Imagining a parallel planet with 2 moons can give new perspectives on climate change, says author

Day 610:22Canadian graphic novelist hopes new novel will be a path toward climate action

Sometimes looking at something from a different angle can give a new perspective, and Canadian author Cecil Castellucci hopes her new graphic novel can be an avenue for that in the fight against climate change.

Shifting Earth tells the story of botanist Dr. Maeve Millay, who gets transported by a freak particle storm to an idyllic Earth with two moons.

Castellucci is an award-winning YA novelist, musician and director. Her other books include Shade, Odd Duck and Star Wars Moving Target. She has also written Batgirl for DC Comics.

Day 6 host Brent Bambury spoke with Castellucci about her new book, writing about hope, and inspiring a path toward climate action. Here's part of that conversation.

This is a book about dualities. This is a book about finding other ways of looking at things and comparing them to the waywe dothings. So when [the main character] leaves this planet, she falls to a parallel planet. Can you describe the parallel Earth?

She gets pulled over to a parallel Earth when something happens. And on this other Earth, it's developed differently because there are two moons. And so there's not a lot of land mass.

So when she gets there, because they've organized society in a different way and because they've had different elements to deal with, they have a lot of wind, they have a lot of storms, they have a lot of waves, they have a lot of water. So they use that as their sort of power sources, but their world causes them their own difficulties.

But it does seem very idyllic because it's a sustainable way of life. That's the way they've organized and they've got all the seeds that Maeve could use back home. But how do you get back home once you've been pulled over to a parallel Earth?

How did you come to imagine what life would be like if we had two moons?

Well, I'm a big nerd, so I did a lot of a lot of research on that. You know, just sort of looking at, there's lots of articles about like, what would it be like if we had two moons.

So I just kind of played around with that and made my own decisions about that.

Today is always a good day to start doing something, and I think that that's the lesson.- Cecil Castellucci

When Maeve comes to this second Earth, she thinks initially that this is kind of an idyllic place because they've worked out their resources and they have all these seeds and it's a place that seems to have harmony, but there's something wrong with it. It isn't perfect, is it?

No. And one thing that I really wanted to sort of think about was how we as humans organize ourselves. And some things can look like they're really, really great. But there's always some problems that need to be addressed.

And I didn't want this world to be this perfect, idyllic place. I wanted it to have a lot of really great things to offer, but a lot of things that it could work on as well, because I think that's what we as humans need to do on our planet as well, is think about all the good things that we have and how can we maximize that and pay attention to the things that are not working.

What are the lessons that we can take from your stories of how humans behave on both these planets?

I think the lesson is to try to pay attention to what's going on and to take actions. I think one of the big things with the climate crisis is that a lot of people might say, 'Oh, well, it's too late,' or 'What can I do now'?

A lot of people say we should have started doing stuff many, many years ago, but today is always a good day to start doing something. And I think that's the lesson, right? What actions are you going to take today that are going to open your eyes and make your world a better place?

You've described the book as being Hope Punk. Is Hope Punk an actual genre?

It is. It's about telling hopeful stories rather than stories that focus on the disastrous consequences. But to try to think of actions that can be taken as steps toward positivity.

Did you know when you started Shifting Earth that was what you were aiming for? Because hope absolutely is one of the themes of this book.

Yeah. I think because I was trapped in my house and I couldn't go outside because of plague and also because of air quality I wanted to escape in some way and there's nowhere for me to go.

I was thinking about, what if I could go to another place, but also realizing that wouldn't solve my problems if I went somewhere else, that there would still be work to do wherever I went.

And so and I think that if we can imagine something hopeful and have a conversation about, what can I do, then we can imagine having a better a better world.

Produced by Laurie Allen