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A Parable for End Times is a setting of an excerpt from Canadian author Steven Erikson’s novella “The Devil Delivered”. The story depicts a near-future Earth ravaged by nuclear fallout, depleted natural resources, and an ozone hole the size of the Great Plains. In this dystopia, a young boy’s painfully naive question – “what did I do wrong” – is met with a scathing diatribe on humanity’s complicity in its own planet’s destruction, resulting from a myopic preoccupation with ephemeral comforts and exploitative indulgence.
This piece is my response to how timely and prescient Erikson’s words feel in the current cultural landscape.