Vegetable Apocalypse?

Ever wonder what the earth might look like if vegetables took over the world? Carl Warner has:

So has Octavia Butler. She wrote an entire sf trilogy that involves spaceships, genetics, aliens trying to take over the world, and interesting ways of generating food (and people). She’s one of my favorite all-time authors. Her novel, Parable of the Sower, made it on my top ten favorite apocalyptic novels.

Cornification

I saw Warner’s artwork on io9.com and felt inspired to share this with all of you. Something about his inventiveness and attention to detail captures my imagination and makes me want to write stories set in strange worlds like the ones he’s created. As I was writing this post though, I realized that while amazing, Warner’s foodscapes are not as novel as I had first thought.

Something about the nightmare idea of food taking over the world just-makes-sense.

Don’t believe me? Check out Shawn Hendriks post on Enslaved by Corn. Or The Ominvore’s Dilemma, or, or… well, maybe Warner’s artwork isn’t meant to be political. I mean, it is an imaginary world of broccoli trees, milk waterfalls, and biscuit mountains, but still, remember what happened to those greedy kids in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Bad things. Bad, bad things.

Thanks goes to io9 for finding Carl Wagner’s collection of foodscapes. Can’t say I’d want a bite out of Warner’s broccoli tree, plus the biscuit mountain looks a little tough to chew, but check out Warner’s full gallery of foodscapes. I wouldn’t mind spending lunchtime in his Tuscan Market.

Oh, My! (Final Thought)

Warner’s art looks like what might happen if the Smurfs had a threesome with the Twilight Zone and Charlie & the Chocolate factory. Come to think of it, UNICEF already imagined what that threesome might look like:

Your Turn

So what do you think? The Vegetable Apocalypse: a disturbingly accurate prophecy of our not-to-distant future, or does it make you want to keep a bowl of ranch dressing handy?

Is a blank piece of paper driving you crazy?

“Writer’s block is a phenomenon involving temporary loss of ability to begin or continue writing, usually due to lack of inspiration or creativity.”

There are writerly ways of overcoming the blank page, or you can Hack Your Way out of Writer’s Block.

But if you had only one sheet of paper, you could…

…Do Something Like This:

(Click images to enlarge)

or this…

or this

or this

Or this

Each image is made from a single sheet of paper and an amazing imagination (in this case, Peter Callesen’s).

For more beautiful single sheet art visit: A Single Sheet of Paper and Peter Callesen’s selected works.

Just Write

No matter how you try to overcome that blank page, keep in mind Steve Martin’s famous quote:

“I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper.”

Now please excuse me. I’ve figured out how to fix my first novel and I need to find a pair of scissors.