SimCity, Barkskins, and Progress

It all started with a joke. My family and I were wandering around the neighborhood, touring nearby construction sites to check on our growing city, and I began describing to my son how there used to be a game where you could build a whole city and then set it aflame. Better yet, you could attack it with monsters. He was entranced and I realized how much I had loved playing SimCity all those years ago. He pestered us for over a week before I investigated in earnest, only to find that I could not get the original game for him. I’m shy of installing apps (as someone who used to work for one), so it took a couple more days before I realized SimCity BuildIt would have many of the same features and I could still keep his garden walled enough. So we downloaded it for him. And for me. Just for fun.

A week later (has it been two? oh God it’s been two) and I’m fully addicted. He’s still only allowed to play it during his usual screen time, but I’m on level 28 and I’m giving significant amounts of my free time to organizing this fictional city and producing goods to keep my people funded and fed. But somewhere in between I have to wait as more nails are produced, so I picked up Barkskins by Annie Proulx. I’ve now developed the habit of interspersing the two—setting my city up as far as I can go and then picking up the book to read another short chapter. But what’s truly weird is the way the two go together.

Barkskins, a Family Lumber Empire, and Paving the Way for a Nation

I can’t recall where I read about Barkskins, but as the daughter of a forester, the idea of reading about how timber has shaped our nation appealed to me. The book follows two (entwined, at times) families, one Mi’kmaw and one French from 1693 until almost the present day (though I haven’t reached actual nationhood for either the U.S. or Canada) as settlers clear the newly “discovered” land, first for the value of the timber, then for the sake of clearing.

Proulx does a beautiful job of inhabiting all of her characters, both the good and the bad, and while there are some baddies in here, the world is rich enough to bypass the noble savage and manifest destiny tropes (though the patois the Native characters sometimes conversed in didn’t feel right). The characters can’t get past that last one, though, as they (Native and settler) clear more and more of the land, looking for profit or a better life.

“‘And God said replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and every living thing that moveth, and every green tree and herb.'” – Hitchbone in Barkskins by Annie Proulx

I learned a lot about early timber trade early in this book as one of the characters travels as far as China to capture a market in a niche he foresees. It boggled my modern mind how he could spend years, between the travel and waiting in country, in pursuit of one market. But it was fascinating to think about where different parts of the world were in terms of “progress,” both Europe and China having cleared large parts of their once virgin forests. I’ve learned about the various jobs loggers had and what happens when you start squaring logs rather than keeping them round for transport. Interesting to me because I come from a part of the world where log trucks loaded with with fully round logs with their bark still on are common.

“‘Take what we can get as soon as we can get it is what I say. I am not interested in fifty years hence as there is no need for concern. The forests are infinite and permanent.'” – Edward in Barkskins by Annie Proulx

While I haven’t finished the book yet (I have other commitments, i.e., these trains won’t dispatch themselves), I have gotten far enough into it where some people are starting to lament the change they are helping create. That in itself is interesting to me as I’m wondering a lot lately about the nature of progress and the role I want to play in it.

“‘Whitemen never see it was our work. For them hunt and fish is only to play.'” – Kuntaw in Barkskins by Annie Proulx

I’m also thinking a lot about our family forest. A project my dad manages but that the next generation is starting to get more involved in. I wonder which character I most resemble and whether I should send copies of this book to all the partners.

SimCity BuildIt and the Art of Productivity

“‘Men must change this land in order to live in it.'” – Rene in Barkskins by Annie Proulx

While I have qualms about whether more is always better in real life, I did not hesitate to mow down grass and trees to make my SimCity just as I wanted it to be. I committed to green power but still need to pollute with factories, sewage, and waste management for the city to function. I’ve built up to the edges and want more space to build more. I set aside the lovely parks I built so I could have more space for more houses (houses bring points and Simoleons that I can use to get more services for my people). Someday I’ll have enough space for both. Right? It’s not like I’ve gotten trapped in an infinite quest for more, bigger, better…

Strangely, when I visit other cities in the game it’s the small ones I’m attracted to. The towering skyscrapers all look the same (not literally, the game is more sophisticated than that) and my eyes glaze over them as I look for the gifts that sometimes pop up. It’s their sakura-lined pedestrian alleys that I dream of, not the towering masses of people. But cherry blossoms are expensive, so I travel and sell, travel and sell. At least I can indulge in how small the world feels as I can trade with cities named using all kinds of alphabets with just a tap of my finger.

I haven’t figured out how to specialize yet. I’m too busy trying to make all the bucks to finally catch up on my delinquent power, water, and sewer debt. Don’t even get me started on police and fire (yet alone education). This is something I’m thinking about for myself, too, as I’m trying to remember what I’m good at and what I actually want to do. We watched the movie Lee last night and Marion Cotillard’s character said to Lee Miller something along the lines of, “You get to figure out what you want to do from where you are now,” and I will probably play with those ideas in the coming weeks.

In the meantime I need to start building a healthy relationship with the game. The way I feel myself getting sucked in is interesting because I know all about gamification and I can see how the staggered production times, the multiple quests, the constant change are all designed to keep me there. And I am happily there a lot, including the one night I spent hours looking for a ladder on the global marketplace (I have vowed never to give them my actual dollars). I’ll have to pare back on the game soon or find a system of playing that lets me dip in and out. There are only so many weeks of summer and I want to see my family.

“‘They believe despoiling is the correct way.'” – Achille in Barkskins by Annie Proulx

One actual benefit to SimCity BuildIt is the limited production capacity. Between factories and commercial buildings, I can’t do everything at once. That’s helped remind me that I can’t do it in my daily life, either. I’ve gotten in the habit this summer of throwing myself at all the work so I can throw myself at family time and in reality I’m exhausted. This past week I started writing down the number of things I hope to accomplish each day. I either fill that quota or I don’t, but having some sort of marker makes the effort and the results tangible in a way that’s helping me pull back.

Yesterday I played outside in the hammock, at least. Today I’m going to let my son make his first app friend (me). This is the world we’re building, one block at a time.

If you want to know more about the role of timber in the “taming” of a continent, pick up a copy of Barkskins from Bookshop.org. Your purchase keeps indie bookstores in business and I receive a commission.