Author Lionel Shriver is an American journalist and author. She is best known for her novel We Need to Talk About Kevin which won the Orange Prize in 2005. She has a new book called The Mandibles,
a book describing a single family impacted by a slowly evolving
economic collapse. She was interviewed on NPR and had some surprisingly
things to say about her understanding of economics.
She describes the general plot to NPR's Linda Wertheimer. In the world of 2029, the U.S. has defaulted on its national debt. "Nobody wants to give you money if you're not going to pay it back," she says, so the government has had to print more money to cover its obligations. "And of course that means that the value of the dollar starts to slide. But the key to writing this book, I discovered, was to control the scale and not to let things fall apart too quickly. So to begin with, my characters are a little distressed that the price of imported olive oil has gone up."
"I wanted to record civil breakdown by degrees ... it's not all at once, it's not, you flip a switch and suddenly people are dog-eat-dog and regard everything in a Darwinian, animalistic way. I think that it starts subtly ... you walk into a restaurant and the maitre d' does not see you to your table, but just waves at it. Or doormen no longer carry groceries for the elderly. It's that little."
"I used to be bored to death by economics, and then I started reading about it, and I have to say, it's fascinating. In fact, it's become apocalyptic. It's like reading science fiction."
"I think we all have a certain setting in terms of how much we worry about anything, really, but say, how much we worry about money. And when I was not doing all that well, I would worry about not being able to pay my modest rent. And now I make more money, and I worry about worldwide economic collapse. It still makes me anxious."
She describes the general plot to NPR's Linda Wertheimer. In the world of 2029, the U.S. has defaulted on its national debt. "Nobody wants to give you money if you're not going to pay it back," she says, so the government has had to print more money to cover its obligations. "And of course that means that the value of the dollar starts to slide. But the key to writing this book, I discovered, was to control the scale and not to let things fall apart too quickly. So to begin with, my characters are a little distressed that the price of imported olive oil has gone up."
"I wanted to record civil breakdown by degrees ... it's not all at once, it's not, you flip a switch and suddenly people are dog-eat-dog and regard everything in a Darwinian, animalistic way. I think that it starts subtly ... you walk into a restaurant and the maitre d' does not see you to your table, but just waves at it. Or doormen no longer carry groceries for the elderly. It's that little."
"I used to be bored to death by economics, and then I started reading about it, and I have to say, it's fascinating. In fact, it's become apocalyptic. It's like reading science fiction."
"I think we all have a certain setting in terms of how much we worry about anything, really, but say, how much we worry about money. And when I was not doing all that well, I would worry about not being able to pay my modest rent. And now I make more money, and I worry about worldwide economic collapse. It still makes me anxious."
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