Galperin on Museum of Joy @JoshGalperin @HaubLawatPace @ELIORG

Joshua Galperin, Pace University School of Law, is publishing Museum of Joy, in a volume to be published by the Environmental Law Institute (2025). Here is the abstract.

This document is a work of short fiction, which will appear in an edited volume of scholarship on the subject "consumption and the good life in the Anthropocene." (I assume it is the only work of fiction in the volume. Thanks to the editors for agreeing to allow me to submit something like this!) Although this piece is still in draft format, after the "global tech outage" on July 18, 2024, I thought it would be wise to make the piece available before reality fully became stranger than my fiction. "Holy cow, it's a scorcher" lilted the announcer, trailing off with a chortle. You could hear the smile running from ear to ear and it was hard not to smile along thinking about kids playing in sprinklers, parents sitting under rainbow umbrellas, wiping the sweat from their brows, and the droplets of cool water running down a glass of iced tea. “This is too sad.” Frances grabbed the remote and switched off the TV. The image of Jason Alexander as George Costanza with ice cream smeared across his face blinked away. “Why are they so playful about the heat?” She breathed out a sigh and closed her eyes for a moment. “It's threatening.” Bruce groaned, subtly but distinctly. “The guy sounds happy about how hot it is! Is it a joke about melting ice cream? All I can think about are people crouching in little slivers of shade, and kids dead after a brownout. "Fine. We can dump this episode” Bruce conceded “There are plenty more.”

Download the story from SSRN at the link.