Bad Times for Human Beings

Actually, no this isn't about dystopic fiction but dystopic fact.  I've just had notice today that our benevolent British government (and I voted for them) will be reassessing me as part of their campaign to prove that there is no such thing as illness or disability so forget all those years paying National Insurance just exactly in case you should fall ill.  It's a grim time, and some of the stories of hardship, desperation and even deaths as a result of the cruelty of the policy and the deliberate cruelty of its implementation would rip you to shreds.  There's fuel here for a (several) contemporary Dickens.  I'm hoping to have some good news to post soon, but in the meantime, like so many others, my major emotion is fear.  It's not great for the creative process, that's for sure. 

I did write dystopic s.f. in my youth - I rather think you have to as an adolescent - but in rebellion against the pessimism of books like 1984, Brave New World, We and One (all of which I strongly commend to you if you are not already familiar with them) I was determined that good would in the end triumph over evil.  I do believe that is a theological necessity, it's just that it can take a very long time and there is a great deal of anguish and loss in between whiles.

Sorry if this is a bit of a downer, but real life has a way of trumping anything any of us can create.  I would point out that you can reasonably assume that good guys will win in my s.f., although you can't assume it will be easy!

Strength and health to you all.