It Isn't Speculative Anymore
It Isn't Speculative Anymore
Earth Day, Eco-Fiction, and Cli-Fi / Part One
Earth day is this month and it seems like the proper place to talk about eco-fiction and what is termed "Cli-Fi" or climate fiction. Whenever I think of Earth Day, I think of the books that have changed my vision of the world in terms of global change, catastrophe, and turning our focus back to the earth. Unfortunately, the books that come to mind are "end of world" stories like Cormac McCarthy The Road and other apocalyptic visions. As a writing mentor, I have worked with a lot of writers who are finding their path through storytelling. In the last few years, I have worked with more and more writers in the genre of speculative fiction. Students are inspired by the media driven world of video games, graphic novels, books, role playing games, cosplay, and fanfiction. World-building, metaphorical worlds, and other society-creations are on their mind. New writers take on these genres because of their experience, passion, and ability to author alternative versions of our lives. But very few have discussed the nature of our environmental catastrophe. I began to think about it, the books that have taken on the role of eco-fiction aren't based on speculative writing. They are based on a closer, more philosophical vision of who we are now. It isn't speculative anymore.
Eco-fiction is a branch of literature that is nature oriented (non-human) or environment-oriented where the impact of humans is the central tenet of the story. It’s not surprising that it emerged in the 1970’s environmentalist movement that brought Earth Day and other important values around conservation and natural preservation. It makes sense that a book like Overstory by Richard Powers is a high-profile title with the vision of eco-fiction at its core. Writers who grew up in the 1970's remember the degraded city hellscapes of New York City, the complete contempt for littering and waste, and the classic crying Native American Indian, shedding a tear for the polluted world. They are now the writers and thinkers who bring us ideas and contemporary visions of the world in terms of ecology, social values, and storytelling.
This makes sense as a crossover genre for writers who have worked in the realms of fantasy, to move into the concept of eco-fiction. Typically, fantasy writers are really good at creating hybrid characters or concepts for their stories. Fantasy writers are skilled at showing irony and societal change through a different lens. In our time of environmental concern and activism, the emergence of eco-fiction is not a speculative tool, but a platform, a conversation, and a reality that connects to our current ecological downturn. I don’t think all fantasy writers should be writing eco-fiction, but it is clear that so many of the skills honed in fantasy could transfer into the world of eco-fiction. In the preface to Where the Wild Books Are: a field guide to eco-fiction, Jim Dwyer mentions, “Dana Stabenow, for example, is an Alaskan Inuit ecofeminist author who has written both mysteries and science fiction.” Nature and ecology as a mode to represent storytelling is diverse and for speculative writers pushing the edges of experimentation around nature and speculative writing — this may be new ground to break. Dwyer defines in his preface that eco-fiction covers the focus of Lawrence Buell — that “non-human environment is present not merely as a framing device but as a presence that begins to suggest that human history is implicated in natural history. The human interest is not understood to be the only legitimate interest. Human accountability to the environment is part of the text’s ethical orientation. Some of the environment as a process rather than as a constant or a given is at least implicit in the text.” Dystopian and natural cataclysm has been an emerging story theme for writers for some time now, but they are no longer fantastical visions of what might be, but real and palpable elements of our lives now. Speculative fiction has always been ironically proven to move with the visions of our time. Science Fiction in the 1950's and 60's are now common place. We've exceeded some of the technological elements that we wondered over in the 1950's. Yet, for the first time, dystopian visions of climate change and the way we see our world ending are also becoming a reality. Climate fiction is not speculative, it is the center of stories based on visionary storytelling and purposeful connectivity between our vision of the world, and the death of our environment.
We have moved over the last twenty years from seeing climate change coming, and living with it as it arrives. An Inconvenient Truth (2006) is sixteen years old, and we are moving from social movements to emergency actions to save species, stop blatant release of pollution, and regulate the damage we have caused. In books, it is becoming more than just a speculative backdrop, it is now the main character.
In the next newsletter, more eco-fiction, the rise of man-vs-nature, to nature-vs-man, and what it means in terms of our reading choices, and our social consciousness.
Books For Your Reading List
Pride of Eden by Taylor Brown
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
The Ancient Child by N. Scott Momaday
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Diary of Water by Nina Munteanu
Ishmael: a novel by Daniel Quinn
Works Cited
Brown, Taylor. Pride of Eden: a novel. St. Martin's Press, 2020.
Dwyer, Jim. Where the wild books are: A field guide to ecofiction. University of Nevada Press, 2010.
Powers, Richard. The Overstory: A novel. WW Norton & Company, 2018.
Savio, G. Dominic. "ORYX AND CRAKE AS AN „APOCALYPTIC REVELATION‟ ECO-CLI-FI." International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches: 174.
Tokarczuk, Olga. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel. Penguin, 2020.