inviting humanity to act upon their mistakes. As Bacigalupi's Anthropocene examines the social interactions on the natural world in times of scarcity, humanity has never been more self interested. Hope for a better tomorrow rest in the virtue of society. Although some have come forward, Bacigalupi shows us just how far we still have to go.Works Cited
Bacigalupi, Paolo. “The Water Knife.” Windupstoriescom, windupstories.com/books/water-knife/
Bacigalupi, Paolo. "Paolo Bacigalupi." Windupstories.com, windupstories.com/author-info/paolo-bacigalupi/
Gwinn, Beth. "Paolo Bacigalupi: Facing the Tiger." Locus Magazine, http://www.locusmag.com/2007/Issue07_Bacigalupi.html
Vorda, Allan. "The Author with the Unpronounceable Name." Rain Taxi, http://www.raintaxi.com/the-author-with-the-unpronounceable-name-an-interview-with-paolo-bacigalupi/
Hamilton, Denise. "Amid a real drought, 'Water Knife' cuts to the quick." Los Angeles Times, http://www.raintaxi.com/the-author-with-the-unpronounceable-name-an-interview-with-paolo-bacigalupi/
Heller, Jason. "The Water Knife Cuts Deep." NPR, https://www.npr.org/2015/05/28/408295800/the-water-knife-cuts-deep
Urry, Amelia, "Can fiction make people care about climate?" Grist, http://grist.org/living/can-fiction-make-people-care-about-climate-paolo-bacigalupi-thinks-so/
MacFarlane, Robert. "Generation Anthropocene: How humans have altered the planet forever." The Guardian, www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/01/generation-anthropocene-altered-planet-for-ever.
