- Author Bio
- Mommy, Why Did America Collapse? – Author Q&A
- We’re Doomed! A Humorous Exploration of Humanity’s War Against Life – Author Q&A
- The History of the Decline and Fall of America – Author Q&A
- The Diary of Amy – Author Q&A
- Invasion of the Dumb Snatchers – Author Q&A
Author Bio
Scott Erickson is a writer of humor and satire. His pieces have been published in The Oregonian, The Portland Mercury, and several online publications. He is a two-time winner of the Mona Schreiber Prize for Humorous Fiction and Nonfiction. One of his stories was included in the book Laugh Your Shorts Off, a compilation of contest winners from the website Humor and Life in Particular.
He honed his humor writing via his long-running zine Reality Ranch. This led to the publication of his first book, The Best of Reality Ranch. He expanded two of his short stories into the novellas B-Movie Mash-Up: Gastropods of Terror and How to Get a Head in Real Estate, and Seventeen and Turning into a Non-Mormon Secular Humanist Zombie. His favorite part of The Best of Reality Ranch was the collection of short absurdist humor, which inspired him to write more and publish them in The Navy Girl Book. One of his favorite humorists is the Irish writer Flann O’Brien, and Erickson was inspired by O’Brien’s novel At Swim-Two-Birds to write the magic-realism fantasy Icons Are People, Too.
Erickson has a serious side, which has led him to express his social concerns in a series of satirical novels. He has come to the conclusion that nature is pretty great, which makes him very sad that we’re wrecking it. This awareness led to his satirical novel, The Diary of Amy, the 14-Year-Old Girl Who Saved the Earth. His concern about the “dumbing down of America” led to his satirical novel Invasion of the Dumb Snatchers. The election of Donald Trump and the rise of fascist impulses in America inspired his semi-fictional satire The History of the Decline and Fall of America.
While he was writing books about giant slugs and teenage zombies, his serious side was engaged in an ongoing exploration into the roots of humanity’s problems. His serious side and his comedic side culminated in what is possibly the first book of philosophical humor, We’re Doomed! A Humorous Exploration of Humanity’s War Against Life.
He has done some interesting things in his life. He spent 5-1/2 months backpacking around the biggest lake in the world, lived for 1-1/2 years at a rural not-for-profit institute teaching sustainable living skills, and spent a summer helping friends establish an organic farm. He enjoys roller skating and drinking beer, but not at the same time. He is possibly the nicest curmudgeon you’ll ever meet.
Mommy, Why Did America Collapse? – Author Q&A
Why write about the collapse of America as a bedtime story?
My main inspiration was George Orwell’s Animal Farm. I’d been trying to figure out a context for how to communicate a lot of serious ideas about the decline and impending fall of America. Rather than a serious academic-type approach—which I’m not qualified for—I was looking for something entertaining and easy to read. I experimented with a few fictional approaches. Such as using a group of kids stranded at a summer camp as a microcosm of America—something like what William Golding did with Lord of the Flies. I also tried a story about a family on a road trip across America as they attempted to survive America’s collapse.
Neither of these approaches worked?
They felt strained. It was important to me to explain the reasons behind America’s decline, and that was very difficult to do without a lot of expository digressions that felt forced. I was less interested in showing America’s collapse than in explaining the reasons why. And of course, one of the rules in fiction is “show, don’t tell.”
But the bedtime story approached solved this?
Yes. Because explaining “why” is totally natural in that context. When explaining things to kids, they continually ask “why.” And having a mom explain “why” to her child forced me to explain everything in very simple, straightforward way. Which was kind of a “reality check” for me.
How do you mean?
By having to explain things in a way a child can understand, there were times when I had to admit that I didn’t understand something as well as I thought I did. We have an unfortunate tendency to talk about things without realizing we don’t totally know what we’re talking about. We’ll use terms like addiction or co-dependent and assume we know what they mean. But when a kid asks “What does co-dependent mean?” we might realize that we don’t quite know. Which is exactly what happened to me while I was writing, and I had to do a little research into co-dependence. Which proved to be very helpful, since it helped illustrate a lot of what’s happening to America’s political parties. And it wasn’t just explaining things that kids don’t understand. In the course of the story, I had to attempt to explain some things that adults have trouble understanding.
Such as?
Such as the importance of cultural paradigms. Such as how our individual and collective lives are largely determined by our ideas. And economic concepts such as the externalization of costs, selling debt via Treasury Bonds, and—most importantly—our addiction to economic growth. Which is directly related to the “iron law of wages” that requires a percentage of a population to live in poverty.
Which is an important thing to know.
Yes, but unfortunately only a tiny percentage of the population is aware of it. Economists and business leaders are well aware of it, and surely some politicians are aware of it, but for obvious reasons it’s something they’d rather not advertise.
So what you’re attempting to do with the book is actually quite subversive.
Yes, the context of a bedtime story is a deceptively simple way to communicate something that’s quite ambitious. This goes back to the example of Animal Farm. Orwell’s message was subversive at the time. A lot of people believed in the idea of a socialist revolution, but their idealism blinded them to the reality of what was actually happening in Russia. Orwell could have communicated his message in a straightforward, serious way. But he had the brilliant idea do it in the satirical form of a children’s fairy tale. When I tried something similar, putting my ideas into the form of a bedtime story, I realized pretty quickly that it was the right context.
Have you tried communicating your ideas in a more serious way?
Yes. But without much success. I’m a writer of humor and satire, with no “serious” credentials. But I’ve learned to see that not as a problem, but as an opportunity. Because it has freed me up to use other approaches. Such as this book, which communicates my ideas in a way that I hope readers find both informative and entertaining.
Even though what you’re conveying is quite serious.
Other people with the background and qualifications are taking the serious approach. And my attempts to write about the topic seriously were essential to what I attempted with this book.
Why is that?
For one thing, to develop the ideas in the first place. To examine the roots of our collective problems and see how they’re connected. Because for me, writing is thinking. I can’t tell you how many of my insights came as a direct result of the process of writing. But it was also directly relevant to this book, because the outline for the story—basically the “plot”—was a direct adaptation of an essay I wrote entitled It’s the Ego’s Fault.
What was it about?
It began with the premise that in psychology as well as the world’s wisdom traditions, the ego is seen as the root of all of our psychological problems. But what’s not really acknowledged is how the ego is also the root of our social problems. Because the perspective of the ego is that we’re superior to the rest of life, and we’ve based our entire society on that perspective. It was a good summary of my ideas that I felt was clear and concise. And when I began to translate that into the context of a bedtime story, it fell into place quickly and naturally. The initial draft took only six weeks. In further drafts, I was able to bring in other ideas from some of my other books. The bedtime story ended up being an ideal context for a summary of everything I’ve been thinking about for many years.
Because many of your books are about the downfall of America.
A lot of writers have one basic subject they can’t let go of. They keep coming back to it, re-examining it from different angles. For me, this is the one. Not just the collapse of America, but the collapse of Western Civilization.
Why do you think that is?
For me, it’s impossible to comprehend that the impending collapse of civilization isn’t the thing we’re all thinking about. Other issues are vitally important, of course, but to me this one trumps them all. We can work on issues such as racial justice and human rights, but without a viable civilization to support them we’ll come to a point when they won’t matter. The way I see it, we should be collectively having the kind of conversation that the mother and daughter are having in my story. We should be examining the roots of our problems and searching for solutions. Before it’s too late.
Of course, many people think it’s ridiculous to imagine that America could possibly collapse.
What they don’t realize is that throughout history, many countries have collapsed. And the idea that America could collapse is becoming more accepted. It’s not a fringe idea any more. It’s not that America is in danger of collapsing; America is collapsing. The evidence is becoming so overwhelming that it’s impossible to ignore.
But it’s an idea that few people want to consider.
Resistance to the idea is still huge. But the problem is that resisting the idea that collapse it possible is exactly what makes collapse inevitable. Because if we refuse to see a problem, then how can we ever develop solutions?
What do you hope that your book will accomplish?
That it will become one small contribution to understanding what’s happening. Also, I hope that it will provide some solace to people who think they’re going crazy—people that are observing a civilization headed toward collapse yet refuses to recognize it. To such people, my message is: It’s not you, it’s the world. The world is going crazy because it’s based on some crazy ideas. And the book offers hope.
In what way?
In the context of the story, the conversation between mother and daughter is from the context of a country that survived—that learned from America what not to do. Or to put it another way, from the context of a country that developed wisdom. And this is possible.
So it’s not a blind hope based on the idea that we will survive.
No, it’s hope based on the idea that we can survive. But it’s up to us. And if America doesn’t make it, maybe the rest of the world can learn the lessons we refused to learn.
We’re Doomed! A Humorous Exploration of Humanity’s War Against Life – Author Q&A
Why did you write the book?
When I was young (stupid) I had the ridiculous idea that humanity was eager for answers for how to solve our growing problems. Well, I’m smarter now. So on a personal level, I wrote the book as a way to give up on humanity, as a way to say farewell to the human race.
I noticed that you’re referring to humanity as “them”—as something you’re not part of.
That’s right. If aliens arrive and ask me “Hey, are you a member of the species causing its own self-destruction?” my reply will be to point at humanity and say “I believe you’re looking for them.” Then the aliens will say, “We’re from Interplanetary Pest Control, we’re here to eliminate a troublesome species that’s out of control.”
Are you taking this seriously? Why the humorous approach?
Absolutely seriously. Which is exactly the reason for the humorous approach. Once you clearly see what humanity is doing, and how there’s not a chance of stopping it, how do you cope with that? How do you go on with your life?
For me, an essential part of dealing with this is comedy. It can help us laugh at things that might otherwise cause us to sink in despair.
It’s the reason that Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was so important. The prospect of total nuclear war and the destruction of humanity should be depressing, right? But there’s something liberating about that movie. At a very critical time for a lot of people, that movie reassured us that we weren’t alone.
There’s something else. At the conclusion of Dr. Strangelove we’ve witnessed our leaders, the top representatives of the human race, behaving like morons. So when Slim Pickins rides the bomb like a rodeo cowbow, triggering the doomsday device that will destroy the human race, we’re prepared to think that maybe it’s not such a bad thing.
My book brings up a similar question: Does a species destroying the capacity of the earth to sustain life deserve to survive? Hopefully my book will allow this audience to stop worrying and love humanity’s self-destruction. What else can you do about it? I suppose we could try to stop it, but I believe my book shows why we won’t succeed.
But wouldn’t you be taken more seriously if you took out the humor?
I actually started out trying to be a “serious” writer, submitting articles to “serious” publications. With very little success. I believe that my most important insight concerns something that very few people are aware of, which is that one of the biggest causes of our problems is our addiction to economic growth.
Or to put it another way, that our entire economy is based on an immense pyramid scheme leading to environmental as well as economic collapse. This is a huge problem, which exacerbates all our other problems, and in itself is enough to bring us down. Yet very few people are aware of it. It’s a huge “elephant in the room” in economics. The implications of addressing would be so daunting, that the economist’s reaction to the elephant is to say, “What elephant?”
Well, I thought people should be aware of it. Specifically, the environmental community, because if this problem isn’t resolved, efforts to “save the earth” are futile.
I wrote an article about it, which nearly got published in Orion magazine – possibly the most prestigious and thoughtful environmental magazine out there. This was very exciting personally, and hopefully validates me as someone who’s not a conspiracy-theory freak that publishes manifestos out of a trailer park in Idaho. The editor saw value in my article, but considered it a bit too radical.
That was just about my breaking point. My actual breaking point was running across an article in Sierra magazine, which was about another fundamental economic issue: The problem of externalities, which considers economic destruction to be immaterial in economic accounting. I thought this was fantastic, until the article concluded by proposing the most incredibly useless and ridiculous non-solution that could be imagined. That was my breaking point.
That’s when I put away the serious writing and started writing humor. But all the material I’d written eventually came in handy, when I decided to gather my thoughts into a final “farewell to humanity.” Finally, I was able to utilize that material – the result of years of serious thinking – and put it to good use.
Surely you don’t “love” humanity’s self-destruction?
Not in the personal sense, as I’m assuming Kubrick didn’t “love” the bomb in the personal sense. I’m thinking of love in the impersonal sense. In the sense of unconditional love, of total acceptance. And that’s also loving ourselves. Because refusing to accept reality forces us into denial. And living in denial is not loving ourselves.
Who is the audience for the book?
I wrote it for others who also see humanity steadily working toward self-destruction. Maybe they’re starting to doubt their sanity. Or maybe it’s leaving them depressed. Or maybe they’re just looking for answers as to why humanity is doing such an irrational thing.
What value does it provide for this audience?
The book was very therapeutic for me to write, and I hope it will be for others to read. Hopefully the book will provide a sort of validation. It will tell them: “You are correct that we are forms of life destroying the earth’s ability to support life.”
Or in other words, “You’re not crazy.” Because a lot of the time what makes us feel crazy isn’t what we’re feeling, but thinking that we’re the only ones feeling it.
The other thing that can make us crazy is not understanding why—not understanding the reasons for the way things are. We can deal with quite a bit if we understand the reasons for it. For those seeking to understand the reasons, I sincerely believe that I provide a good idea of the answer.
But for everyone, I hope to provide a way to accept the reality of the situation and go on with their lives, and to affirm life within a civilization that’s doing everything it can to destroy it.
Why would you have the answer? Are you qualified?
One response to that is: Who decides who’s qualified? Everybody’s qualified. I would argue that each of is a philosopher, among all the other things that we are. I would even argue that we all have a responsibility to be a philosopher—to attempt to understand what the world’s all about, then apply that understanding to our individual and social lives.
Another response is that, honestly, I don’t really offer anything new. The more you search for answers, the more you discover that the answers are already out there. You might think you’ve had a brand-new insight. Then you find out someone had that insight 2,000 years ago. What’s that expression, “There’s nothing new under the sun”? All I’ve done is put everything together in a way that—to the best of my knowledge—nobody else has. For whatever reason, my brain seems hard-wired for synthesis—for finding commonalities and unifying principles. If there’s value in that, then hopefully my book provides that value.
Yeah, I’m a guy who has written books about giant slugs and teenage zombies. Who’s going to listen to such a guy? Which is another reason for the humorous approach.
In your book, the unifying principle is life.
It seems obvious. What could be more relevant? But somehow, we take life for granted. Even people who consciously think about a “philosophy of life” or ask questions such as “What’s the meaning of life?” seem to skip right over the question: What is this “life” thing, anyway? Everybody tosses around the word “life” as if we know what we’re talking about. But you want to have some fun? Ask people what they think life is. In my experience, people are stumped. And it’s funny, because they assume they knew. But when they stop to think about it, they have no idea.
So here we are, forms of life on a planet full of life, and we have no idea what life is? Why is nobody asking this question? I would like to offer the bold proposition that our failure to ask this question is main part of the problem.
The book is essentially its own genre. Is there such a thing as philosophical humor?
Whatever it is, it’s just what wanted to come out. My job was just to get it written down. If there’s such a thing as philosophical humor, I definitely had no role models – philosophy-wise. I had more role models coming from the comedy end. Most of the comedians I admire are deep thinkers, whether or not this comes out in their routines. It definitely came out in one of my comedy heroes, George Carlin. I don’t even know if “comedian” is the right label for him. I think of him more as a social philosopher who happened to use humor. And I sense that his reasons for using humor are very similar to my own: As a way to deal with truths that would be too difficult otherwise. So he was definitely a role model in that sense, although I made no attempt to write in his style.
The style of the book is very unusual. Did you have any role models in that sense?
I did, actually. One of my favorite humor humorists is the Irish writer Brian O’Nolan, who wrote a hilarious newspaper column under the pen name Myles na gCopaleen. That’s where I picked up the use of fictional dialogue, along with a conversational approach and a touch of absurdity. I was also very influenced by the novel U.S.! by Chris Bachelder, which told much of the story in a totally unconventional way, using things like song lyrics, letters, journal entries, book reviews, newspaper articles, and transcripts of phone calls. Another big influence was the novel Oreo by Fran Ross, where I picked up the idea of dividing the text into brief sections with humorous titles.
Incorporating these influences was very liberating. It gave me permission to have fun. And to include anything that allowed me to make my points in a fun way. Retirement advice. Jokes. Drink recipes. Since these are all aspects of life, how can I exclude them from a book about life?
Is humanity really doomed?
Theoretically, we could transition to a sustainable life-affirming civilization. It’s not impossible. But the kind of total transformation that would have to occur—and would have to occur very quickly—is what doesn’t seem possible.
I suppose there’s a sort of “meta” aspect of my message. Maybe the idea that we’re at war with life would finally cause humanity to wake up. Maybe that would shock humanity into paying attention. If that happened, and if humanity was serious about ending the war, then I believe I have some ideas that would be helpful in such a transition..
I’m not a “doomist.” I don’t relish the idea of civilization’s collapse. I know there are people out there that cheer every piece of bad news and reject any sign of optimism. I’m not like that. My message to humanity is: Go ahead and prove me wrong. I would love it if you prove me wrong..
Any final advice for people hoping to avoid falling into despair?
It may sound counter-intuitive, but the best way to cope with a life-defying culture is to affirm life to the best of your abilities. In the big picture, we’re doomed. So focus on the little picture. Focus on the differences you can make in your personal life. Add something life-enhancing to every moment. Make every interaction as life-affirming as possible. In every interaction, leave the situation better than you found it. Add insight. Add humor. Add whatever the situation calls for to make it more alive, to make it a more genuine expression of life. If we allow society’s downfall to destroy our capacity to affirm life, then the bastards have won. Don’t let the bastards win.
The History of the Decline and Fall of America – Author Q&A
Who is the audience for the book?
I think of the audience for the book as one of two basic types of people: people who suspect America is collapsing and need validation, and for people convinced America is collapsing and would like supporting evidence.
What value does it provide for this audience?
Hopefully the book will provide a kind of support or vindication. The message to them is: You’re not crazy; it’s the world. Because a lot of the time what makes us feel crazy isn’t what we’re feeling, but thinking that we’re the only ones feeling it. So in a curious way, I hope that the book will provide peace of mind. For those stressed about the possibility that America is collapsing, here’s some good news: You’re right!
A lot of people might think it’s a crazy idea to consider that America is going to collapse.
It shouldn’t be. The signs are everywhere, for anyone who cares to look. Although America refuses to openly consider that the country could possibly collapse, a growing number of people are actively preparing for it—not only “doomsday preppers” but also Silicon Valley billionaires who are investing in overseas escape properties. Respected economists openly discuss how our debt-based economic system can’t be sustained. Books such as Collapse make it very clear that America is following the same course as many doomed civilizations from the past.
But somehow, the idea isn’t openly discussed.
There seems to be a kind of taboo about openly considering the idea. Of course, it makes sense that people don’t really want to consider that the society they’re totally dependent on might collapse. Do parents really want to consider the possibility that they’re raising children to enter a doomed society?
Yet somehow a lot of people broke through that taboo.
For me personally, there’s a curious “disconnect” that can feel surreal. In my particular social circle, the idea of America collapsing is a no-brainer. When the topic comes up, the only question is about the timing—how much time have we got. Or what will be the trigger. But outside of that circle, I feel like I have to be careful who I bring up the topic with.
Because they might think you’re crazy?
Yes—that I’m some kind of “doomsday nut” or something. But over time I’m finding that a lot of people don’t find the idea crazy, but are afraid of breaking that taboo. I suppose that’s understandable, because lot of doomsayers really are crazy. Which is one reason why people resist talking about collapse, out of fear they’ll be seen as one of the crazy people carrying a sign saying “The End is Near.” As opposed to people concerned about collapse for entirely rational reasons.
How did this book come about?
My two previous satires explored environmental destruction and the growing embrace of stupidity. When I was considering what topic to write about, Donald Trump was campaigning for president. The rise of the alt-right and fascist rhetoric basically chose my topic for me.
But the title of your book doesn’t even mention fascism.
As I was considering how to approach the topic, it occurred to me that you can’t really understand fascism in isolation. Historically fascism has arisen as a response to social and political crisis. In the case of America, a main point of my book is that America is responsible for creating the crisis. You can’t really understand the rise of fascism in America without understanding the overall decline of America.
What makes your book unique?
Instead of exploring America’s problems in isolation, it examines then together to show how they’re interrelated and self-reinforcing. In this way, the book is able to provide answers to a variety of questions, such as: Why is the cost of living rising, and will continue to rise? What will happen now that oil is beginning to run out? What are the effects of our addiction to economic growth? Why is the “dumbing down of America” turning into “America’s embrace of stupidity”?
Why a “semi-fictional” book? That’s a very unusual approach.
It’s a curious mix, combining fiction with non-fiction, but it’s the only way I could communicate my message. Basically, everything I write about that occurs up to the present is based on historical research. As the historical past transitions into the future, fiction takes over in portraying how this movement may unfold. This allows readers to clearly comprehend how America’s core assumptions have determined American history and will determine America’s future. It reveals that, as Lao Tzu put it, “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”
You could have written a straight non-fiction book. Why satire?
There have been plenty of serious non-fiction books about everything I write about in the book. Such as the effects of environmental destruction. In the book Collapse, Jared Diamond made it extremely clear that civilizations that destroyed their environments did not survive. Yet what was the effect of that book?
Let me guess. Nothing?
That’s exactly right! You win this round and advance to the semi-finals. So we don’t need another “serious” book. From my point of view, all I could possibly contribute was satire. All I can hope is that satire communicates the message in a way that “serious” books cannot.
Are you concerned that people will find the book depressing?
This is one reason I think satire was the best approach. It can help us laugh at things that might otherwise cause us to sink in despair. It’s the reason that Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was so important. The prospect of total nuclear war and the destruction of humanity should be depressing. But at a very critical time for a lot of people, that movie allowed people to laugh about it. Hopefully my book will allow people to stop worrying and love America’s self-destruction. Don’t mourn the impending death of America, celebrate the glory of what’s left of America, while we can.
The Diary of Amy – Author Q&A
Why did you write the book?
This was one of those “I had to write it” books. It was a way for me to cope with the fact that humanity is systematically destroying the planet’s ability to support life. And with the fact that hardly anybody seems to think this is important, such as our leaders. But it’s not just them. According to the polls, environmental problems generally rank near the bottom of our list of concerns, just above the problem of high movie prices.
I suppose a lot of people think environmental problems are an “elitist” issue, as if it only effects yuppies who want a nice view from their $900 Sierra Designs tent. Maybe it would help if instead of talking about the “environmental problem” we rephrased it as the “destroying the ability of the planet to support life problem.”
There’s a saying, “Scratch a cynic and you’ll find a disappointed idealist.” That very much applies to me. I can’t pretend to be a naïve idealist, but if I totally become a jaded cynic then why bother living?
So in my novel, I got the two sides outside of myself and gave them voices. Amy is the younger version of me, the bright-eyed hopeful idealist who knows that anything is possible. Coyote is the jaded and experienced version of me, who knows there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that anything substantial will actually happen.
There does seem to be a growing sense of unease about the state of the world.
There’s a widespread sense of doom, even if people can’t clearly identify the source of it. I think one sign of this is that our culture seems to be obsessed with post-apocalypse stories and things like the zombie apocalypse. My theory is that these stories serve as a sort of psychological “inoculation.” Experiencing the fear vicariously helps us cope with it.
A growing number of people are convinced the collapse is imminent and are preparing for it. There’s the rise of doomsday “preppers” who are taking the “rugged individual” approach to surviving in their private compounds. Then there’s the “transition movement” of towns and neighborhoods preparing for a community approach to surviving environmental and economic collapse.
Do you think this book will be controversial?
Well, the idea that humanity is doomed might be a bit controversial, yes? Even though early in the book Amy details pretty clearly the facts that make it obvious, and the ways that those facts are hidden from view. The facts are undeniable, although we deny them anyway.
What do you hope this book accomplishes?
The jaded cynic just wants other sane people to realize that they’re not crazy.
I suppose the naïve idealist hopes that the book could stimulate some deep soul-searching in the environmental community. The naïve idealist hopes it could convince the environmental community that they aren’t touching the roots of the problem and need to consider a new approach.
But the jaded cynic thinks they’ll ignore the message of the book if they can. And if they can’t ignore it, then they’ll find reasons to oppose it.
Will environmental groups be angered by your portrayal of the fictional environmental organization “EarthHome”?
I could easily imagine people in an environmental organization bristling at the portrayal of HomeEarth, especially Katherine Bliss with her focus on “the numbers.” Yes, this is exaggeration for satirical purposes. But it’s not invention, as anyone with experience in such an organization knows. Any organization needs to pay attention to the numbers to continue being an organization.
What no environmental organization will tell you is that the environmental movement is losing the battle. And there’s a good reason they don’t want to tell you that. If I worked in such an organization, and my paycheck depended on the numbers, I’m sure not going to tell people we’re losing.
But is that the fault of the environmental organizations? Or is it the fault of members that don’t want to face reality? Here’s a question: Can an environmental organization be more radical than its members?
Superficially, the portrayal of “EarthHome” could be seen as controversial. But as the story progresses, it becomes clear that the organization is a victim to the same dynamics that drive the rest of society. And just like in real-life, the organization is not questioning those dynamics.
How did your experiences with nature and environmentalism lead to the book?
At difficult times of my life, nature has been a sanctuary. I was born and raised in the Los Angeles area. There wasn’t much wilderness there, to put it mildly. Yet there was the ocean. I could always go beyond the smog and traffic, to the edge of the continent. I could turn my back on the craziness, and suddenly I was facing the largest wilderness on earth.
The natural world was the first place I could truly feel at home. At age 19 I moved to Minnesota. More than one person thought I was crazy. On the way there, I visited the Grand Canyon. I set off to hike a couple miles down from the rim, then come back up. But I could not stop. I kept going all the way to the bottom. I was wearing cheap sneakers and carrying only a quart of water. It was very fortunate I was able to get water at the bottom of the canyon at Phantom Ranch. It was sunset when I got back to the rim. I could hardly walk and my feet were trashed. But I was transformed.
I fell in love with Northern Minnesota, especially the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and the North Shore of Lake Superior. Eventually, I spent 5-1/2 months backpacking completely around the lake. Again, more than one person thought I was crazy.
More craziness followed. I lived for 1-1/2 years at a rural not-for-profit institute teaching sustainable living skills, then spent a summer helping friends establish an organic farm.
When we realize how nature is being systematically destroyed we often become activists, even if it’s just on the level of donating to an environmental group. I did a little environmental activism, but after many years studying the causes of environmental destruction I became disheartened. Thus, The Diary of Amy, the 14-Year-Old Girl Who Saved the Earth.
Why a satire, versus non-fiction?
There have been plenty of serious non-fiction books warning us about environmental destruction. Around 20 years ago, the books were basically about what we need to do to save the earth. Now, the books are about how we can try to salvage some of what’s left and survive the coming ecological collapse.
That reminds me of the book Collapse by Jared Diamond, which is a survey of what led to the collapse of various civilizations throughout history. He made it extremely clear that civilizations that destroyed their environments did not survive. Yet what was the effect of this book?
Let me guess. Nothing?
That’s exactly right! You win this round and advance to the semi-finals.
So we don’t need another “serious” book about how to save what’s mostly gone. From my point of view, all I could possibly contribute was satire.
Is satire hard to write?
The hardest part is trying to write things that are more absurd than what real life comes up with. I’ve heard this from a lot of comedy writers lately. There’s this idea that satire is dead because real life has become a satire of itself. I’ve seen television news programs that were funnier than parodies of the news.
Here’s an example: Could anybody have invented the character of Sarah Palin? The vice presidential debate with her versus Joe Biden was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in my life.
Someday she’s going to be elected President. Which reminds me of the movie Idiocracy. It’s a pretty good satire about where we’re heading. Or have we already arrived?
Were there any satirical works that served as models for your novel?
I tried to find examples to emulate, but with only partial success. The problem in almost every case is that the target of the satire was a specific part of the population. Most satire seems to target Washington DC or politics in general. But that’s such an easy target. And my target was much broader.
Dr. Strangelove, possibly the greatest satire of all time, focused on political and military leaders. Another excellent satire, which should be better known, is the movie Network. It was released in 1976 and was way ahead of its time. In some ways, it still is. It’s a very subversive story that not only showed us the corporate takeover of media, but of basically the entire political system. But still, the target was corporate power.
But my target, ultimately, was “all of us.” It might actually be more accurate to say that the target was something like “the assumptions underlying our society” or “our cultural paradigm.” But that’s too abstract. So what I tried to show was how that paradigm manifests in “all of us” – whether politicians, voters, business owners, environmentalists, parents, the religious community, and as regular people just trying to get by. But since nobody can change that paradigm except for us, that brings us back to “all of us” as the target of the satire.
I found very few examples of that kind of satire. There’s Kurt Vonnegut, whose target is often “all of us,” but his style is so unique and particular that it really only works for Kurt Vonnegut.
The closest example I knew of was the brilliant play The Visit by Friedrich Durrenmatt. It shows, in a very clever and darkly comic way, the power of greed to subvert our values. Not just politicians and corporate CEOs, but everybody. Although I couldn’t really use his story as a role model for my own, I was definitely inspired by the “spirit” of the story.
Coming up with a story to satirize “all of us” was extremely challenging. And added to that challenge was the usual challenge of trying to create an engaging story with interesting characters. Also, I wanted it to be funny. After the first draft I told friends that writing the story destroyed my mind. I was only half kidding.
Why did you make Amy so young?
The story couldn’t have worked with anyone other than a young, idealistic, perky, teenage protagonist. A 36-year-old policy wonk camping in a wetland would probably just get arrested. But a perky teenage girl camping in a wetland is newsworthy, which is what gave her the media attention that made everything else possible.
No, it wasn’t realistic, but I feel like it worked very well satirically. It’s much more effective, satirically, to have a perky teenager battling against the forces of environmental destruction. How can you not root for such a person? Which makes the ending – well, I don’t want to spoil the ending.
How did you come up with the plot of the book?
This was my first novel, so I did a lot of research into plot creation. I figured out that I wanted the story to begin as a comedic “center and eccentrics” plot. And to deliver the satirical punch, I needed to transition to the dramatic “one against” plot. The idea was that the comedic plot draws you in, and then the dramatic plot delivers the message.
I was desperate for examples of how to do this, so I wasn’t picky. I was willing to take from whatever I could find to get useful ideas. The movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was useful, as was – believe it or not – the western High Noon. I’m not crazy about admitting it, but I even found some useful elements in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde. I was looking for stories with the plot “young woman overcomes all,” which is what led me there. My character of Katherine Bliss was partly based on the character played by Sally Fields. I suppose this admission means I’ll never be taken seriously as a writer.
Did I mention that I was desperate?
Why the diary format?
I outlined the story assuming a fairly standard multiple-third-person point of view. But a curious thing happened when I actually started writing the first draft. The story felt plodding and uninteresting. And I was pretty sure that if it seemed dull to me, it would seem dull to a reader.
I can’t recall what made me think of trying the diary format, but it was exactly what the story needed. It allowed the character of the Amy to come alive in a way I never could have done otherwise. Instead of having to contrive lengthy conversations to express her thoughts and feelings, she could simply tell us.
Also, I could easily show what was happening in society by including things like newspaper articles. Instead of contriving ways to convey that – for example – environmental problems were getting worse, I could just have Amy paste in some articles about environmental problems getting worse.
This saved a lot of time. And as a reader who hates to have my time wasted, I didn’t want to waste the reader’s time.
Did you have examples for writing in a diary format?
For writing fiction in a diary format, my best reference was the early books in The Adrian Mole Diaries series by Sue Townsend. In the first book, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13-3/4, the protagonist was close to the age of my protagonist, which was very helpful.
Those early books were hilarious, and much of the humor was based on Adrian being unaware of the implications of what he was writing. This was very helpful, because it was necessary for Amy to do that and I didn’t know if I would be able to accomplish it.
Is humanity doomed?
It’s not a question of when the collapse is going to start, because it’s already happening. Not just environmentally, but economically. Of course, many people deny environmental problems, or don’t think that they’re serious. And hardly anybody realizes that our financial problems are directly related.
Our addiction to economic growth is a pyramid scheme, and the losers of the scheme are growing every day. All pyramid schemes eventually collapse, but it starts from the bottom and works its way up. That’s what we’re seeing right now.
But we can’t change it because we’re dependent on it. We don’t know what’s happening, so we keep defending what isn’t working any more. That explains why we’re seeing the losers of the pyramid scheme defending the winners.
We find ourselves getting mad at people who demand a decent wage because it will drive up prices and bankrupt the companies and increase unemployment.
We accept the destruction of the earth to prop up an economic system that’s screwing us over. The answer of “more economic growth” has become the solution to all of our problems. And infinite economic growth on a finite planet is impossible: It will destroy the planet before it destroys itself.
In other words, we’re fighting to preserve what’s killing us.
We can’t even imagine alternatives. And our educational system seems specifically designed to stifle debate about alternatives. It’s in a lot of people’s best interests to have a stupid population. Also, it’s much easier to have a trouble-free life if you’re willing to remain stupid. Welcome to Idiocracy!
Consider that oil is running out, and that our economy and infrastructure is entirely based on cheap oil.
As a premise of the novel, I have us drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It’s going to happen. The politicians keep trying to pass it, to slip it in as a rider or amendment. And one of these times it’s going to work. There will be some sort of innocuous bill that gets widespread bipartisan support – something like healthy lunches in public schools. The bill will say something about “fresh vegetables for all children,” then somebody will slip in the line, “and also drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”
Or else we’ll become so desperate, on the verge of economic collapse because we failed to start preparing 20 years ago, that it will be passed openly with bi-partisan approval.
I have no doubt we’ll drill the refuge. We’ll drill every possibly place we can find, wage more wars for oil – anything but actually change our lifestyles. How could anybody possibly be optimistic? But don’t get me started.
This is just getting started?
Well, better stop me before I go any farther.
Invasion of the Dumb Snatchers – Author Q&A
How did this book come about?
Like many people, I’m alarmed by what seems to be an appalling lack of intelligence in this country. This country is facing some incredibly huge and challenging problems, and many Americans consider Donald Trump to be the best candidate to lead this country through them.
Since my thing is humor and satire, I wanted to figure out how to represent this in a humorous and satirical way. The movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers has always been one of my favorites. The movie, which came out in 1956, inspired all kinds of theories about how the story was a metaphor for McCarthyism or post-war conformity. Since the story deals with universal fears, so it can be interpreted in a variety of ways.
So when I hit on the idea of twisting the story to be about stupidity, it was a natural fit.
You used the original 1956 movie as your source material?
That was my primary source. But I also used the 1978 remake, which people might be more familiar with. But I also used the original 1954 novel by Jack Finney. So I had lots of material to play with. Or riff on, actually. While going through all the material, I scribbled down whatever funny twists I could come up with. If they still seemed funny a couple days later, they went into the novel.
I probably had more fun writing this story than anything I’ve ever done. Also, it was relatively easy. Since my story was a parody, I didn’t have to create everything from scratch.
Did you do any research for the novel?
I did a few web searches for things like “stupid people” and “stupid quotations.” And of course when the topic is American stupidity, I couldn’t overlook the contributions of George Bush. There are several Bush quotes in the story, only one of which is credited to Bush: “Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.” There are a few others hiding in there, I’ll leave it to the reader to identify them.
For the sexual dream, I adapted some of the most hilarious passages from winners of the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction award. I don’t think I would be capable of making up such hilariously bad sex scenes on my own.
Why is the book narrated in the first person?
It was the best way to show the inner workings of really stupid thinking. It’s is a common comedy technique, used a lot by two of my favorite humor writers: Jack Handey and John Swartzwelder.
I really enjoy writing from the point-of-view of a really stupid character. I think it worked perfectly for my novel because the basis of the humor is the same as the point of the satire. I could show what this stupid character thought about the world. So his twisted thinking is not only humorous, it’s also satirical. It reveals why trying to do anything smart in this country is met with such resistance.
Your book has nothing good to say about television. Do you really think it’s that bad?
In the book I had to oversimplify many things. I needed symbols of stupidity versus intelligence, and using “television versus books” was a handy way to represent it.
I recognize there are some quality television programs out there. But even amongst the best of them, the goal is mostly still entertainment. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’ll watch the occasional show or silly movie, to relax from thinking. But what too many people do is watch television to avoid thinking in the first place.
Why is stupidity appealing?
I think there are several explanations, and I touch on some of them in my novel.
It should be obvious that “the powers that be” don’t want a population of thinkers. In Aldous Huxley’s book Brave New World Revisited, he outlined the very brief history of an organization called the Institute for Propaganda Analysis. The institute was formed in 1937, as a result of Nazi propaganda. The idea was to teach students the critical thinking skills that would allow them to analyze and debunk the propaganda. The problem was that when the United States entered the war, the government didn’t want anybody questioning our propaganda.
But even before that, there was a lot of resistance to the organization. Teachers didn’t want students who questioned what they were being taught. The military definitely didn’t want soldiers questioning their officers. The church didn’t want people questioning the authority of the church. And corporations didn’t want people questioning the claims of their advertising.
Do you think stupidity is actually increasing?
I think it is. And I think the basic reason is that we need to resort to increasing stupidity to stay in denial.
The human race has done some really stupid things. Such as creating a culture dependent on an unsustainable source of energy. Such as creating an economic system dependent on the destruction of the environment to keep from collapsing. If we were smart, we’d go about changing these stupid things.
But that would mean we’d have to give up the so-called “benefits” of these things. So we’re forced to defend our stupidity with increasingly stupid excuses and rationalizations.
I really do believe that we’re in a race between intelligence and stupidity. And I’m not very optimistic about how intelligence is doing.
Your novel demonstrates all these theories?
The theories I’ve described are just the ideas that were floating around in my mind as I wrote. Some of it came out through the characters.
But honestly, my goal was just to write a book that was as funny as I could possibly make it. I just wanted it to have a satirical edge. I believe a story if funnier if it’s not just trying to be funny. I believe a story is funnier if it’s actually saying something, if there’s an actual point to the humor.
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