Adam Rothstein, a writer living in Portland, Oregon, went through many stages of denial and acceptance of the Cascadia Subduction Zone when he first discovered his hometown would likely experience a monstrous earthquake in his lifetime. He read hundreds of pages of reports and scientific papers to understand the aftermath of such an earthquake. The outcome of this research was After the Big One, a series of five installments. He writes a first-person account of what it would be like, according to scientific information, to be in Portland after ‘the big one.’ Rothstein’s scenario is of a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, roughly the same magnitude as Tohōku.
The earthquake the story is an event that severs time into a distinct before and after. The premise of the piece is that the “before” is non-fictional whereas the “after” is fictional. The “before” world is the exact same world as ours. Rothstein aims to transport us to a fictional place which is only five minutes away from being real. After the Big One has an instrumental motive that contrasts the motives of retrospective earthquake fictions. Rothstein’s piece is meant to inspire people to prepare not only for the moments of earthquake, but for the predicted challenges the city will face in its wake.
Actor Network
The relationships between real and fictional actors of Rothstein’s story are demonstrated in this figure. In green, the present-day world of Portland where Rothstein lives and where we are is threatened by an earthquake that could happen at any time. In grey, Rothstein’s piece represents what will happen after the earthquake.
To read more, see my outcomes.