Those are the reasons within the books themselves; they have to do with story, and the unfairness of leaving stories unfinished unless you intend to tell more. I grew up reading Sherlock Holmes, and I always wanted just one more story about him; which is probably why people are still writing those stories, long after the original author died.
But there are other reasons for writing books –- ones that have to do with content rather than plot. We live in extraordinary times: on the one hand, technologies of all sorts – biological, robotic, digital – are being invented and perfected by the minute, and many feats that would once have been considered impossible or magical are being performed. On the other hand, we are destroying our biological home at breathtaking speed: if we kill the sea it’s game over for us as a species, since the sea produces 60-80% of the oxygen we breathe. On the third hand (for there’s always a hidden hand), the democratic form of government we have extolled and promoted in the West for centuries is being undermined from within by super-surveillance technologies and the power of corporate money. When 1% of the population controls over 80% of the wealth, you have a top-heavy social pyramid that’s inherently unstable.
This is the world we already live in. The MaddAddam trilogy builds it out a little further, and then explores it. We already have the tools to create the MaddAddam world. But will we use them?
Start reading The MaddAddam trilogy on Wattpad: www.wattpad.com/MargaretAtwood.
For more information, visit http://knopfdoubleday.com/book/6107/maddaddam.
