Nathaniel Rich’s Odds Against Tomorrow leaves readers with an unexpected urgency to prepare for the worst. The novel dives into the probability and statistics of natural disasters occurring, slowly drawing the audience into believing that anything can happen at any moment. The journey we take with Mitchell throughout his everyday life and eventually through the chaos Mother Nature brings to Manhattan, provides us with a quirky protagonist that learns to value a humble lifestyle.
In the latter half of the book, New York begins suffering a major drought. This results in FutureWorld becoming very busy with clients. The founder, Alec Charnoble, hires a new consultant to help Mitchell balance the new surge of clients. Jane is pretty and a great saleswoman. She quickly learns how to do her job efficiently and helps Mitchell construct drought scenario pitches for clients. The pair worked diligently until a rain cloud appears one afternoon. The drought finally ends and the rain begins to pour, causing Jane to drag Mitchell outside to celebrate. While in the nearby park, Mitchell notices how quickly the ground is forming puddles. He concludes that the ground has turned to tightly compacted dust that will not soak up the rain.
After the pair return, Mitchell suggests they begin crafting flood scenarios although, Jane and Alec laugh this off. Later that night, it is announced that tropical storm Tammy is headed straight for New York, causing Mitchell to panic. Tammy is soon upgraded to a category 2 hurricane with the potential to become a category 4 by landfall. Alec then allows Jane and Mitchell to pitch flood scenarios to clients.
The Hurricane hits soon after word, flooding New York just has Mitchell predicted. Him and Jane take cover in his third floor apartment. The storm made it to a category 3, but had a major impact on the city of Manhattan. After the storm, Jane and Mitchell search for rescue and eventually find a FEMA station. Their stay is short lived however. Mitchell is soon attacked for being a ‘prophet’ and not warning the public about this disaster. He soon finds out that Charnoble has been name dropping in interviews, revealing that Mitchell knew from the first rain drop what was in store for the state. They couple leave the camp the falling the day in hopes of reaching the Flatlands. Mitchell theorizes that this area would be less flooded than surrounding areas.
Three days later they make it to the Flatlands. They quickly make home in a second story bank lobby and break into the local grocery store for food and supplies. They make camp there for several days until Jane has had enough. She leaves Mitchell behind to find another rescue camp. Mitchell begins to enjoy this version of life. He picks up farming and become one with nature. About a week later a couple comes by to look for him. They have a message from Jane, stating that she has made it back to Manhattan, which was reopened three days prior. They explain how the state Government divided the decimated areas into 5 specific zones. Each would be restored in numerical order, except for zone five which incorporates the Flatlands. This area will remain a wetlands area and will not go under any reconstruction. Oddly, this delights Mitchell and he decides to remain in the Flatlands, to re closer with nature. This completely contradicts his character at the beginning of the story, desperate to move to New York and live comfortably in the big city.
The story wraps up with Jane visiting Mitchell on a monthly basis, making sure he still has everything he needs. She reveals that she began her own disaster consultant business and they are thriving just as FutureWorld did. She tries to convince him to come with her, but he refuses. Nature is his true home, and he will never leave it again.
Midterm:
https://envirojpo.blogspot.com/2018/10/odds-against-tomorrow.html
Comments:
https://envirojpo.blogspot.com/2018/12/ecotopia-final-report.html?showComment=1544496121522#c5712273520002841286
https://envirojpo.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-wastelanders-final-report.html?showComment=1544496671598#c1951750847019700185
"they are thriving just as FutureWorld did" - if you can call that thriving...
ReplyDelete"Nature is his true home, and he will never leave it again" - but is it even possibly for an evolved production of natural evolutionary forces to "leave" nature (as opposed, say, to neglecting, distorting, abusing, misunderstanding it,etc.)? Are we in nature, or is nature in us? Is "in" even the right copula? We just ARE nature, for better or worse, aren't we? But of course the point of your story,and of all the cli-fi stories really, remains: there are better and worse, FAR worse, ways of being the human instantiation of nature. We've been doing it wrong, lately.