6-foot pine: life and romance in the chrondemic age

Abstract

6-foot pine: life and romance in the chrondemic age is a hybrid work of speculative fiction that interrogates attraction and connection in a near-future time of chronic pandemics while under the persistent choking ravages of climate change. Zach, a dental receptionist, artist, and comic enthusiast, and Olivia, a get-it-done senior accountant, start a passionate office romance during the twelfth year of the latest pandemic, a time when their every movement and interaction is carefully circumscribed to prevent contagion inside, while their lives outside the office are shrouded in a near-constant smog. Despite these challenges, Zach and Olivia, guided by Captain Capsule, their comic-book muse, deepen their connection. Along the way, they navigate the constraints of office politics, corporate power, and technological intrusion, and face head-on their relationship to nature and personal monstrosity. As suggested by the title, 6-foot pine explores distance and boundaries, whether physical, familial, romantic, or cultural. Mirroring how Zach and Olivia’s relationship pushes against all confines, the story plays out across a diversity of forms including live theater, narrative prose, concrete poetry, and virtual reality to build an immersive and participatory world for the reader and audience.