"The Cold Equations" responses

[brainwane]

A new story in Clarkesworld's December edition: "The Cold Calculations" by Aimee Ogden, an extremely political and full-throated response to "The Cold Equations". I'd say a point Ogden is making is: the laws of physics aren't what kills that stowaway, it's socially constructed austerity that does that, and we can change social constructions, together.

I particularly noticed it because of an Omelas-related conversation on MetaFilter recently that also included discussion of "The Cold Equations". I talked about the Ogden story with my spouse today and he put together something that I hadn't -- that "The Cold Equations" is a bit like ticking-time-bomb scenarios (as in the TV series 24, etc.) that authors and policymakers use to justify torture. We make up these stories and then use them to justify awful systemic harms, as though the stories are models of reality, but those stories are made-up!

Comments

[oracne]

Ooh. Thanks for the heads-up.

[brainwane]

You're welcome! I also came across:

The Cold Crowdfunding Campaign by Cora Buhlert:

Save the Girl and Save Me From Having to Toss Her Out of the Airlock

which might also pique your fancy.

[indywind]

YEP.
How handy that someone has gotten published making the point I always want to make; now I can just direct them to Ogden's story instead of typing out something myself every time.

[brainwane]

Hee! Indeed! You might also like another story someone shared in that MeFi thread:

The Cold Crowdfunding Campaign by Cora Buhlert:

Save the Girl and Save Me From Having to Toss Her Out of the Airlock

[cynthia1960]

"If a man at a desk can kill a girl with a little bit of ink, then we can save her in exactly the same way. There are more of us than there are of him. Break his pen, throw it out the window, and send the desk after it."

OMG yes tableflip

[brainwane]

Glad to share something that spoke to you!

[viggorlijah]

I *wanted* to like that story so hard, but it just didn't work for me in the end. It felt like it needed another couple of redrafts to get the prose to really sing, with the different threads not coming together quite well enough. Some of it was not having enough depth on the pilot and the stowaway's characterisation.

[brainwane]

If you want to try an Ogden piece with a lot more characterization, "A Luxury Like Hope" is a good sample. "The Cold Calculations" is much more thought-experimenty -- like "Omelas", right? -- and so I was fine with the less multidimensional characters. But I see what you mean.

I think Ogden is in a really interesting place as an author -- she's been writing for years, and her recent stuff is usually stuff I like but don't love, but I think she's on a vector to an aesthetic where she just consistently nails what I want/like in a story. Which is where Naomi Kritzer and Zen Cho and a few other authors are, for me.

[emceeaich]

cynthia1960 told me about this via your post and I was pumping my fist in the air as I finished it. Looking forward to reading more of Ogden's work.

[brainwane]

Hope you enjoyed it!