We’ve all seen the meme. In a world that seems to be burning down around us, it captures that horrible frozen feeling many of us have that the forces moving around us are just too large to comprehend, let alone combat.
Have you seen the whole original comic strip this came from? It’s by artist KC Green, and there’s a great interview and explanation here at The Verge.
This is the world we as authors are living in. Lately a new version has been making the rounds, where “This is fine” is replaced with “Buy my book”:
And here’s a similar meme taking up the same theme:
These all capture an inescapable truth for authors like me, in this perilous moment. We are still writing (when we can), and still publishing, but we’re facing the whirlwind: political chaos, Generative AI, climate change induced disasters, and the inevitable crises in our own personal lives that would be manageable in normal times, but in moments like this feel like the last straw that’s made of a hundred tons of lead.
I had a conversation with an author friend over the weekend about the threat Generative AI poses to authors. His contention is that we’re not far off from a time where Amazon or one of the other big platforms offers a subscription service, where AI will write a book for you in seconds, to your own specifications.
Want an omegaverse dragon shifter book set in an alternate version of Germany during the Roaring twenties? Done.
Want a fan fic about Kirk and Spock, but where both of them live with the Ewoks and smoke lots of weed? Here you go!
Want a heterosexual version of Red, White and Royal Blue, but between characters from Japan and South Korea and featuring your favorite fetish? We’ve got you covered.
He contended that soon it will be less about sharing your favorite authors, and more about sharing your favorite prompts, leaving authors like me in the dust. And what if the platform then allows you to share your favorite new AI generated stories with all your friends, for a price?
It feels like we are reaching an existential crisis as a society – not just for writer folk, but for all of us. As politicians shred norms, AI hoovers up the whole of human achievement and belches out slop, and fires and floods and tempests occur with biblical fury ever increasing velocity, we are all sitting in a cafe where the walls are on fire, sipping our coffee, and hoping – if we just believe strongly enough – that all the horrible will all just go away.
And yet…
If I look out the window, if I step out the front door, the world around me is not on fire.
If I go to my favorite local cafe, the walls are not, in fact, burning. People sit there laughing and talking, enjoying their coffee in a lovely climate-controlled atmosphere.
And bookstores are in fact still doing a brisk business, selling books.
The fires are there, but they are not always evident, often seeming to burn just out of sight, somewhere over the horizon. In some ways, the whole world has become the “This is Fine” cafe.
So what can we do about it? I wish I knew. For now, I am doing my best to soldier on.
I am writing.
I am reading.
I am supporting my friends and family as best I can.
I am trying to be realistic about the fires burning in the distance, figuring out which ones to fight and which ones are beyond my abilities to confront. Although I am not an alcoholic, the Serenity Prayer serves me well in this respect:
Grant me the Serenity, to accept the things I can not change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.
And when it comes time to get the word out about a new book, I am reminding myself that stories written by authors like me provide warmth and comfort for our readers – however few of them there may be – even when the world is in chaos. Maybe especially when things are so crazy. After all, weren’t movies super popular during the great depression? They gave people a few moments away from the hardships of their everyday lives.
So please, buy my book.
Or his book, or her book, or their book.
Buy a book from a real person and let them block out the world for you for a few hours. And remember – Every time you open a book, a little magic falls out (thank you for mymysterycloset on redBubble for the lovely poster).
