On Tuesday, the world lit on fire.
I live in Southern California1. I am safe, my family is safe, and most of us are at least 40 miles from any active fires.
For now.
This natural disaster is not unique, I am aware. But these LA wildfires and my feed man - news, emails, Instagram, and Threads - that feels new. My digital life is dominated by images & videos of the fire, individual stories of loss, communities razed, animals running in the streets, families returning to the site of demolished homes, how to help, how to donate, Go Fund Me's, where to find shelter & food, how to donate food & toiletries, all the cities, states, & countries sending firefighters, water drops, news reporters, news reporters saving chickens, politicians, people who hate politicians, looters, pyromaniacs, conspiracy theorists, and trolls.
The consumption of the experience is unique. Quite frankly, it is like watching an apocalyptic TV show filmed in your own backyard in 3-minute bits with running viewer commentary on the side.
It’s not surprising to me that many of the comments I read on social media are about how unreal this all feels, like an apocalyptic scene from a movie or novel. Our collective psyche has been obsessed with end-times, with disaster, with dystopias for quite some time. We now have 24/7 access to worldwide catastrophes filtered through a screen, at once intensely personal and removed.
What I find most interesting is the call on existing texts - novels, essays, & nonfiction - to understand this monumental tragedy. Most notably, Octavia Butler and her prescient novel Parable of the Sower, a dystopian novel written in 1993 but set in 2020’s LA. The entry for February 2025:
We had a fire today.
The residents are so concerned with the cost of calling government assistance they have protocols for putting out the house fire themselves. The setting includes “global climate change and economic crises [that] lead to social chaos.” As N.K. Jemisin says in the 2018 introduction to my edition:
“Still, I didn’t like the books, not back then, nor did I find them particularly prescient… Lauren’s world still felt unrealistic to me, even impossible. Roving gangs of pedophiles and drug-addicted pyromaniacs? Slavery 2.0? A powerful coalition of white-supremacist, homophobic Christian zealots taking over the country? Nah, I thought…”
Well.
The novel is a terrifying feat of prescience. And a very interesting way to frame the events happening in LA and throughout the US2. Can we learn from this story? What does it teach us? Is it even possible to learn from narrative? Wouldn’t we have done something by now? Or maybe we just enjoy the sense of superiority from poking backward as if we saw it all along too.
Joan Didion’s essay about the Santa Ana winds is also circulating. This article from The Guardian is excellent, “Joan Didion and Mike Davis understood LA through its fires. Even they couldn’t predict this week.” I’ve seen John Vaillant’s Fire Weather as recommended reading. I’ve written about it myself (lighthearted) in an ode to LA reading.
In a real sign from above, pages from burned books have been floating into people’s yards miles away from the infernos, with a direct message that we (I) should stop reading and writing and start doing something useful.
I think we turn to narrative because it attempts to make sense of chaos. We (I) can intellectualize it all we want, but something has to change. The community support I’ve seen over the last five days has been nothing short of heroic. Perhaps this is the antidote to a Sower future. I donated directly to a friend whose house is now gone. Today, I will be purchasing pet food at my local feed store for those who are displaced. I have many thoughts about political and economic choices, but I will leave those arguments to the experts (God).
[Except: everyone trying to act like they know the solution to everything and why it’s our own fault can FUCK RIGHT OFF PEOPLE LOST THEIR HOMES PETS LIVES OK @ incel1988 nobody needs your commentary, rn!!]
A list of organizations if you feel called and able to support victims of the LA wildfires per NBC News. Traci Thomas also provided some great resources and tips for supporting individual family Go Fund Me’s here.
Lastly, shoutout to the firefighters, first responders, secondary crews, pilots, organizers, relief helpers, and everyone who came from a different city, county, state, or country (including the California immigrant community) - bless you, and, in ever your time of need, may you receive love and support back tenfold. I’m ready for the parade when you are.
I don’t write this for sympathy (I certainly don’t need it) but for processing. I almost didn’t publish, but if anyone else out there is doomscrolling like me, then maybe it will help you stop and do something more useful with your precious energy.
Take care of your loved ones. I’ll see you Friday for regular book content.
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Orange County but PLEASE I am not a housewife, and most of my city is like a liberal arts college IRL
I cannot speak to other countries, although what I read in the news leads me to believe we are not the only ones dealing with a “conservative” backlash. Feel free to comment if you are more informed than I.
“Except: everyone trying to act like they know the solution to everything and why it’s our own fault can FUCK RIGHT OFF PEOPLE LOST THEIR HOMES PETS LIVES OK @ incel1988 nobody needs your commentary, rn!!” 💥💥💥 that part ❤️🔥🫂
Thank you for this and including my post. Big hugs.