{"id":5247,"date":"2023-01-19T08:18:53","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T08:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/?p=5247"},"modified":"2023-01-19T08:33:42","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T08:33:42","slug":"qa-with-sean-rabin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/qa-with-sean-rabin\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A with Sean Rabin<\/span>Sally O'Reilly<\/span>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Australian author Sean Rabin\u2019s novel<\/span> The Good Captain<\/span><\/i> is an environmental thriller that warns against complacency about the climate crisis. Set in the mid 21<\/span>st<\/span> century during a time of plummeting fish stocks, it presents a disturbing picture of what the world might soon become. The story follows a group of radical environmentalists committed to extreme disobedience and determined to challenge the powers threatening the last of the earth\u2019s marine life. Their boat, symbolically named Mama, is captained by the formidable Rena, who was born and raised on the ocean. Here, he talks to Sally O’Reilly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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What inspired you to write The Good Captain<\/em>? How would you summarise the themes of the novel?<\/b><\/p>\n

Snorkelling in Greece twenty years ago and witnessing a barren Mediterranean Sea certainly planted the seed of this book. It grew from there as I investigated the effects of industrial fishing, aquaculture, plastic pollution and warming oceans. Australians spend a lot of their time in or around the ocean \u2013 we tell ourselves we have a deep connection with the sea \u2013 but I was stunned at how little people knew about declining fish stocks, and shocked at how some people wilfully avoided such information to protect their lifestyle. People have become highly efficient at avoiding unwanted information, so I\u2019ve sought to write a Trojan horse \u2013 a novel that on the surface presents as a sea-faring thriller, while at the same time reveals the issues facing the ocean and its inhabitants. The result is essentially a fantasy of accountability \u2013 bringing to justice people who betray their positions of power to the detriment of our planet. Built upon this are also themes about humanity\u2019s place within the natural world \u2013 activism \u2013 grief for the planet \u2013 and listening to the stories the earth is trying to tell us.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The narrative is set in a near future in which catastrophic overfishing has reached crisis point. How did you research this?<\/b><\/p>\n

I read widely; examined my relationship with the sea; contemplated the aching sadness of an empty ocean, and asked myself how far I would go to prevent such thing from occurring. The threats to the ocean mentioned in the book are real \u2013 fish stocks plummeting \u2013 aquaculture creating dead zones \u2013 orca pods dying off from pollution \u2013 marine heat waves \u2013 red tides \u2013 subsidised trawlers decimating the ocean floor \u2013 sharks facing extinction. It doesn\u2019t take much to imagine where such things will lead. Initially, I intended to set The Good Captain<\/em> well into the future, but the more I researched the closer the future approached<\/span><\/p>\n

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What do you think might be the role of writers in the Anthropocene?<\/b><\/p>\n

It sounds like a paradox, but writers need to use their imagination and at the same time tell the truth. We have to help people see what the future might be like, and also be honest about how this future may not be happy or safe. We cannot afford to lie to our readers and tell them everything is going to be okay just because it will make our books more marketable or easier to digest. Hope can be a delusion \u2013 an anaesthetic to fear and grief. Hope can be a drug that prevents us from doing something real. Writers are not in the business of peddling hope \u2013 we are in the business of explaining what we see in an effort to broaden humanity\u2019s perception of the world.\u00a0 Writers also need to put the environment at the centre of the story and not use climate change as just a backdrop for typical human dramas \u2013 all this does is reinforce the idea of human supremacy \u2013 that what happens to humans is most important story to be told. Writers can help people perceive how nature has a voice and stories to share \u2013 maybe then more people will realise what\u2019s at stake and why it\u2019s worth fighting for.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there a specific thought or idea that motivates you into taking action over the climate and ecological emergency?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

How will I explain to my son where all the fish went? What did I do to try and stop such a disaster? Are we going to be the monsters of our grandchildren\u2019s nightmares? This was certainly my initial motivation to write The Good Captain<\/em>. But once you realise this is a blue planet \u2013 that 70 per cent of the earth is covered in ocean \u2013 how it regulates global temperatures \u2013 provides 80 per cent of our oxygen \u2013 our fresh water \u2013 delivers protein to one billion people \u2013 captures carbon and stores atmospheric heat \u2013 that all life on earth originated in the sea \u2013 the idea of a barren, acidic ocean is terrifying \u2013 not just from a moral standpoint \u2013 not just from a poetic one \u2013 but from an existential one. Standing back and doing nothing seems impossible. What story could be more important than saving the only home that humanity has ever known?<\/span><\/p>\n

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Do you have a vision for a regenerative future? Does literature have a part to play in creating this future?<\/b><\/p>\n

One hundred-and-fifty million tonnes of wildlife hauled from the ocean every year. Eighty per cent of the world\u2019s fisheries either fully exploited, over-exploited or in a state of collapse. Ninety per cent of all large predatory fish gone. One hundred million sharks killed each year. The ocean is being emptied \u2013 but if we leave it alone it will heal itself. No need for new machines or systems of management \u2013 just get the fucking trawlers out of the water and the ocean will recover. Literature can reveal how we need to remove ourselves from the centre of the story \u2013 stop pretending we are somehow in control \u2013 then maybe we can begin to see ourselves as participants in a much larger story \u2013 one with true meaning and purpose. <\/span>Wilding<\/span><\/i> by Isabella Tree is a pretty convincing example of the role of literature can play in showing people what can be done.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sean Rabin is the author of two novels, <\/i><\/b>The Good Captain<\/strong> (2020, Transit Lounge) and <\/i>Wood Green (2016 Giramondo), as well as a handful of published short stories. He was born in Tasmania, but now lives in Sydney where he dreams of a world where fish are eaten only as a last resort \u2013 by people who have nothing else. He understands how this will result in many seafood businesses losing a great deal of money \u2013 and he honestly doesn\u2019t care.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sean\u2019s call to action<\/b>: It\u2019s the simplest thing to say, but the hardest thing to do. Quite simply, we need to live with\/have less. There is no machine coming to solve the planet\u2019s problems \u2013 no new technology to save the day \u2013 the only thing that will prevent mass extinction is for everyone to live with a lot less. Figures from the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, as well as recent during Covid lockdowns, prove that when the economy slows, global emissions decrease. We have to desist with the idea of growth. We must travel less, eat less, buy fewer clothes; reduce our consumption of everything. We must retrain our brains away from being consumers of this planet, and instead see ourselves as defenders. Preservationists of what\u2019s left so it has the chance to one day grow back into the great abundance that once was.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Australian author Sean Rabin\u2019s novel The Good Captain is an environmental thriller that warns against complacency about the climate crisis. Set in the mid 21st century during a time of plummeting fish stocks, it presents a disturbing picture of what the world might soon become. The story follows a group of radical environmentalists committed […]<\/p>\n

Read More… from Q&A with Sean Rabin<\/span>Sally O'Reilly<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,1],"tags":[211,1043,1045,375,548,1042,293,1044],"yoast_head":"\nQ&A with Sean Rabin - Writers Rebel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/qa-with-sean-rabin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Q&A with Sean Rabin - Writers Rebel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Australian author Sean Rabin\u2019s novel The Good Captain is an environmental thriller that warns against complacency about the climate crisis. 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