Paolo Bacigalupi

About “The People of Sand and Slag”

Paolo Bacigalupi’s story for Wastelands, “The People of Sand and Slag,” was partially inspired by an old boss of his. “[He] insisted that humans are so clever and technologically proficient that we would always find a scientific fix for everything that ails us, so we didn’t have to worry much about population control, pollution, resource depletion, etc.; we could just live the good life and things would sort out just fine,” Bacigalupi said. “He ticked me off so much that I had to write something for him. It took me eight years to find the right response, but what the hell, better late than never, right? It was my belated attempt to slap him in the face.”

In this story, a trio of super-warriors are guarding a mining complex. “In the course of their work, they come across a dog living in the mine’s tailings fields, and have to decide what to do with it,” Bacigalupi said. “The main character is a guard named Chen who protects the mine complex and plays video games during his off-time. He has a good, cushy life, until the dog shows up.”

This story was one of the easiest and fastest that Bacigalupi has ever written, he said. “It took me a couple of weeks and then it was done. That doesn’t happen with me very often. Mostly I agonize for months over a story. This one came to me as a complete package: the dog, my old boss…boom, it came together.”