Ben Burgis is the author of more than a dozen fantasy and science fiction stories. In “Smokestacks Like Arms of God,” Workers at a magic factory put down their tools to fight for better working conditions.
“The title comes from Bruce Springsteensong “Youngstown,” which contains a line about “smoke rising like the arms of God,” Burgis said in Episode 510 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy audio file. “Basically, the story is a fantasy world remix of something akin to the massive strikes that built CIO . Trade Union In the 1930s.”
The story is based on the family history of Burgis. His mother grew up in Youngstown, and his great-grandfather Morris Field was a union organizer. The story “originally published in Podcastleis a fantasy short story podcast, then it was actually republished at Jennyis a literary magazine in Youngstown State, so they obviously like it because of that association,” he said.
In addition to writing fiction, Burgis is the author of several non-fiction books, including Give them an argument: Logic for the left and Canceling the Comedian While the World Burns: A Critique of the Contemporary Left. “I have had leftist politics since before I started writing, and that has always been in my strong interest,” he said. “Most of the writing I do now is for Jacobin magazine, so politics remains pretty consistent. “
Burgis wants to see more fantasy authors explore the idea of organized labor. “A lot of fantasy novels are about high politics in feudal systems or essentially upward roving stories — about someone from a humble background rising through the ranks of the political elite,” he said. social rank in their society,” he said. “I think collective fighting is something you don’t get much of in that medium. Or for that matter actually in science fiction, though you see it more there. But even still, not so much. ”
Listen to the full interview with Ben Burgis in Episode 510 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.
Ben Burgis on Valis:
It has always been one of my favorite books, and I read it for the first time before I studied philosophy, but my attraction to it probably has a bit to do with that, because in addition to Ordinary Philip K. The content is about playfulness and ambiguity about what is really going on, reality and our knowledge of reality and all that good, also a lot of “characters sitting around philosophical debate” very directly — about problem of evil and the like. And combined with the book’s dark humor and everything else, that’s what always tells me.
Ben Burgis on Remove the comedian while the world burns:
The title itself is an attempt to draw people in and be like, “Not serious, stop doing this.” There was a series of incidents that convinced me that a lot of people who shared my political commitment – with essentially the same goals as me, who wanted society to change in the same way as I did – had fallen into disrepair. this strange futility. From an ethical perspective on politics, in fact, I think too much about regulating personal conduct or signaling personal commitment in ways that I think make it difficult for us to attract many ordinary people. unnecessarily, who might be attracted to a leftist agenda.
Ben Burgis on freedom of speech:
I definitely have nothing positive to say about Elon Musk, and I don’t think a good long-term solution to the problems with the free speech rules in this strangely privatized public square is to hope that the right billionaire is running it, who will make wise and benevolent decisions, but I think that’s been amazingly revealed, the reaction to Musk’s thing from people, second, they suspect that someone won’t make a decision they like, not just “Twitter is a private company. What do you talking about? “…Suddenly I think people are showing that they see the bottom line of how [social media] It is not just something like a newspaper, not just like a corporate bulletin board, but it has a broader importance to society.
Ben Burgis on artificial intelligence:
I just write for Current job review of a novel by Francis Spufford called Red Plenty. It’s not a science fiction novel, it’s just a literary history novel, but it’s a real effort made by some Soviet computer scientists in Khrushchev era — the 60s — to think about how [AI-managed economy] will work and try to deploy some version of it. … In the novel, I think he hints at a number of reasons why at least the version they have in mind may not work as well as they think, but I see no reason to rule that out. . I think the only honest answer as to how far technological progress can take us in that regard is that we don’t know.
Stories with WIRED are more amazing
