Summer Interlude
A short story satire about the car dystopia that is Kuala Lumpur, and moving news
Current word count: ???
My progress on the second novel has slowed down to zero, as I am currently grappling with a big move, as we have now moved (back) to KL, Malaysia! This will, actually, be home. It is strange to be back after so long. I’ve not explored KL as an adult, on my own terms, so please do send over any recommendations for things to do. Especially things that do not revolve around shopping and malls. We have spent a few mornings in Taman Tugu, which is a great place to hang out with kids.
Anyway, as we battle through the joys of getting visas, here is a new satirical short story, Baby+ With A Car Like Wolverine’s Claws, hot off the press from The Sengkang Sci-Fi Quarterly. This story is inspired by the car dystopia that is my home, Kuala Lumpur. Pictures and inspiration below:
Because there are so many cars, neighbourhoods in Klang Valley are separated by these major, major highways. And because the roads are so large and need so much space, this inevitably squeezes living spaces into vertical house perched at the side of mega-highways.
We are not talking about driving from one state to another. This highway literally separates my neighbourhood and the next neighbourhood. There is no way of getting to the next neighbourhood without going on this monstrous eight-lane highway, which expands into 16 or so lanes to accommodate all the cars. And this is in urban/ suburban KL, not in the middle of North America.
And because we don’t have any walkable neighbourhoods as public spaces have been taken by roads, what would have been local community shops squeezed into giant, air-conditioned malls. The picture below shows One Utama which is the seventh largest shopping mall in the world, and is in a neighbourhood next to mine. I once used to be proud of this fact, but now I just cringe at what factors have led to enable this super-giant mall to flourish.
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Welcome home! 💚 & btw the link to the short story doesn’t work?