The Times ran a gee-whiz article over the weekend about recent science fiction novels that predicted America’s economic decline with “eerie accuracy.” The article focuses in particular on Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story, a dystopian novel that provoked some strong reactions among my book club members. But as Charlie Jane points out at SF blog io9, these authors don’t possess any uncanny powers of foresight. SF authors have been weaving dystopic tales of American decline for at least a couple decades. The books highlighted in the Times simply appeared at a time when our real-life economy happened to take a dive. And things aren’t quite as bad as what’s depicted in the books. At least, not yet.
As a sidenote, Shteyngart’s novel is worth a read. The main characters at the center of the book are two of the most unpleasant and annoying people you’ll meet in contemporary lit, but the novel still offers a wryly funny take on the economic implosion of a near-future America.
