<p>
Have you spent hours mulling the future of Texan literary culture? Well, stop right there, buckaroo, and read <a title=”Don Graham’s satirically speculative piece in the <I>Texas Observer</I>” href=”http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2687″ target=”_blank”>Don Graham’s satirically speculative piece in the <i>Texas Observer</i>
</a>. Launching from the run-of-the-mill idea that it will someday be the year 2043, Graham’s essay creatively details the future repeat successes of Texas luminaries such as Larry McMurtry, who, in 2043, is unable to cease writing novels.</p>
<p>Mocking everything from politically correct grammar (imagining “ze” as a popular, gender-neutral pronoun) to a general lack of wisdom (“It wasn’t clear what anybody learned about anything anymore from any source anywhere”), Graham imagines a future for Texas culture that magnifies nothing so much as current peccadilloes, for instance anti-ecofriendly sentiments:</p>
<p>
<i>The only automobiles permitted in the city were for political dignitaries and those wealthy enough to participate in Nostalgia Day, when they drove vintage automobiles around and burned up lots of ethanol, running over a cyclist or two to get in touch with their old feelings.</i>
</p>
<p>May Texas always seem a real hoot.</p>
<p>–<i>
<a title=”Michael Rowe” href=”https://www.utne.com/bios/utne-reader-interns.aspx” target=”_self”>
<font color=”#800080″>Michael Rowe</font>
</a>
</i>
</p>
<p>
<em>Image by </em>
<a title=”Beau Wade” href=”http://flickr.com/photos/absolutwade/” target=”_blank”>
<em>Beau Wade</em>
</a>
<em>, licensed</em>
<em>under</em>
<a title=”Creative Commons” href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en” target=”_blank”>
<em>Creative Commons</em>
</a>
<em>.</em>
</p>
