The Big Idea: Anand Gandhi and Zain Memon

Why do lightning bugs light up? Why do birds sing? Why do humans wear makeup and workout? It’s in every species’ nature to try and be as appealing as possible. As authors Anand Gandhi and Zain Memon will tell you in the Big Idea for their newest novel, MAYA: Seed Takes Root, some of this appeal is manufactured to a detrimental degree. ANAND GANDHI & ZAIN MEMON: We have used our intelligence to industrialize its own vulnerabilities. One spring in the scrub near Dongara in Western Australia, a beetle fell in love with a beer bottle. To this male Julodimorpha bakewelli, the bottle was the most beautiful female beetle he had ever encountered. She was the perfect shade of amber-brown. Her surface reflected the light exactly as a gorgeous female beetle’s shiny body would. The base of the stubby beer bottle had these tiny glass tubercles for a better grip, and they looked just like the dimples on the wingcases of a female beetle that would drive any male beetle crazy. To him, the ones on the…