In honor of baseball’s spring training I recommend The Resisters by Gish Jen. In a post-new world order called Auto-America, much of the country is under water and divided into two classes: The Netters, fair-skinned people living on higher ground and afforded life’s luxuries and The Surplus, mostly copper-toned people living in swamps and houseboats monitored by Aunt Nettie – a government surveillance AI akin to Alexa on steroids.
Gwen, a young Blasian Surplus girl born with a gift for pitching, becomes an underground phenom in an illegal baseball league. Gwen’s prowess soon comes to the attention of the government and she is presented with the opportunity to move up in life when Auto-America rejoins the Olympics with an eye on beating ChinRussia. Will she submit to the allure of an easier yet controlled future or honor all she’s learned from her resister parents?
The Resisters uses our national pastime as the backdrop for an imagined world we can readily imagine. One where automation, a divided society, a climate ruined earth and a contentious world seems real enough to let us wonder if humanity will actually prevail.