Sinking the Ark

Sinking the Ark tells the poignant story of a fictional "alternative" weekly in Portland, Oregon. The Rose City Ark is the community newspaper of the Portland counterculture. In 1974, the paper embarks on a bold experiment: to dispense altogether with hierarchy and embrace pure democracy: no more managing editor, no assigned roles, no one telling anyone else what to do. Under the new plan, every person will decide for themselves what work to do since each knows best what he or she can...
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Sinking the Ark tells the poignant story of a fictional "alternative" weekly in Portland, Oregon. The Rose City Ark is the community newspaper of the Portland counterculture. In 1974, the paper embarks on a bold experiment: to dispense altogether with hierarchy and embrace pure democracy: no more managing editor, no assigned roles, no one telling anyone else what to do. Under the new plan, every person will decide for themselves what work to do since each knows best what he or she can most fruitfully contribute. All important decisions will henceforth be made not by some boss, but by the paper as a whole reaching consensus collectively through discussion. Can it work? Can the people of the Ark really put an issue on the stands once a week, every week, week after week, operating on these principles? Well, thereby hangs the tale. The novel follows the intertwining stories of six characters who find that there are complications: such as romantic entanglements ... sexual politics... jealousy.. backstabbing? ideological impurities? This is a coming-of-age novel set in a time between historical ages: the din of "the sixties" has faded away; the "Reagan Revolution" is yet to come. The Digital Age is just around the corner: but no one can see around corners. At the Ark, even the headlines are pressed out by hand, artisan-style. What Sval, Marica, Zoe, Martha, Raoul, and George are bracing for, what they believe to be right around the corner, is the epic global collapse of industrial civilization, after which "the world will be right back to tribal," and they, the fortunate few who saw the future coming in time to survive the apocalypse, will be building the better world that will rise from the rubble. That better world might be most notable to modern readers by its absence; but modern readers might also recognize the spirit animating the Rose City six as an enduring feature of human life, born anew with each new generation entering its twenties.