The Past Is Red
by Catherynne M. Valente
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The future is blue-endless except for a few small places that float across the hot, drowned world left behind by long-gone fossil fuel-guzzlers. One of those patches is a magical place called Garbagetown. Tetley Abednego is the most beloved girl in Garbagetown, but she's the only one who knows it. She's the only one who knows a lot of things: that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it's full of hope, that you can love someone and 66% hate them all at the same time. show more But Earth is a terrible mess, hope is a fragile thing, and a lot of people are very angry with her. Then Tetley discovers a new friend, a terrible secret, and more to her world than she ever expected. show lessTags
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This book reprints the story "The Future Is Blue" from the Drowned Worlds anthology, and follows it with a further novella "The Past Is Red." The latter was written about four years later for the author Catherynne M. Valente (in late 2020) and ten years later for her protagonist Tetley Abednego (sometime after 2133).
Tetley is an irrepressible survivor and an unreliable narrator who hails from Garbagetown on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, evidently one of the largest of remaining human communities in the 22nd century. The first story accounts for her becoming a hated outcast by age 19, and the second gives the saga by which she matures into a "trash Plato" (138) in her third decade.
The Garbagetowners have an ambivalently hostile envy show more for their antediluvian ancestors (i.e. us), to whom they consistently refer as "Fuckwits." In light of the current situation in US society, it's not hard to read this sentiment as the Millennial/GenX view of Boomers writ large.
Valente herself compares Tetley to Voltaire's Candide (148), and there's a little of de Sade's Justine in her as well. But the tone here is not so satirical, and the concerns of the parable are remote from those of the philosophes. The afterword and the acknowledgements claim an independence for Tetley, whom her author has gradually come to know, and the character does have an engaging voice to draw the reader into and through her world, which is enchanting to her, and ultimately, only differently horrible than ours.
The whole book is wonderfully weird but sadly feasible cli-fi that I read in about three sittings: a speedy read and a satisfying one. show less
Tetley is an irrepressible survivor and an unreliable narrator who hails from Garbagetown on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, evidently one of the largest of remaining human communities in the 22nd century. The first story accounts for her becoming a hated outcast by age 19, and the second gives the saga by which she matures into a "trash Plato" (138) in her third decade.
The Garbagetowners have an ambivalently hostile envy show more for their antediluvian ancestors (i.e. us), to whom they consistently refer as "Fuckwits." In light of the current situation in US society, it's not hard to read this sentiment as the Millennial/GenX view of Boomers writ large.
Valente herself compares Tetley to Voltaire's Candide (148), and there's a little of de Sade's Justine in her as well. But the tone here is not so satirical, and the concerns of the parable are remote from those of the philosophes. The afterword and the acknowledgements claim an independence for Tetley, whom her author has gradually come to know, and the character does have an engaging voice to draw the reader into and through her world, which is enchanting to her, and ultimately, only differently horrible than ours.
The whole book is wonderfully weird but sadly feasible cli-fi that I read in about three sittings: a speedy read and a satisfying one. show less
“Have you been running a quality assurance test on me all this time, Tetley?” she teases, laughing.
But I keep eating snap peas and I don't say anything back because when you really think about it, it isn't funny. When humans meet other humans, that's all they do forever.
This is a postapocalyptic novella about a young girl, and then a young woman, who lives in a place called Garbagetown after the seas have risen so high there's no land left anywhere. It has a strong narrative voice, and a strong sense of theme: it's a great story about the places we look for hope, in each other and in stories, and about the ways we're often let down. Obviously it's a Tordotcom novella, but it's not one of the ones that reads like a pilot show more for a streaming show, it's an actual piece of prose. I really liked it. show less
But I keep eating snap peas and I don't say anything back because when you really think about it, it isn't funny. When humans meet other humans, that's all they do forever.
This is a postapocalyptic novella about a young girl, and then a young woman, who lives in a place called Garbagetown after the seas have risen so high there's no land left anywhere. It has a strong narrative voice, and a strong sense of theme: it's a great story about the places we look for hope, in each other and in stories, and about the ways we're often let down. Obviously it's a Tordotcom novella, but it's not one of the ones that reads like a pilot show more for a streaming show, it's an actual piece of prose. I really liked it. show less
HOW TO EVEN TALK ABOUT THIS BOOK?
It takes place on a floating garbage patch in a post-climate-crisis world where everything is now underwater and the pre-crisis people are reviled as the fuckwits they/we were/are for recklessly destroying everything. All of society/identity is based on what kind of garbage you process to add to the island. And our protagonist has done something so huge/drastic/unpopular that the law is that anyone can do anything they like to her -- curse her, attack her, destroy her things, and she is supposed to thank them "for the instruction."
And yet? Telley is somehow made of hope? And love for all that is left? And the book is about making connections and the power of stories and loving what you have and letting show more go of what you don't. As is typical of Valente, I got to a certain point and felt whomped by how much I loved this. She is made of magic. show less
It takes place on a floating garbage patch in a post-climate-crisis world where everything is now underwater and the pre-crisis people are reviled as the fuckwits they/we were/are for recklessly destroying everything. All of society/identity is based on what kind of garbage you process to add to the island. And our protagonist has done something so huge/drastic/unpopular that the law is that anyone can do anything they like to her -- curse her, attack her, destroy her things, and she is supposed to thank them "for the instruction."
And yet? Telley is somehow made of hope? And love for all that is left? And the book is about making connections and the power of stories and loving what you have and letting show more go of what you don't. As is typical of Valente, I got to a certain point and felt whomped by how much I loved this. She is made of magic. show less
4.5 stars! Tetley Abednego is our optimistic, foul mouthed guide in The Past is Red, a post-apocalyptic tale set in a bleak future. Through Tetley we are introduced to Garbagetown, a floating island of actual trash so large that it has many neighborhoods in which to live. Garbagetown is all that’s left of the world after a climate disaster destroys pretty much everything along with the vast majority of humans.
The Past is Red manages to be absolutely devastating and also hopeful at the same time, a feat that is only possible because of Valente’s protagonist, Tetley. She’s determined to be hopeful and see the bright side of every situation, no matter how grim. And for her in particular, it’s extra grim.
Because Valente is such a show more good writer, Tetley has a great, distinct 1st person voice with tons of personality. And the worldbuilding is so wacky, weird and cool. At one point, Tetley lives in a house made of discarded candles!
The Future is Blue is the first part of the book, which takes place when Tetley is a child. The Past is Red is the second part, which begins when Tetley is 29 years old. In the afterword I learned that the two parts were actually written separately, as The Future is Blue was previously released as a short story. I think I preferred the first part over the second, as I thought it was slightly more compelling seeing things through younger Tetley’s perspective.
What would’ve bumped this up to a 5 star rating for me is a stronger ending, and a little less confusion while jumping around through the timeline (although I totally get that we had to jump around for the sake of specific plot points). show less
The Past is Red manages to be absolutely devastating and also hopeful at the same time, a feat that is only possible because of Valente’s protagonist, Tetley. She’s determined to be hopeful and see the bright side of every situation, no matter how grim. And for her in particular, it’s extra grim.
Because Valente is such a show more good writer, Tetley has a great, distinct 1st person voice with tons of personality. And the worldbuilding is so wacky, weird and cool. At one point, Tetley lives in a house made of discarded candles!
The Future is Blue is the first part of the book, which takes place when Tetley is a child. The Past is Red is the second part, which begins when Tetley is 29 years old. In the afterword I learned that the two parts were actually written separately, as The Future is Blue was previously released as a short story. I think I preferred the first part over the second, as I thought it was slightly more compelling seeing things through younger Tetley’s perspective.
What would’ve bumped this up to a 5 star rating for me is a stronger ending, and a little less confusion while jumping around through the timeline (although I totally get that we had to jump around for the sake of specific plot points). show less
Content warning for violence, rape, and planet-ruining ecological catastrophe.
Tetley Abednego looks on the bright side, mostly. After all, she has lived past the age of ten - old enough that she'll probably live for a good couple of decades more, old enough to be given a name. Most days she has almost enough to eat. She has a brother she loves even if their parents didn't love her, and she dwells in Candle Hole, where the houses are made of beautiful, good-smelling candles.
Candle Hole is part of Garbagetown, "the most wonderful place anybody has ever lived in the history of the world." We call it the great Pacific garbage patch today. In Tetley's time it is, besides a few Misery Boats, the only place people live, as far as she knows, show more the ancient Fuckwits having let climate-change waters swallow up all the dry land. Many decades later, Garbagetown's small population scrapes by, dying young and starving, existing on the leavings of the drowned past.
But stupidity did not end with the old world, and the adult Tetley rescued Garbagetown from making a huge mistake. Her outraged fellow citizens really wanted to make that mistake, so they outlawed her. She must endure whatever beatings - and worse - people wish to inflict, thanking them for her "instruction."
This much of Tetley's story was told in Valente's 2018 novelette, "The Future is Blue." The current book - a 146 page novella - incorporates that story as its first third. Tetley eventually tires of being her society's punching bag, and heads out in search of what might be next. There are people yet to meet, discoveries yet to make, on her postapocalyptic garbage island. And at least one excellent, ironic pun forthcoming. But what can change, really?
I love Tetley for her voice - yet another of Valente's unique heroines:
But it is my experience that you learn everything in this world out of order. You only know what you needed to know after it's already done getting ruined all over you. Being alive is like being a very bad time traveler. One second per second, and yet somehow you still get where you're going too late, or too early, and the planet isn't where it should be because you forgot to calculate for that even though it was extremely important and you left notes by the door to remind yourself, and the butterfly you stepped on when you were eight became a hurricane of everything you ever lost in your forties, and whatever wisdom you tried to pack with you has always gotten lost in transit, arriving, covered in festive stickers, a hundred years after you died.
In an afterword, Valente notes that she wanted to see what kinds of stories might exist after the apocalypse. Her answer: the same kinds we tell today, told, as they will be, by people who know no other world than the wreckage they live in. "The Future is Blue" was both hopeful and pessimistic. The expanded ...is Red doesn't provide any final answers. We won't get answers about Tetley's world. We can still write them for our own. show less
Tetley Abednego looks on the bright side, mostly. After all, she has lived past the age of ten - old enough that she'll probably live for a good couple of decades more, old enough to be given a name. Most days she has almost enough to eat. She has a brother she loves even if their parents didn't love her, and she dwells in Candle Hole, where the houses are made of beautiful, good-smelling candles.
Candle Hole is part of Garbagetown, "the most wonderful place anybody has ever lived in the history of the world." We call it the great Pacific garbage patch today. In Tetley's time it is, besides a few Misery Boats, the only place people live, as far as she knows, show more the ancient Fuckwits having let climate-change waters swallow up all the dry land. Many decades later, Garbagetown's small population scrapes by, dying young and starving, existing on the leavings of the drowned past.
But stupidity did not end with the old world, and the adult Tetley rescued Garbagetown from making a huge mistake. Her outraged fellow citizens really wanted to make that mistake, so they outlawed her. She must endure whatever beatings - and worse - people wish to inflict, thanking them for her "instruction."
This much of Tetley's story was told in Valente's 2018 novelette, "The Future is Blue." The current book - a 146 page novella - incorporates that story as its first third. Tetley eventually tires of being her society's punching bag, and heads out in search of what might be next. There are people yet to meet, discoveries yet to make, on her postapocalyptic garbage island. And at least one excellent, ironic pun forthcoming. But what can change, really?
I love Tetley for her voice - yet another of Valente's unique heroines:
But it is my experience that you learn everything in this world out of order. You only know what you needed to know after it's already done getting ruined all over you. Being alive is like being a very bad time traveler. One second per second, and yet somehow you still get where you're going too late, or too early, and the planet isn't where it should be because you forgot to calculate for that even though it was extremely important and you left notes by the door to remind yourself, and the butterfly you stepped on when you were eight became a hurricane of everything you ever lost in your forties, and whatever wisdom you tried to pack with you has always gotten lost in transit, arriving, covered in festive stickers, a hundred years after you died.
In an afterword, Valente notes that she wanted to see what kinds of stories might exist after the apocalypse. Her answer: the same kinds we tell today, told, as they will be, by people who know no other world than the wreckage they live in. "The Future is Blue" was both hopeful and pessimistic. The expanded ...is Red doesn't provide any final answers. We won't get answers about Tetley's world. We can still write them for our own. show less
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book (although it was originally partially published under a short story called “The Future is Blue”). This novella includes “The Future is Blue” and continues/expands it. I borrowed a copy of this on audiobook from the library to listen to.
Thoughts: This was an amazing read and the audiobook narration is very well done. The story is strangely hopeful and a bit depressing all at the same time. We follow Tetley, a girl in Garbagetown, who does something she thinks is right and ends up the most hated person in Garbagetown because of it. We join her as she tries to survive and make a life in Garbagetown, is hated and abused by her fellow survivors, and continues to think both Garbagetown show more and her life there are the most precious and joyful things in the whole world.
My heart went out to Tetley who is a very positive person living in very trying times. Tetley sees the best in everything, even when her fellow Garbagetown residents are trying to beat her to death and burn her house down. I seriously admire her positive outlook but also felt a bit uncomfortable with how she accepts everything so…smoothly.
This was more accessible than some of Valente's previous books; it’s not quite as flowery and dense (which don't get me wrong I love that style of Valente’s writing too). However, we still get a lot of ironic thoughts, detailed descriptions, and general amazingness here. The whole world created is very tongue-in-cheek and I enjoyed both the creativity and the irony of it all.
While I wouldn't say the tale is funny, it is darkly humorous while still being very poignant. There are some very stark lessons about taking care of the earth and some more universal lessons about humans in general needing the same thing no matter their circumstances (food, safety, love, purpose). We also get to see humanity at its best and worst. Tetley often spouts very deep and thought-provoking phrases that are beautiful in both their simplicity and truth and very true to the deep thoughtfulness Valente is known for.
My Summary (5/5): Overall this was an amazing read. It’s entertaining and darkly humorous while also being disturbing and thought-provoking. I enjoyed it immensely. It is less abstract and dense than a lot of Valente’s previous works which makes it more accessible. However, it is just as intense, immersive, and thoughtful. I look forward to what Valente writes next! show less
Thoughts: This was an amazing read and the audiobook narration is very well done. The story is strangely hopeful and a bit depressing all at the same time. We follow Tetley, a girl in Garbagetown, who does something she thinks is right and ends up the most hated person in Garbagetown because of it. We join her as she tries to survive and make a life in Garbagetown, is hated and abused by her fellow survivors, and continues to think both Garbagetown show more and her life there are the most precious and joyful things in the whole world.
My heart went out to Tetley who is a very positive person living in very trying times. Tetley sees the best in everything, even when her fellow Garbagetown residents are trying to beat her to death and burn her house down. I seriously admire her positive outlook but also felt a bit uncomfortable with how she accepts everything so…smoothly.
This was more accessible than some of Valente's previous books; it’s not quite as flowery and dense (which don't get me wrong I love that style of Valente’s writing too). However, we still get a lot of ironic thoughts, detailed descriptions, and general amazingness here. The whole world created is very tongue-in-cheek and I enjoyed both the creativity and the irony of it all.
While I wouldn't say the tale is funny, it is darkly humorous while still being very poignant. There are some very stark lessons about taking care of the earth and some more universal lessons about humans in general needing the same thing no matter their circumstances (food, safety, love, purpose). We also get to see humanity at its best and worst. Tetley often spouts very deep and thought-provoking phrases that are beautiful in both their simplicity and truth and very true to the deep thoughtfulness Valente is known for.
My Summary (5/5): Overall this was an amazing read. It’s entertaining and darkly humorous while also being disturbing and thought-provoking. I enjoyed it immensely. It is less abstract and dense than a lot of Valente’s previous works which makes it more accessible. However, it is just as intense, immersive, and thoughtful. I look forward to what Valente writes next! show less
The future is bleak. The past is bleak. Hope is painful and keeps us from appreciating the present. Thank you for my instruction, Ms. Valente.
“[I]t is my experience that you learn everything in this world out of order. You only know what you needed to know after it’s already done getting ruined all over you. Being alive is like being a very bad time traveler. One second per second, and yet somehow you still get where you’re going too late, or too early, and the planet isn’t where it should be because you forgot to calculate for that even though it was extremely important and you left notes by the door to remind yourself, and the butterfly you stepped on when you were eight became a hurricane of everything you ever lost in yourshow more
forties, and whatever wisdom you tried to pack with you has always gotten lost in transit, arriving, covered in festive stickers, a hundred years after you died.”show less
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Author Information
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Awards and Honors
Awards
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Contains
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2021
- People/Characters
- Tetley Abednego
- Important places
- Great Pacific Garbage Patch
- First words
- My name is Tetley Abednego and I am the most hated girl in Garbagetown.
- Quotations
- Being alive is like being a very bad time traveler. One second per second, and yet somehow you still get where you're going too late, or too early, and the planet isn't where it should be because you forgot to calculate for t... (show all)hat even though it was extremely important and you left notes by the door to remind yourself, and the butterfly you stepped on when you were eight became a hurricane of everything you ever lost in your forties, and whatever wisdom you tried to pack with you has always gotten lost in transit, arriving, covered in festive stickers, a hundred years after you died.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"Not ever."
- Publisher's editor
- Strahan, Jonathan
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- 425
- Popularity
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- Reviews
- 27
- Rating
- (4.06)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 2
