Saturday, February 6, 2016

A few more''​• cli-fi bullets'' written for cli-fi novelists and screenwriters of the near future

NOTE: Here are dozens more''​• cli-fi bullets'' written for cli-fi novelists and screenwriters of the near future -- Dan Bloom, editor, The Cli-Fi Report
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UPDATE EVEN MORE: with more editorial input from friends and readers: SEE:
http://northwardho.blogspot.tw/2016/02/cli-fi-bullets-some-more-brief-zen-like.html

Cli-Fi cannot, will not, save us from what's coming. Too late for that. But it's here, now, always. We have 30 generations to prepare. See?

• In the future, come 30 more generations of man, there will be no #CliFi. By 2500 A.D. (Anthrocenus Deflexus) it will be too late.

People want cli-fi to offer solutions, comfortable happy fixes. Aint gonna happen. We are ''doomed, doomed'' as a species, and we did it to ourselves.



Cli-Fi cannot, will not, save us from what's coming. Too late for that. But it's here, now, always. We have 30 generations to prepare. There's time.


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   Cli-fi won't make much of a difference either way you define it. It's just here, now, beckoning future writers. It's not sci-fi, never was.



Cli-fi is more than a mere genre: it's a cri de coeur, a warning flare, a pathway to the future before it's too late. 

  
 


Cli-fi is not sci-fi, it is not eco-fiction, it is  not subgenred to anything earlier. #CliFi is a hashtag burning its stamp into our very skin, as we prepare.



Cli-fi wasn't just a case of slapping a new name on an old genre. It's much deeper and existential than that. Think game-changer, new directions.

• We'll never make it out of here alive. That's cli-fi in a nutshell. Man the lifeboats, prepare to test the seas of one season after the next.

• Cli-fi defines a line the sands of time that no man can cross without trepidation or reverence. There's a reason we are here. What is it?

If cli-fi is one thing, it's a chance to choose our future. One door leads here, another door leads there. Choose wisely: Your descendants are waiting.

• There's a tragic flaw in our genes, a selfish shellfish that doesn't want to share. This DNA will be our downfall. This Earth shall abide.

Cli-fi doesn't choose sides. We do. Choose your weapon, use it wisely. We are here by the grace of God, and someday we won't be. God knows.

You could say that in a post-sci-fi world, cli-fi has come to rescue us from oblivion. Not true. No way.

You might not really be interested in cli-fi, or where it is going. But trust me, cli-fi is interested in you. Why? Becos the End is nigh

When all is said and done, cli-fi points in only one direction. It's for everyone to find it on their own. ON THE BEACH from 1957 has clues.

Cli-fi is not about who coined it or who popularized it. It's about much more pressing things, like how many more generations before the End?

I never met a future I didn't like. No, that can't be true. Some futures spell the end of humankind. It's in the cards. Choose your exit.

Cli-fi is neither pro nor con. It just is. Take your pick. Choose yr sides. We are at war with a future that threatens all futures. Arise!





 • Cli-fi is so much a part of this world  that on first hearing the word or seeing it in print, it slips right by, invisble, unnoticed.

• If by some remote chance you find yourself reading a cli-fi novel without realizing it's cli-fi, you have found it.

• There are are still 30 generations to be born before the real apocalypse begins. This now is just rehearsal. An audition.

• Cli-fi leads to a meeting of the minds, borderless, rudderless, unconsolable. Will we get there on time?

• If you think time is running out, or has already run out, in terms of the unspeakable cli-fi future we face, you are very close to solving the riddle. Why are we here?

 • I don't want to sound pessimistic, as optimism must abound and console us. But listen to the wind, hear the chimes singing, ringing.

• Cli-fi has a place in our hearts and minds, now and forever. But forever is no longer forever. We sold the farm.

• Cli-fi can, and will, shine a light on the darkness that is about to befall us. Let's stick together and shoulder the burden.

• You didn't know cli-fi was coming. Nobody did. It's taken us by surprise.

• There will be days when cli-fi is beyond us, unscoutable, undetected. All the more reason to pay attention.

• Cli-fi doesn't mean resignation or giving in to the darkness ahead. To the contrary, it means taking up arms.

• If a time shall come when all else fails, cli-fi may just come to the rescue. Make room.

• Cli-fi cannot answer all our questions or undo the deeds we have done. No. But she can unburden us of our fears.

• There will come a time when there is no time left. That's where, and when,  cli-fi comes in.

• Who will write the cli-fi of the future? They will be legion, legends. Welcome them.


• Cli-fi is more than a mere genre term, much more than a literary term. It's a battle cry, a cri decoeur, a shout-out to future generations: "We tried to warn you!"

• Think positive, think cli-fi. Think future generations, think now. Think the end is nigh unless we change our ways.

• There is no way out of here, said the sailors to the sun. Thirty  more generations is all we have left. What then?


• Ploddingly, one step at a time, we are marching to future days. Cli-fi cannot stop the deluge, yet we must not surrender. Never.

• With sea levels rising in future times, Nature has been turned on its head. Cli-fi paints a picture, sight unseen.

• If we could see CO2, smell it, know that is there, over-loaded, we might be able to put out the fires. But it is invisible, odorless.

• Whatever generation you belong to, know in your heart that there is no way out of  here. Nature has spoken,  Earth recoils. Write on.




• Cli-fi cannot, will not, lead the way. This is a clean-up action, and way too late. But it matters nevertheless.

• One cannot see the future, cli-fi is blind. But the stories we tell will matter, even if it is all for naught.


•  Not doomed yet? What will it take to connect the dots? Not doomed yet? Some overly-rosy displays of optimism in print could be seen as pathological.

•  As humans,  like all life forms, we are hardwired and programmed to believe that the near future will be similar to the recent past. Our Achilles heel, so to speak.

• Cli-fi won't solve our problems, and can't undo what's done.  Fasten your seatbelts.  This is a ride to Hell.

• Climate change is more than a fact of life. It is the result of human ingenuity, greed, rapaciousness and fear. Fear not: cli-fi is here. Write it.
 
• I came to the table naive and unquestioning. I left totally convinced there will be dead people, lots of dead people.  That was the genesis of cli-fi.

• You might not want to go down the cli-fi road, and that's okay. It's not for everyone. It's not a pretty picture, not a happy selfie. It's disaster, writ large.

•  In the long and rambling history of humankind, cli-fi will be just a blip on the radar screen.  Pay it no heed.

•  You weren't born yesterday. Your descendants may not even be born at all, ever.   That's how unfathomable cli-fi is.
 
•  If you can manage to fit the personal stories of cli-fi between the covers of a book,  do it.  With trepidation. Know your audience.


• Cli-fi will have no denouement,  no act three, no happy ending, no Greek chorus, no social media take-away. Push send.


•  Sorry, but this is how cli-fi is going to be, in the Anthropocene. Just 12 letters spelling doom.
 
• I wish there was some cli-fi way out of here,  but there ain't. Ain't ain't ain't. Ain't ain't ain't times ten, ten thousand times times ten.

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