THE LOWDOWN - a newspaper column
A silly and sophomoric newspaper column by a silly man in London, James Marriott, Deputy Books Editor of a rightwing British rag owned by the Murdoch people
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/doomer-lit-the-latest-trend-in-fiction-nlkt7xmnk
HEADLINE:
''Doomer lit'' — the latest trend in fiction
Published online on February18, 2020
How are you feeling today? Terrible. We're all doomed.
Well, I don't think it's all that bad, is it? After all, it's an unseasonably warm day for February!
Argh, stop it, stop it! The unseasonably clement weather only serves to justify my anxiety about
imminent planetary immolation.
Oh no. I know what's wrong. You've been watching those Greta Thunberg videos again, haven't you?
I haven't been near them. I promise.
What on earth is the problem?
It's this ... "doomer lit". I can't get enough of it.
Boomer lit? You mean like Antony Beevor's books and those historical romance novels set in the
Blitz? That sounds quite cheerful.
Doomer lit. It's the latest trend in fiction: novels that vividly imagine the various ways in which
human beings will destroy the planet.
I'm addicted to reading about the destruction of everything I hold dear.
Get a grip on yourself. I don't think a few measly greenhouse gas emissions and unrecycled milk
bottles are going to hurt anyone.
You're an idiot.
Well, show me what you've been reading.
Ah, Weather by Jenny Offill. Hmm. A librarian driven
almost mad by fear of climate change who spends her days learning survivalist techniques.
Can't you read Jilly Cooper?
Cooper's novels do nothing to address the impending climate disaster.
Well, there will still be shagging during the impending climate disaster, won't there? You're straying
from the point.
All right, what else are you reading ... ?
Gold Fame Citrus. It's the tale of a couple searching for
refuge in an American Midwest that has been transformed into a dune-covered wasteland.
And next
up is Jeanette Winterson's The Stone Gods, about humans screwing up a new planet.
I despair. If you need me I'll be out basking in the blazing winter sunshine with a copy of Riders.
A satirical newspaper column by @j_amesmarriot
James Marriott, Deputy Books Editor in London at the Www.thetimes.co.uk
THE LOWDOWN
A silly column by a silly man in London, James Marriott, Deputy Books Editor
Doomer-lit' 18 Feb 18, 2020
[BASED ON THIS ARTICLE A FEW DAYS EARLIER IN WIRED MAGAZINE without credit to WIRE or the WIRED reporter]
The Hottest New Literary Genre Is 'Doomer Lit'
WIRED-2020/2/17/
Sure enough, a doomer perspective seems most at home in so-called climate fiction (cli-fi for short). The genre, which imagines stories and ...
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