Junot Diaz, america", dark, future dystopias, post-apocalyptic...

Trapped On A Post-Apocalyptic Highway, In A Robot Truck

All of a sudden, I'm desperate to read Junot Diaz's new science fiction novel — just as soon as he can finish it. Diaz, who just won the Pulitzer Prize for The Brief And Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, a book littered with nerdy references to Star Wars and comics, shared a brief excerpt from his new novel-in-progress, Dark America, during an Amazon.com interview. And's a dazzling passage, set aboard a robot truck in a desolate future world.

Diaz's character appears to be traveling, with a bunch of other Travelers, down a highway at night, but it's not clear where they're going or why. It's a pretty horrendous existence, that much is clear, and every now the transport stops at a depot and everyone "reforges". Here's the most jarring and futuristic passage:

Since the transport is automated it switches its lights on only when it detects another vehicle or when we're in civilization but at night on the interstates it feels like we're rushing through a corridor of whooshing air as unlit as a vein. We pass cities and zonafrancas and fortress towns and overhead roar fighter jets and gunships and every now and then the transport will squash something on the road. A rumble under the tires and then the return to the lullaby of the whoosh as whatever it is gets spat out behind the mud flaps in ruin.

I love the use of language in the full passage, the snow clotting, and the unlit vein. I hope I get to read the rest of this story. Diaz hints that it may just be "throat-clearing," and may not actually be in the novel. And also adds, "who knows when it will ever see the light of day again." Given how long it took him to finish Wao, I'm not optimistic. But fingers crossed. Post-apocalyptic freeway image by Voyou Desoeuvre. [Omnivoracious, via NY Mag]

3:30 PM on Wed Apr 16 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
1,502 views
9 comments

Comments

Dunny0 at 03:50 PM on 04/16/08
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The whole excerpt is bloody awesome.
Very gritty description of the life of future hobos.
shehanum at 04:27 PM on 04/16/08
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*koff* Damnation Alley *koff*

/the book not the crappy movie
FredicvsMaximvs at 08:29 PM on 04/16/08
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Excellent. Never heard of Junot Diaz before, but I certainly will be on the lookout now.

This is the kind of stuff I like best about i09!
Skeller at 09:07 PM on 04/16/08
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Good show! Nice tidbit. Thanks.
steven522 at 09:24 AM on 04/17/08
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For some reason I am reminded of something I watched once about giant robotic trucks running up and down the highways. Some guys wanted to stop one and rob it and figured it wouldn't just run over a living creature so they tied an animal up in the road..."splat".
They then decided it wouldn;t run over a living PERSON so they tied one of their own guys up in the road.
gybryant at 10:38 AM on 04/17/08
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@steven522: What was the name of that movie? My co-workers and I have been trying to think of it for a week now.
steven522 at 11:50 AM on 04/17/08
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@gybryant: Actually, I was hoping someone would remind me.

It wasn't in tank girl was it?
gybryant at 06:38 AM on 04/18/08
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@steven522: I don't theenk so. What was the animal that was first put in front of the truck to try to stop it? Was it a cow?
steven522 at 01:50 PM on 04/18/08
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My partial memory of the movie makes me think that they did indeed try it with a cow. It seems like they made several attempts from a person waiting in the road and chickening out to tying up either a person or cow in the road to make the delivery vehicle stop.