Pump Six

PAOLO BACIGALUPI

Paolo Bacigalupi (www.windupstories.com) lives in Paonia, Colorado, where he has worked as a writer and online editor for High Country News. He said in a Locus interview, “we can have all the technology in the world and still make some really, really bad decisions. We can create a hell where nothing is left alive except for us, but where we can be very comfortable, because we’ll accept whatever we have to in order to meet our immediate desires.” His first story was “Pocketful of Dharma” (1999). He says, “Harlan Ellison called me up soon after…told me not to get stuck in the science fiction genre…and to get out while I could…. I ended up writing three novels, and none of them were sci-fi. One historical fiction piece. One contemporary “literary” (whatever) book. And one mystery. And then…decided that I actually liked writing science fiction quite a lot and went back to it.” His short SF is collected in Pump Six and Other Stories (Night Shade, 2008). His first novel, The Windup Girl, is forthcoming from Night Shade.

“Pump Six” was published in Fantasy & Science Fiction, and as the title story in his 2008 collection. It is centrally in the tradition of Kornbluth’s “The Marching Morons.” In this bleak and darkly humorous view of the not very distant future, human selfishness and the pursuit of immediate pleasure have triumphed over intelligence and advanced technology. Pump Six is a sewage pump. And the literal shit is about to overflow civilization. Maybe you’ll feel better if you take a pill.