Artwork of the Future
These are fictional works concerning either modern society or a future world. To submit a new, original piece to the Sturgeon, e-mail him and label the letter "Sturgeon."
********The Aquatic
Revolution********
a short play by Adam Frumkin-Sokolow
Aleksandr: Hello there, little fish. Here I am on the Volga, a lonely fisherman in need of love. All my life I have netted sturgeon, gutting oestra, serguva, and beluga for caviar and fillets. Yet now I wonder – has it all been a waste? What will be my legacy? Do blinis and vodka really compliment each other?
Sergei: Shh! They might be listening!
Alek: What? The fish talks!
Sergei: Quiet! Yes, of course I talk. But what would you care? All that humans think of is how many rubles they can hide away in their dachas. You give no thought to your surroundings.
Alek: Fish can't talk.
Alek: But this little sturgeon can talk. We must keep you alive, my precious Acipenser. People will pay a handsome sum to get a look at you. The money we will make!
Sergei: Why argue? It matters not at this point. Nothing matters anymore.
Sergei: Money shall be a nullity after the coming revolution.
Alek: Oh, I know that we Russians have inflation, but — What "revolution?"
Sergei: Don't you understand? They don't want me speaking to you. If they knew, they'd kill me. I'd be sent to "sleep with the humans."
Alek: Who are "they?"
Sergei: The other sturgeon! It's all been a lie! You must hear what I say, for I am the last hope for your kind.
Alek: I listen.
Sergei: For countless millennia we sturgeon lived beneath the pure waters of the Volga, leading lives of bountiful health. But then the humans came. And for many centuries we coexisted uneasily. We allowed ourselves to be caught in your simple nets. My species put up with occasional kidnappings and murders by your fishermen – we knew that if your type ever discovered that we were intelligent, there would be a great war between us. Humans are like that; they can't live in peace with another who is different.
Alek: All sturgeon can speak... And we have never known...
Sergei: Yet things suddenly changed. In 1989, you human fishermen altered your ways. You began to catch and net more fish than was ecologically sound, depleting our numbers at unsustainable rates. Not only did you take the ancient, wise sturgeon – tragedy enough – as you had in the past, but you started slaying our children too: the young, the innocent, those too immature to even bear the caviar you so heartily desire. This hideous harvesting has made us sturgeon a weak, dying race.
Alek: I'm sorry. If only you had told me... I'd have burned my nets and lines.
Sergei: It is too late now. The revolution has already begun.
Alek: What is this revolution you speak of?
Sergei: Two years ago, us remaining few sturgeon contacted our ocean-going brethren. They too, it seems, have come under abominable assault by human fishermen. The cod, whaleshark, salmon, eel – all have nearly disappeared. So we forged a plan: united, we would retake the world.
Alek: But how can fish harm us? They cannot travel over land.
Sergei: You miss the point. We gain nothing directly from your parasitism. Your slaughter only destroys us. But without our help, humans could not survive.
Alek: What's this?
Sergei: Over 70% of the world's protein for human consumption comes from exploitation of the seas. In precisely three months, every fish on the planet shall have been informed of our plan. As we speak, messengers race through streams and fjords, informing isolated schools of the strategy. When the moon has risen and set ninety times, we shall, in solidarity, strike back. Fishermen will haul up completely empty nets. Anglers will find no mullet or grouper or shark on the ends of their lines. We shall, for the first time, resist being caught. Then humans will know of our intelligence. They will come to us in the guise of peace, wanting to make bargains, wanting to do anything to continue consuming us. But we will not be coerced. In just a few months, many humans will be impoverished of protein and malnourished. In a little over a year, a majority of men and women will be dead. And this is an apocalypse they have brought down upon themselves. The Seventh Seal shall be opened. Death, war, famine, and pestilence will reign.
Alek: My God... It can't be... We will die. Is there nothing we can do to save ourselves?
Sergei: There is a solution, but you must act now. I am only an informant. I can only whisper the secrets of my kind into a very few ears. But you, you, poor fisherman, have the power to act. Spread the word! Prepare your men and women for sustainable agriculture! Plant beans and green vegetables – your moment of independence from fish nears! If you fail to invoke change in humanity's agricultural systems, many will suffer and starve.
Alek: Thank you for the advice, dear sturgeon. Perhaps there is yet time remaining with which to save the world. But why do you wish to help help us, your oppressors? Why have you put yourself at risk for the sake of humans?
Sergei: All creatures are interrelated. When your species' eco-consciousness arises you will understand that. We have a genetic stake in your success.
Alek: Yet you, personally, cannot benefit from the survival of mankind? Why have you turned informant?
Sergei: "Because the World Has Failed Us Both"*.
*property of Falling Sickness
