yall have gotta read The Electric State if youre looking for new concepts to be anxious about. its such an incredible encapsulation of how it feels to live in a world with so much out of your control, an ecosystem of dangerous technology rapidly blossoming around you
even despite its bleakness the core of the story is shockingly human- there’s a lot of excerpts from the beforetimes that give context into the enshittification and social prejudices of the world that brought them here. it initially fills you with an unbearable sense of dread. especially today, when many of the things that simon stalenhag depicted in 2018 had less direct real-world mirrors. but with its worlbuilding and alternate history, it lets us see our own reflection while still holding onto a shred of hope that we could possibly do better than the electric state
also there’s a queer coming of age story sprinkled in there as a treat. it pisses me off that the shitty Netflix one (that seemingly takes a big fat dump on the initial vision) is all that shows up when you google it. please find a PDF of the book online or see if your local library has a copy or something
