Post-Crunch Futures II: A Mute Fiction Special

Where 'fixing' the future is a game for social engineers, writers Matthew Fuller and Anthony Iles prefer to open out the present, egg on its energies, taunt immanence ...

'Help and Advice' by Matthew Fuller

The King of Decisions gathers heads of sections from other wings of the department for a get-together, no compulsory results, just an exchange of ideas. Junior Deciders are brought in to fatten the ranks, practice deference and to populate the air with ideas which are then cut to size by the old hands who snip here and there, push word blancmange at each other and incorporate anything that might come out into their own systems of advanced apprehension.

'Speculating on Housing' by Anthony Illes

Gav, Penny, Ayanna and Rag are in the Palm Tree, a pub in Mile End park, East London. The Palm Tree is the last in a row of buildings to survive aerial bombing of the area in World War II.

Gav: The Egg is a phantom organisation... It's an idea, it's not something you can join.

Post-Crunch Futures Part 1brings together stories by Hari Kunzru, Benedict Seymour and Laura Oldfield Ford