One of the articles of faith I have held for a long time is that we are not, collectively, going to deal with the troubles of our future willingly. We are not going to reduce our energy and resource usage in an effort to mitigate the worst impacts of ecological destruction and climate change, or … Continue reading Power Down
Author: Joel Caris
Former publisher and editor of Into the Ruins, a quarterly magazine of deindustrial science fiction, Joel Caris is an author and essayist who cuts across genres, engaging elements of science fiction, magical realism, horror, weird fiction, and literary fiction. Recurrent themes in his work include ecology, environmentalism, farming and gardening, appropriate technology, mythology, polytheism, the occult, and more. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, Kate, and can be found at joelcaris.com.
Notes From an Ice Storm
There is an ethereal beauty to nighttime snow. White and encompassing of the world, it captures all the available light of the dark and reflects it back out: into and through windows, against neighboring buildings, onto the clouds above. It turns the world into a film set lit for a nighttime scene, with that strange … Continue reading Notes From an Ice Storm
Lengthening Days
A few weeks ago I set off on a late afternoon walk. I wandered our neighborhood for over an hour, looping along our gridded streets and enjoying the fresh air, the sun out and shining on a bright winter day. As I headed for home just after five o’clock, I realized that despite the hour … Continue reading Lengthening Days
The Land Speaks
I have noticed in my writing that often I build a story around a particular place or landscape. It’s the story’s foundation, so to speak—in the literal sense of a founding. I start with a thought of a particular place—the first farm I worked on, the Arizona desert, the Lost Coast, the forested surroundings of … Continue reading The Land Speaks
The World as Mystery: Life, Here and There
There is an idea I’ve held in my head a long time, from the time when I was a child. It is that the universe is a very large place, holding an impossible number of stars with an uncountable number of orbiting planets, and that therefore there must be other sentient life in the universe. … Continue reading The World as Mystery: Life, Here and There
In the Distance: A Fragment
Back in the spring of 2019, a scene came to me. At this point, I honestly can't remember what triggered the idea. Often scenes come to me when I'm reading something else, something that inflames some inner creativity. This may have been that, or perhaps it struck me otherwise, out of the ether, tied to … Continue reading In the Distance: A Fragment
Finding What Matters
In the two months since the election, I have been working to ween myself from my overt attention to the political news. I have not ignored it entirely, but I’ve had significant success in reclaiming wide swathes of my time from following the happenings in D.C. and elsewhere through news sites and social media. In … Continue reading Finding What Matters
A Turn Toward the Outer
New Year’s Day may be my favorite holiday. It’s a calm and quiet day. Those rowdiest the night before are lost in their hangovers while many businesses are shut down for the day. The revelry has come to an end; the holidays are officially winding to a close; and a new year faces us all, … Continue reading A Turn Toward the Outer
Still Life
I am learning to draw. Or no, I am not exactly learning to draw; I am just drawing. I have a small, simple journal, unassuming, and each day I sit down for a few minutes and attempt to draw something: a leaf, a shallot, a candle. For now, I am not working from imagination but … Continue reading Still Life
The Urge to Run
In recent weeks, I’ve been working to examine some of my habitual behaviors. There are reasons for this—a training I am engaged in—but it is proving useful at a broad personal level. In particular, I’ve been attempting to better understand the emotional states of being that drive certain habitual behaviors of mine, and how they … Continue reading The Urge to Run
