What an amazing Saturday!
First, a press conference with the inspiring Margaret Atwood. Then a break for an excellent lunch (this IS Italy, you know!). Then her presentation to the public – which ended with her singing! Then, purely by chance, I walked with her on my way to the next press conference. That one was Umberto Eco, a pretty accomplished writer, too. Finished off the night with an excellent pizza.
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood is a charming and intelligent woman in her mid 70’s. Much of her writing recounts post-apocalyptic survivors struggling to reboot humanity. She is concerned about our collective future. In the press conference she talked about introducing new technologies, warning there are always good, bad, and stupid (or unexpected) consequences. It is the unexpected ones to worry about. She talked about in the 1990’s a new anti inflammatory drug gets used to treat livestock in India. The drug, as it turns out, is fatal to vultures. So the vulture population there dropped by 99%. With no vultures to eat dead animals, rats and wild dogs show up in huge numbers. This introduces rabies, botulism, anthrax and other horribly dangerous diseases to India.
It is that kind of background she uses in her books, which then tell the stories of the survivors. Good stuff. Get her MaddAddam trilogy (“Oryx and Crake,” “The Year of the Flood,” and “MaddAddam.”
The audience at an author presentation. Pretty cool.
My next post will be about the encounter with Umberto Eco.