"Nanopolitics" - February 20, 2025
Working together is not always the easiest thing to do. However, when your very life depends on it, to not work together can be a problem...
Every Thursday, Silver Gecko Publishing highlights one of my stories, either a work of short fiction, a novel, or an audiobook.
This week’s presentation is a story that has reared its head throughout the years in various forms. I originally wrote “Nanopolitics” in the mid-90s. It is included in the anthology THE GHOST READERS AND OTHER STORIES, which was published in 2017. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, I recorded an audio version of the story and made it available on the Fat Guys at the Movies web site and podcast feed.
Each time this little tale shows up, it is painfully relevant. To wit, here’s what I had to say about it in my endnotes to THE GHOST READERS anthology…
While I don’t write about politics much at all, I do find the subject fascinating. One of the greatest frustrations that one finds in politics is how hard it is for the different sides to get along and how remarkable it is when anything gets done with a consensus.
In every era, the media reminds us that we are “as divided as ever.” Everyone wants to believe that political infighting is at its worst (even though it usually isn’t). As someone who gleans a lot of popular history from movies, I can assure you that people have been bickering about politics forever, as evidenced by films like Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon, Oliver Stone’s JFK, Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, and the classic musical 1776. (Yeah, I know that movies offer as reliable of a history education as a Wikipedia entry, but what do you expect from a professional film critic like myself?)
It is not uncommon for a government to be described as a metaphorical body. However, I have never been truly comfortable with that analogy. After all, our body parts do their job – often under great stress – without fighting back. And that got me wondering... what if they did fight back?
Don’t worry… this isn’t going to become a political blog. I figure if you’re craving politics, there are plenty of other corners of the Internet where you can find your own agreeable rock to look under. But keep alive the weird little lessons of “Nanopolitics” as you go about life.
For a diversion, I have included the audio version of the story that was released five years ago on my podcast feed. If you want to read the original tale (or other ones collected with it), check out THE GHOST READERS AND OTHER STORIES available now on Kindle and in Paperback.
Enjoy your weekend!
-Kevin Carr
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“Nanopolitics” by Kevin Carr
Artwork by Benjamin Géza
