The Wave

The Wave is speculative fiction. Gloria Steinem has written that "The Wave tells us how to create a future in which creativity, empathy, and social imagination are the primary forces in our daily lives. Everything in it is doable and practical. It is a road map to the future country we want to live in."

In 2023, a young journalist, Rebecca Price, writes a series of articles describing an emergent cultural change that has been gathering force over the previous decade (even longer, some of her informants say). She draws on a range of examples unfolding in New York City where she lives. “The Wave,” her name for the Zeitgeist—the rising spirit of the times—catches on, entering common usage. In 2033, she is asked by an editor to revisit her findings and report again. The text includes notes to her editor, excerpts from the 2023 series, and new material she writes in 2033.

The Wave offers one answer to this question: If we are on the cusp of a paradigm shift, a radical change in worldview that will thrust art and culture onto center stage, how will the world be different?