Calamity Sample is a novella written in flash fiction, micro stories, & lyrical echoes, centering on the life of a sensitive meteorologist & weather broadcaster who attempts to continue an ordinary existence in a world ravaged by climatically-based apocalypse. The Weatherman, only referred to as such, struggles to reconcile the collective grief plaguing not only his personal life, but the rest of the fleeting world as he tries to distinguish & manufacture joy from the ordinary, due to his residence in Humansville, an obscure town where every day is a recognized-and-hyper specific holiday or celebration. This collection of vignettes, generally oriented around annual holidays & our protagonist’s obsession with the mundane amidst apocalypse, questions what it means to be hopeful in the face of disaster, emphasizing themes of anxiety, a desire for human connection, obsession around the minutia, & the fleetingness of stability. Yes, the world is ending, but those details don’t matter as much as The Weatherman’s loss of intimacy, his strange collection of ties, the bizarre & ritualistic celebrations of Humansville, & the desire to catalogue objects, places, & feelings before they fall victim(s) to their own temporality. As musician & lyricist Imogen Heap once sung, “There’s beauty in the breakdown”.
","abstract_html":"<p><em>Calamity Sample</em> is a novella written in flash fiction, micro stories, & lyrical echoes, centering on the life of a sensitive meteorologist & weather broadcaster who attempts to continue an ordinary existence in a world ravaged by climatically-based apocalypse. The Weatherman, only referred to as such, struggles to reconcile the collective grief plaguing not only his personal life, but the rest of the fleeting world as he tries to distinguish & manufacture joy from the ordinary, due to his residence in Humansville, an obscure town where every day is a recognized-and-hyper specific holiday or celebration. This collection of vignettes, generally oriented around annual holidays & our protagonist’s obsession with the mundane amidst apocalypse, questions what it means to be hopeful in the face of disaster, emphasizing themes of anxiety, a desire for human connection, obsession around the minutia, & the fleetingness of stability. Yes, the world is ending, but those details don’t matter as much as The Weatherman’s loss of intimacy, his strange collection of ties, the bizarre & ritualistic celebrations of Humansville, & the desire to catalogue objects, places, & feelings before they fall victim(s) to their own temporality. As musician & lyricist Imogen Heap once sung, “There’s beauty in the breakdown”.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Cajandig, Hannah"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Fine Arts","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Jaspal Kaur Singh"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2021-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:24:17Z","subjects":["flash fiction","short fiction","story collection","weatherman","apocalypse fiction","hybrid","manuscript","Atmospheric Sciences","Climate","Fiction","Meteorology","Poetry"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/674","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Jaspal Kaur Singh"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Cajandig, Hannah"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2026-05-04T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Fine Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["flash fiction","short fiction","story collection","weatherman","apocalypse fiction","hybrid","manuscript","Atmospheric Sciences","Climate","Fiction","Meteorology","Poetry"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/674"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Calamity Sample is a novella written in flash fiction, micro stories, & lyrical echoes, centering on the life of a sensitive meteorologist & weather broadcaster who attempts to continue an ordinary existence in a world ravaged by climatically-based apocalypse. The Weatherman, only referred to as such, struggles to reconcile the collective grief plaguing not only his personal life, but the rest of the fleeting world as he tries to distinguish & manufacture joy from the ordinary, due to his residence in Humansville, an obscure town where every day is a recognized-and-hyper specific holiday or celebration. This collection of vignettes, generally oriented around annual holidays & our protagonist’s obsession with the mundane amidst apocalypse, questions what it means to be hopeful in the face of disaster, emphasizing themes of anxiety, a desire for human connection, obsession around the minutia, & the fleetingness of stability. Yes, the world is ending, but those details don’t matter as much as The Weatherman’s loss of intimacy, his strange collection of ties, the bizarre & ritualistic celebrations of Humansville, & the desire to catalogue objects, places, & feelings before they fall victim(s) to their own temporality. As musician & lyricist Imogen Heap once sung, “There’s beauty in the breakdown”.
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"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/674"],"dc:subject":["flash fiction","short fiction","story collection","weatherman","apocalypse fiction","hybrid","manuscript","Atmospheric Sciences","Climate","Fiction","Meteorology","Poetry"],"dc:title":["Calamity Sample: Stories About The Weatherman"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Fine Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:24:17Z"}