I'm currently reading When Gravity Fails, a 1986 cyberpunk/noir novel set in a Muslim New Orleans where extreme bio-modification (including a whole lot of transsexual prostitutes) is the norm. These sorts of imaginative flights of what the future of Islam might look like are odd little creative time capsules. While Effinger's vision of the criminal underworld in NoLa seems non-predictive in many ways, it's less off the mark than Philip K. Dick's vision of an Islamo-Catholic church. :)
Superb article - and btw, anyone who has NOT read "The Camp of the Saints" by Jean Raspail, is really missing out on seeing the purely prophetic work of a French author was was roundly condemned, in the 70s.... called racist, xenophobe, and so on. I think it may even be available as a free read online. But he nailed it, over half a century ahead of modern times.
This is outstanding, Diana. Puts Glastonbury in an entirely different light. Looking forward to your next installment.
I'm sure you've seen it already, but some of your readers might be interested in my discussion of The Rushdie Affair and it's connection to the promotion of "Islamophobia" as a concept - https://anarrowbridgeburning.substack.com/p/the-clash-of-civilizations-i-didnt
I'm currently reading When Gravity Fails, a 1986 cyberpunk/noir novel set in a Muslim New Orleans where extreme bio-modification (including a whole lot of transsexual prostitutes) is the norm. These sorts of imaginative flights of what the future of Islam might look like are odd little creative time capsules. While Effinger's vision of the criminal underworld in NoLa seems non-predictive in many ways, it's less off the mark than Philip K. Dick's vision of an Islamo-Catholic church. :)
Superb article - and btw, anyone who has NOT read "The Camp of the Saints" by Jean Raspail, is really missing out on seeing the purely prophetic work of a French author was was roundly condemned, in the 70s.... called racist, xenophobe, and so on. I think it may even be available as a free read online. But he nailed it, over half a century ahead of modern times.