Thread by @atomicthumbs

@simonstalenhag I finally got home and was able to read my copy (#123! auspicious) of The Electric State!

1. it is a fucking spectacular book
2. I very much appreciate your replacement of notorious pirate and slaver Sir Francis Drake with Saint Augustine

and 3:

I have noticed a disturbing similarity between the settings and narrative of The Electric State and my unfinished project (also my first large project) Desert Structure Investigation.

disturbing because neither of us can possibly have read the other's work before this...

I suspect the simultaneous independent invention of "post-soft-apocalypse United States with odd machines doing things incomprehensible to humans and the landscape of technology irreversably changed" speaks to a greater pattern of things we have both identified & are reacting to.

there are a whole bunch of details that are nearly identical, too (car trip across strange changed state, coping with interacting with humanity after the changes, etc)

this is really weirding me out. which gestalt have we both stumbled upon?

I suppose I'm also writing this since if my book becomes successful, I don't want people (or you!) to read it and see my photos and writing and think "These ideas are similar in a lot of respects, did this guy plagarize Stålenhag?"

I'm not quite sure what to do about that.

in any case, we're guaranteed visual distinction, in part because your masterful use of color and my use of none.

:v