Bryan Alexander

Today we continue with our reading of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future.

If you’re new to the book club, here’s the introductory post.  Today’s we’re right at the novel’s middle.  If you’d like to check out our discussions of earlier chapters, here are part 1 and part 2.

And welcome to all readers!  Happy holidays to those who celebrate during the winter solstice.

With this post we start discussing the third part of the novel, chapters 51-68 (pp. 227-340).  I’ll begin with a summary of the story so far, add some notes, then ask questions for discussion. At the end I’ll repeat the reading schedule and add any resources I’ve come across.

You can share your thoughts by writing comments at the end of this post.  You can also contribute via social media – I’ll copy this post or a link for it to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mastodon, and Medium.  I can copy and link to your comments there in next week’s post.  You can also respond through a podcast, video, web page… just be sure to let me know somehow.

Speaking of which, shout-outs to last week’s discussants Leslie A. Donovan, Steve Foerster, Chris Mayer, Sally Mudiamu, Doug Reilly, and Kevin Werbach. They touched on a great range of topics, from carbon coins and short time horizons to atomic power, central banks, international organization, as well as potential roles for higher education.  These fine folks pointed out the US Federal Reserve making climate change moves (!!), one carbon coin, another carbon coin, and the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales.

Beyond our blog, on his blog Tom Haymes offers a thoughtful post on climate change, scarcity, post-scarcity, and learning. (PS: Tom has a new book out  with a great title – Learn at Your Own Risk – and even better content. Go grab some copies.)

Now, to dig in to this week’s reading!

Summary

“The thirties were the zombie years. Civilization had been killed but it kept walking the Earth, staggering towards some fate even worse than death.” (p.227)

In this section we advance further in time, through the 2030s, and the climate has gotten worse. CO2 levels hit 463 ppm (56). Climate terrorism ramps up, with coordinated drone strike on air travel downing aircraft and killing thousands, leading to a massive decline in flying, as well as a similar torpedo hit against container shipping and others upon power plants. The Children of Kali scare people out of eating beef by claiming to have introduced mad cow disease at scale (51) while oil executives are attacked (56). Another revolt hits Paris (55). Los Angeles floods (59).  There are ten million climate refugees and both strikes and protests in many cities (60).

Meanwhile, most people are scrambling to respond.  Indian states experiment with expanded direct democracy and large-scale solar power (52). Mary and the Ministry pressure energy companies to support pumping water from under the Antarctic ice shelf, while inventing a user-owned, blockchain-backed alternative to social media called YourLock (53-4, 60). Badim suggests the creation of a new religion (56). The south polar pumping project makes progress, albeit at a cost (57).  Credit unions start to replace banks. Mary convinces the world’s central banks to back her carbon coin plan; China’s central bank head plays a key role in this.

The Ministry is bombed. Mary relocates to a mountaintop retreat with guards, but they are attacked there as well and shift to a Swiss military bunker, where they learn other international agencies and Swiss banks have been attacked by unknown assailants (60, 62-3).

“And you need the Alps.” (p. 340)

Mary visits Frank in prison twice.  We learn Frank is also the “Jake” we saw marrying into a refugee family last week.

Notes

More non-plot chapters occur, including one on how to end capitalism (64).  There are two more very short riddle chapters on the photon (53) and the Earth (66).  Further micro-stories crop up about characters we never see again, but who give us glimpses of ideas and the world in transition.

Social change: we see something of Janus Athena, who seeks to “efface gender, to exist in that very narrow in-between, the zone of actual gender unknowability.” (54; p.241)

Technological change: we remain where we were last week, in a slightly advanced version of our world, with airships, blockchain, and many drones.

I think the author just coined the term “Götterdämmerung syndrome.”  It’s the subject of chapter 61:

The Götterdämmerung Syndrome, as with most violent pathologies, is more often seen in men than women. It is often interpreted as an example of narcissistic rage. Those who feel it are usually privileged and entitled, and they become extremely angry when their privileges and sense of entitlement are being taken away. If then their choice gets reduced to admitting they are in error or destroying the world, a reduction they often feel to be the case, the obvious choice for them is to destroy the world; for they cannot admit they have ever erred.

Discussion questions

1. On the theme of violence: did the terror attacks we’ve seen so far succeed in changing human behavior, reducing our carbon usage?
2. What do you think of the novel’s weaving together of fiction and ideas so far?
3. How plausible would widespread use of YourLock be?
4. Badim’s new religion of climate change: what do you think that might look like?
5. The book has been silent on academia so far.  What role do you think colleges and universities could play in this world of the 2030s?
6. Ministry staff offer this list of targets to attack for cutting back emissions in a serious way: “Carbon pricing, industry efficiency standards, land use policies, industrial process emissions regulations, complementary power sector policies, renewable portfolio standards, building codes and appliance standards, fuel economy standards, better urban transport, vehicle electrification, and feebates, which is to say carbon taxes passed back through to consumers.” (251) Which of these do you see as most likely for humanity to tackle now?

READING SCHEDULE

December 28, 2020 – chapters 69-88 (pp. 341-443).

January 4, 2021 –  chapters 89-106 (pp. 445-563).

Previous posts:

• Introduction to the novel and our reading
• Part 1
• Part 2

More resources:

• New York state divested its pension funds from oil companies
• The leading Kim Stanley Robinson website has a huge post on the novel, with links to tons of resources, including a fine shout-out to this very online book club.

Over to you!

(thanks to saramin for linkage; Swiss Alps photo by crash71100)

Today we continue with our reading of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future.

If you’re new to the book club, welcome! Here’s the introductory post.  And here’s last week’s discussion of part one.

Already discussion has been flowing.  In comments on last week’s blog post, Joshua Kim offered advice about the novel’s style.  Kevin Werbach found the first chapters realistic and was fascinated by the idea of a Gini coefficient for the planet.  Steve Foerster has an answer to one of my questions.

More: political scientist Mark Rush shared a lot of responses in two comments (1, 2). One key point:

the solution to the climate crisis requires the creation of a global government with legitimate, extensive, potentially violent power behind it to force people to abide by changes and policies necessary to control the climate changes. Otherwise, we are faced with that world described in chapter 16 where the well to do hunker down and wait out the disaster while the poor…just…suffer and die. OTOH, there is no question that people are going to die because of climate change. So, who gets to decide?

Elsewhere on the web, but still in the book club, Tom Haymes notes on his own blog the theme of too much water, and builds on that to explore the theme of an information deluge.  (PS: Tom has a new book out this very day, with a great title – Learn at Your Own Risk – and even better content. Go grab some copies; it’s available this week.) In his Inside Higher Ed column Joshua Kim argues that colleges and universities already play the future-oriented role that the novel’s imagined Ministry performs.  And in a second blog post Haymes argues that the advent of digital technology should enable us to rethink economic paradigms.

Now, with today’s post we start discussing the second part of the novel, chapters 27- 50 (pp. 107-225).  I’ll begin with a summary of the story this part reveals, add some notes, then ask questions for discussion. At the end I’ll repeat the reading schedule and add any resources I’ve come across.

You can share your thoughts by writing comments at the end of this post.  You can also contribute via social media – I’ll copy this post or a link for it to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mastodon, and Medium.  I can copy and link to your comments there in next week’s post, as I did up above with Tom’s and Joshua’s.  You can also respond through a podcast, video, web page… just be sure to let me know somehow.

Now, to dig in!

Summary

(NOTE: Spoilers for chapters 27- 50 (pp. 107-225).)

With many pieces on the board, the plot, like the planet, heats up.  Mary, under police guard after Frank’s attack, learns that Badim is part of a “black wing,” a shadowy direct action group willing to countenance violence (110; chapter 27).  That group may be connected to the Children of Kali, who conduct drone strikes and assassinations (ch 33). The Antarctic crew experiments with using their pumping idea on Thwaites Glacier and elsewhere (chapters 29, 44).  India plans on doing another independent geoengineering project, and is also running a massive, solar-powered, organic farming initiative (140-2, ch 34).  The Arctic’s ice cover melted completely, for the first time, in 2032 (147; ch 36).

We meet a Libyan refugee family that a man named Jake marries into; he sounds a lot like Frank (ch 37).  A direct action group takes the Davos meeting hostage and makes participants become more self-sustaining, while showing them slides and videos about the climate crisis (ch 39).  The Ministry comes up with the idea of offering a carbon coin, a tradable, blockchain-backed currency created by sequestering carbon (ch 42).  Mary pitches the world’s central bankers on the carbon coin, but they refuse to buy into it (ch 45, 50).We learn of a Californian project to recast water as a common good, then to build a vast new catchment for rebuilding groundwater (185-7, ch 45).  Frank continues to live on the run, joining then leaving a family and helping refugees, until he gets arrested (ch 47). Mary visits Frank in jail (221-225, ch 50).

The climate crisis worsens.

Notes

My library copy with some post-its.

The novel continues to offer non-plot chapters. There are some very short riddle chapters, such as one where the speaker is encryption or the market.  There are also meditations on Hebrew tradition, historical periodicity, economically discounting the future, the Jevons paradox, and the Bretton Woods conference and world order. We get micro-stories about characters we never see again, but who give us glimpses of ideas and the world in transition: Indian reformers (ch 31), climate migrants, an unnamed city experiencing a water shortage.

Technology notes: we learn that airships are being widely produced (148). Drone strikes can succeed by using large numbers to overpower defenses (135).

In chapter 42 characters discuss “the Red Plenty argument” (171). This refers to Francis Spufford’s 2012 book, Red Plenty, a combination of fiction and history, describing the Soviet Union’s experiment with central planning backed by cybernetics and lots of data.

Mary remains our main character, with Frank in counterpoint.

One more note: “Ministry” is a loaded term. It refers to the governmental agency, of course, but also has salvific overtones from religion.  It is, after all, about saving both humanity and the world.

Discussion questions

1. What do you make of how Ministry for the Future weaves together narrative and ideas?
2. At this point in the novel humanity is not acting in a cohesive way. However, we do see various projects offered by separate governments and organizations at scale: California, India, the Antarctic team. Do you find this a likely way we will proceed? Is it an effective one?
3. What do you think of the climate change mitigation strategies this part of the book has offered?
4. Returning to the question of violence: we now know the Ministry is connected to people who commit property damage and violence against people.  Looking ahead, how do you think this two-winged strategy will fare?
5. Joshua Kim notes that academics do not play a major role in the novel thus far. He then invites us to fill in that gap. How do you envision colleges, universities, and our populations acting in the Ministry‘s future?

READING SCHEDULE

Coming up next:

December 21, 2020 – chapters 51-68 (pp. 227-340).

December 28, 2020 – chapters 69-88 (pp. 341-443).

January 4, 2021 –  chapters 89-106 (pp. 445-563).

Previous posts:

• Introduction to the novel and our reading
• Part 1: summary, notes, questions, and discussion

More resources:

• Ezra Klein interviews Robinson (scroll down here to “The most important book I’ve read this year” or launch this iTunes link) (thanks to Valerie Mates)
• Rolling Stone interviews Robinson
• This Thursday, the Harvard Book Store hosts Robinson

Now, over to you!  What do you think?  Please use the comments box or share your thoughts elsewhere.

(thanks to Mary Churchill)

And now we begin with reading of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future.

If you’re new to the book club, here’s the introductory post.  And welcome to all readers!

Greetings to Twitter friends like Justin Cerenzia, Steven Foerster, Rebecca Pope-Ruark, Julie Uranis, Becky Klein-Collins, Tanya Spilovoy, and Catherine Wehlburg.  Thanks to Joshua Kim for his kind column about our reading.

With this post we start discussing the first part of the novel, chapters 1-26 (pp. 1-106).  I’ll begin with a summary of the story so far, add some notes, then ask questions for discussion. At the end I’ll repeat the reading schedule and add any resources I’ve come across.

You can share your thoughts by writing comments at the end of this post.  You can also contribute via social media – I’ll copy this post or a link for it to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mastodon, and Medium.  I can copy and link to your comments there in next week’s post.  You can also respond through a podcast, video, web page… just be sure to let me know somehow.

Now, to dig in!

Summary

Ministry for the Future begins with horror, a mass death in India due to a climate change-caused heat wave.  This opening chapter introduces us to Frank May, one of our main characters, an American working for an international aid organization, and the lone, badly traumatized survivor of that initial disaster.

We then change gears to meet the titular Ministry, based in Zürich.  Technically, it’s a Subsidiary Body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, established in 2024, but people preferred the nickname “Ministry for the Future.” (16)  Its leader, and the novel’s central protagonist, is Mary Murphy, an Irish politician. (18)  We also meet other leaders in the Ministry and learn about their charge: to help the world decarbonize.

Through the Ministry we learn that India responded to the heat wave by mounting their own geoengineering effort (37-39) – without international support.  India has also had a peaceful political revolution. (18)

For Mary: “…where the statue of Ganymede stood…. This was a place she often came to; something in the statue, the lake, the Alps far to the south, combined in a way she found stirring, she couldn’t say why. Zurich – life – she couldn’t say.  The world seemed a big place when she was here.” (34)

We also meet a crew of Antarctic experts who invent a daring plan to slow that continent’s ice sheet loss. (79-83)

Meanwhile, Frank grapples with his bad case of PTSD.  He undergoes therapy and tries to join a kind of green terror group, the Children of Kali, but is rejected. (49-50) He commits a crime in Switzerland (77-8) and goes into hiding.  Then he kidnaps Mary Murphy and furiously demands that she take greater action to address the climate crisis. He rattles her, then escapes. (91-106)

Notes

Robinson covers a lot of ground in this part of the book.  We meet a lot of people, learn about global geopolitical systems and ideas, learn about a range of topics from the Gini coefficient to what lubricates the motion of massive ice sheets.  The tone is dark, as befits an unfolding planetary catastrophe.

I’ve described the book in terms of plot, but chunks of it stand apart from typical storytelling.  For example, the novel includes very short riddle chapters.  On page 13 it’s the sun.  There are also meditations on political theory (41), extinctions (43-4),  economic measurement (73-6), and problems of human perception (87-88). We get micro-stories about characters we never see again, but who give us glimpses of ideas and the world in transition (51-2, 59-61).

Several character names are open, even on-the-nose signals of their roles.  Frank May: he’s definitely direct and open (i.e., frank) while also undecided (may).  Mary is, as befits the Christian tradition, positioned to be the mother of human salvation.  The novel’s first line is similarly on the nose: “It was getting hotter.”

There are plenty of echoes back to earlier Robinson novels: characters named Frank, lots of walking, rapid-fire political arguments, glimpses of social perspectives, and critical theory.

Discussion questions

1. Do you think the Indian government justified in conducting its geoengineering project? What does this suggest about the near term future of international governance and climate change?
2. Frank urges Mary to support violence. What forms of such climate change-related violence do you anticipate, either in the novel or in our world?
3. Ministry leaders discuss possible leverage points they can work with to save the world. (54-6) Which do you think are the most effective?

READING SCHEDULE

December 14, 2020 – chapters 27- 50 (pp. 107-225).

December 21, 2020 – chapters 51-68 (pp. 227-340).

December 28, 2020 – chapters 69-88 (pp. 341-443).

January 4, 2021 –  chapters 89-106 (pp. 445-563).

Previous posts:

• Introduction to the novel and our reading

More resources:

• A glowing review from Vox
• Science fiction writer Cory Doctorow offers a positive yet dark review
• A panel discussion of the novel:

Over to you!

(thanks to Bill Benzon, Joshua Kim, Gwynneth Alexander, and more; Ganymede photo by Wally Gobetz)

I think it’s time to restart our online book club.  And I know just the book for us.

For those new to the club, it’s an online reading group focused on titles that might help us better envision the future of higher education.  Some readings are nonfiction, each exploring a different aspect of where academia might be headed (for example) or how the world which academia inhabits might change (for example).  Other readings are science fiction, giving us more imaginative views of higher ed and the world (for example).

The way this works: I pick out a book, sometimes after a poll, then organize a reading schedule for it.  Every week I post about that week’s selection, offering a summary and discussion questions.  Readers participate by, well, reading, then sharing thoughts in comments to these blog posts.  They also respond on other platforms, from Twitter to Facebook to their own websites. I harvest those comments and add them to the next blog post here.  Readers can comment and contribute a great deal, actually – here‘s the most active reading we’ve done so far. Sometimes we’re able to get authors involved for conversation.When the book is finished the series of posts and comments remain live for any future readers.

We started way back in 2014 and have read nineteen books to date.  We’ve been reading between one and five books per year…

…yet not one in 2020 so far.  An obvious explanation is that we’ve been too busy with this year’s chaos.  Another reason is that I’ve been teaching more than ever, four classes over the course of calendar 2020, which has soaked up most of my collaborative reading energies.

But now we’re back!  With the post the book club officially resumes, with a new book to read and a reading schedule.

The book is Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future (2020), a near future science fiction epic about the next generation or two to tackle the climate crisis.  The plot focuses on a new United Nations agency tasked with addressing the problem, and how they proceed.  A counterpoint character is an aid workers who survives a horrible disaster and tries to figure out how to live afterwards. It’s a rich, ambitious, and frankly optimistic book, and might be just what we need now.  (We read an earlier, similarly future-oriented novel by the same author in 2018.)

You can buy a copy from our little online bookstore or look for a local library copy.

THE SCHEDULE

Let’s give everyone a week+ to get a copy, and then:

December 7, 2020 – chapters 1-26 (pp. 1-106).

December 14, 2020 – chapters 27- 50 (pp. 107-225).

December 21, 2020 – chapters 51-68 (pp. 227-340).

December 28, 2020 – chapters 69-88 (pp. 341-443).

January 4, 2021 –  chapters 89-106 (pp. 445-563).

Monday of every week I’ll post here with a summary, some thoughts, and questions for you all.  You can also look at all posts tagged for this reading.

In the meantime, here are some links about the novel to get you started:

• The book’s Wikipedia entry
• The Goodreads page
• Yale’s Climate Connections review
• The Sierra Club review
• A short LA Times review
• A Tor.com interview with the author
• A whole bunch of stuff on the leading KSR fan site

Any questions?

In the meantime, happy reading!  And see you soon in the Ministry’s offices.  It’s cold in Switzerland this time of year, so fortify yourself with appropriate drinks and bundle up.