Ian McEwan Discusses 'What We Can Know' and Writing About Climate Change

Imagining a Post-Climate Change Future

• 🌍 The novel "What We Can Know" depicts a Britain in the mid-21st century, transformed into a chain of islands by irreversible climate change impacts, with its population halved.
• 💡 Despite the catastrophe, the story focuses on the loves, betrayals, and crimes of characters living in this altered world, looking back at our present.

Science Fiction Without Science

• 🚀 Ian McEwan aimed to write a science fiction novel that eschews traditional scientific elements, focusing instead on the future of humanities, history, love, and daily life.
• 🎭 He wanted to avoid common sci-fi tropes like spaceships, instead exploring the human condition in a speculative future.

The Realist Novel and Existential Subjects

• ✍️ McEwan questioned whether the realist novel, traditionally focused on interpersonal relationships and daily life, could adequately tackle a colossal subject like climate change.
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 He concluded that it is possible because any discussion of climate change must involve people and their experiences.

The Mystery of a Lost Poem

• 📜 A central mystery in the novel involves a famous poem written by a fictional poet, Francis Blundy, which is lost to time but gains mythical renown.
• 🗣️ Each friend present at its recitation recalls the poem and the evening differently, highlighting the fallibility of memory and historical accounts.

The Value of the Novel and Human Progress

• 💡 McEwan believes poetry is the highest form of literary expression and that things of value will survive even in a diminished future.
• ⏳ He worries that as climate change impacts grow, humanity may fall into a metaphysical gloom, losing hope in human progress and failing to act before it's too late.
• 📖 The novelist's role, he suggests, is to provide access to minds and tell the right story, a unique capability that keeps the novel essential.