I have not yet read Leni Zumas's brand new novel Red Clocks but given the dazzling, dizzying narratives found in her short story collection Farewell Navigator and the deeply affecting story that is the elliptical and lyrical, ghost-haunted novel The Listeners, it will be extraordinary.
Is.
In a very recent interview (found here: http://lithub.com/when-your-feminist-dystopia-becomes-a-work-of-realism/), Zumas describes her new novel as less representing 'dystopia' than 'paratopia.' [I do not define the difference assuming that you, Ungentle Reader, will take pause and read this fine piece.] The difference is crucial and should not be mistaken. Too often we fling into the future's stream the stone of actuality...if we watch closely, we see that stone skip backwards always in our midst. The current reverses in our current condition and we are presently, catastrophically, caught in the encirclement of prophecy.
Also, we tend to subscribe, particularly in literary conceit, to the tyranny of belief in destiny being--and bringing-- a dire new awfulness ignorant that NOW is the TIME of that imagined LATER. We should heed Zumas's skepticism of the present tense of extremity being pushed toward the eventual; we should also perhaps take seriously the cosmic conclusions of W.B. Yeats. The Second Coming, it is here, it is us. Be very, very scared...but also ready to clear a path of possibility against this tense present tense of ____________ (Choose your own noun/characterization).
