Speculative fiction that speaks to our current moment(s)
I'm looking for your short stories, novelettes and novellas, and to a lesser extent novels too, that directly speak to the politics and social realities of today....
I'm looking for your short stories, novelettes and novellas, and to a lesser extent novels too, that directly speak to the politics and social realities of today.
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/rabbit-test/ was a short story I shared here about 18 months ago that directly dealt with abortion restrictions and the future created from them.
Another user shared Better Living through Algorithms for a more optimistic sort of take on "AI"
And recently I was reminded of Mur Lafferty's The Ophelia Network, a novella which features a dystopian society where one of the changes from today was the Heritage Law. People of color needed to prove ancestory at least three generations, "preferably" descended from slaves. This plot point runs mostly in the background through the story but pops up occasionally.
From The Ophelia Network
Agent Frank looked up from Saxon’s tablet. “Your file says you’re half Black, half white. Your father’s people can be traced to sale at a South Carolina auction—wow, in 1619!” She looked at Saxon. “Is that correct?”
Saxon nodded. “Our records say he’s descended from the first slaves to set foot in this country. His father’s people have been here longer than most American families.”
Frank smiled. “You’re really lucky that those slaves had a kind master who kept good notes on his inventory.”
Bailey didn’t let his TV persona slip one notch. He had always been calm in the face of racist bait. He met Frank’s eyes and simply nodded; his father’s genealogy was not news to him. After the president signed the Heritage Law, all people of color had scrambled to do genealogical research to justify their place in a country their ancestors built but was suddenly not theirs. They needed proof of at least three generations of forebears in America, preferably descended from slaves.
The sponsors of the Heritage Law presented it as a step toward thanking slaves for building the country. America would thusly reward the slaves’ descendants with citizenship and the right to stay. What the sponsors failed to point out is that millions of other people of color would be deported.
The Heritage Law meant the first-generation Haitian family across the street from Bailey’s parents had been deported just last week. His parents were still trying to clean out their neighbors’ home and put their things in storage before the government claimed the house and everything inside.
It was with relief, not pride or gratitude, that his parents found the information about his many-great grandmother and her sale in Charleston, South Carolina.
“Yes, I’m a legal citizen of America,” Bailey said. His voice was slurred as his swollen lips rallied their troops to muster forth a communication.
I can think of a bunch of novels that say big things. The Handmaids Tale, 1984, Fahrenheit 451 etc. But I find shorter works tend to be more responsive to current events and often more cutting for their shorter length. I'd also suggest trying to avoid really common novel recs and focus on niche novels or shorter (also typically more niche I guess) works. But I'm not the boss of you.
Share your recs? Link them here if they're free to read online?