“Preservation is an action, not a state”

This chapter examines a hopeful strand of recent science fiction through Sarah Pinsker’s A Song for a New Day (2019), which is set during the socioeconomic after-effects of a pandemic lockdown. Pinsker’s novel imagines a future of dystopian surveillance capitalism, exacerbated by years of lockdown-accelerated consumerism and dependence on online platforms. However, I argue that it also provides a vision of optimistic grassroots activism where Do-It-Yourself music and art communities become utopian enclaves that foster rejuvenating action, inspired by the emotional power of music. By focusing on the music business, Pinsker accesses the wider concern of commodifying all aspects of our lives through social media—but instead of dark dystopias, her novel charts ways for communities to disrupt hegemonic exploitative capitalism. As the novel becomes an ode to local underground art and music communities and their capacity to mobilize for meaningful action, I argue that Pinsker’s work takes a stand for opening up the enclaves and engaging in outward action, instead of walling-off the ideal islands of better places.