Green Planets
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Harman, Graham, 214
Harrison, Harry, 40
Hartwell, David, 81, 85
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 210–11
Heglin, Peter, 115
Heidegger, Martin, 206–7, 214, 217–19, 222
Heinlein, Robert: alien invasion narratives, 78; on the categories of SF, 12–13; ecological limits in, 7. Works: The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, 7, 81; The Puppet Masters, 78–79; Sixth Column, 78
Heise, Ursala, 8, 41, 208
Helmreich, Stefan, 238
Hendershot, Cyndy, 79
Herbert, Frank: ecological extrapolation in, 87; on environmental SF, 40; influence on Kim Stanley Robinson, 253. Works: Dune, 41, 87, 253; The Wounded Planet, 40
history. See time and temporality
Horowitz, David, 82
Huber, François, 28
Hudson, W. H., 43
human beings: Anthropocene, x, 4–5, 16; computer representations of consciousness, 254; ecology as critique of anthropocentrism, 57; gendered nonhuman agency, 142n27; Homo contracipiens in Hardin, 105–7; human-animal analogy in H. G. Wells, 27–28, 36–37; human-centeredness in Le Guin, 90; human characterization in SF, 144; human chauvinism in Golden Age SF, 78; human exceptionalism, 26–29, 52, 214–15; human-nonhuman connection in Bacigalupi, 180; human simulacra/phantoms in Solaris, 228–30; hybrids/cyborgs as other, 149–50; immortality in Bacigalupi’s “Pop Squad,” 186–87; mass extinction in Men Like Gods, 17, 32–35, 37; mass extinction in The Genocides, 85–86; multispecies relations, 237–38; nonhuman values and, 250; ontological gaps in Avatar, 209–11; originary “oceanic feeling” of, 233, 238–39, 240n20. See also alien encounters; animals; posthuman Earths; transformation of humanity
Hume, David, 213
Husserl, Edmund, 215
Huxley, Aldous, 2–3
Huxley, Julian, 31
Huxley, T. H., 43
hydroponic agriculture, 45
imperialism: biological vulnerability to pathogens and, 83; British postimperial narratives, 79–80; Earth-centric colonization discourse, 254; ecological imperialism, 82–83, 86–91; “first contact” narratives and, 77; historical models for Word for World is Forest, 88–89; human exceptionalism in War of the Worlds, 26–27; post-imperial Other in Avatar, 13, 19, 206; as root of ecological crisis, 91; solar system as limit on, 248–49; South African colonialism, 143–44; surface/depth ocean study and, 227
individualism/libertarianism, 44–45
Invaders from Mars, 79
Invasion U.S.A., 79
Jameson, Fredric: on allegorical realism, 198–99; on imperialist fatalism in Ballard, 80; on political ecology in Le Guin, 56–58, 60–62, 72; on postmodernism, 4, 168; on the unimaginability of the future, 184; on the “Unknowability Thesis” in Solaris, 228, 230; on Utopia, 14, 60–61, 116
Jasanoff, Sheila, 127
Jendrysik, Mark, 202
Joyce, James, 16
Kahiu, Wanuri, 12
Kant, Immanuel: defiant rationality in Avatar and, 221–24; narratives of the future and, 193; opening of the Anthropocene and, 206, 210–11; relationist ontology and, 219; transcendence in Avatar and, 209–15
Kapp, K. William, 12
Karoo travelogue, 146–47, 150
Kepler, Johannes, 251
Kidd, Virginia, 40, 87
Kierkegaard, Søren, 13–14
King, Stephen, 8, 51
Kirksey, S. Eben, 238
Klein, Melanie, 221–22
Knickerbocker, Dale, 182
Kolko, Gabriel, 82
Kovel, Joel, 57–58, 65
Kunkel, Benjamin, 5
Lang, Fritz, 44
Laozi (Lao Tzu), 59, 63–64, 66
Last Man theme, 48, 166
Lee, Richard B., x
Le Guin, Ursula K.: critique of ecological imperialism, 40, 87–91; Daoism in, 17, 59–73; ecological issues in, 40; environmentalist movement and, 56–57, 89; influence on Kim Stanley Robinson, 253; Marxist perspective on, 56, 59–73; ordinariness and anomaly in, 160–61; political alienation in, 60–63; Suvin affiliation with, 58–59; on technology in SF, 144; world reduction in, 61, 62–73; on yin utopianism, 62–68, 72. Works: Always Coming Home, 62, 67–71; City of Illusions, 59, 68, 253; The Dispossessed, 56, 59, 61, 67–69; The Lathe of Heaven, 67, 160–61, 168, 171; The Left Hand of Darkness, 41, 61, 69, 90; “The New Atlantis,” 59, 67; “A Non-Euclidian View of California as a Cold Place to Be,” 63; Planet of Exile, 59; Rocannon’s World, 59; “Science Fiction and Mrs. Brown,” 144; The Telling, 62, 67–69, 71; The Word for World is Forest, 17, 60, 67
Lem, Stanislaw, 228, 230. See also Solaris
Lessing, Doris, 127–28, 131
Le Vailllant, François, 147
Levitas, Ruth, 188
Levy, Michael, 148
Lewis, C. S., 37
Life after People, 18
lifeboat ethics, 18, 103, 109–11
Logan’s Run, 40, 107
London (United Kingdom), 169–70
London, Jack, 51
Love, Glen A., 41, 53
Lubbock, John, 28
Luckhurst, Roger, 251
MacLeod, Ken, 254
Magdoff, Harry, 82
Man Who Awoke, The (Laurence Manning): energy crisis in, 40; evolution theme in, 42–43, 52; literary sources for, 43; optimism-pessimism dialectic in, 17; publication of, 42
Martians, 25–28, 46. See also alien encounters
Marx/Marxism: absence of the political in science faction, 202; on Australia as economic frontier, 115; critical theory, 199; cyclical history in, 15; deep ecology and, 256; deflationary vs. inflationary critique in, 16; Eastern religion and, 256–57; financial crisis in Sea and Summer and, 122–24; global surplus labor and, 205n29; Le Guin ecological Daoism and, 56–73; Martian radicalism in the Mars trilogy, 249; social justice as survival technology, 259; Spaceship Beagle steady-state society, 102–3; vampire capitalism in Daybreakers, 13. See also economy
mass extinction: “climate change” term and, 243; Darwinian model for, 43; ecology of extinction in Rachel Carson, 34, 38n32; ecopoesis in “Oceanic” and, 234; in The Genocides, 85–86; in Men Like Gods, 17, 32–35, 37; Quiet Earth theme and, 11; SF-reality dialectic and, ix–x, 11, 193, 244; technology as means of avoidance, 35, 243; utopian reversal in 2312, 250; in War of the Worlds, 26–27. See also Anthropocene
materialism (in The Time Machine), 2
McCaffrey, Andy, 146
McCarthy, Cormac, 127, 140n15
McKay, Chris, 249
McNeill, J. R., 91
McNeill, William, 83
Mellor, Mary, 132, 141n18
Mendel, Gregor, 30
Mendlesohn, Farah, 53
Men Like Gods (H. G. Wells), 17, 25, 32–34, 37
Merchant, Carolyn, 129–30
Merril, Judith, 81
Miéville, China: ordinariness and anomaly in, 170–73; on postapocalyptic endings, 159. Works: Kraken, 18, 159, 169–74; Red Planets, ix
Milling, Jill, 48
Mitchell, Timothy, 10
Miyazaki, Hayao, 10–11
modernity/postmodernity: comas as endemic to, 163; industrialization in World Without Us, 194; political-historical agency in, 4; posthuman nothingness in Avatar, 222; postmodern loss of agency, 3–4; replication of humanity in Avatar and, 211–12, 216; thrill-and-dread theme in, 2; world-interconnectedness principle and, 219
Moore, Ward. See Greener Than You Think
Morris, William, 43
Morton, Timothy, 4, 41, 47
Moskowitz, Sam, 49
Moylan, Tom, 179
multispecies relations, 237–38. See also animals
Murphy, Patrick, 41, 53
Naess, Arne, 256
nature: animal objectification in Bacigalupi, 185–86, 188; apocalyptic destruction of nature, 4, 11, 14; capitalist constructed environments and, 57; ecofeminism and, 141n18; ecomaternalism and, 140n17; humanity as nature in War of the Worlds, 26, 29; as humanity’s other in World Without Us, 194–
95, 198, 200–201, 205n23; intrinsic value principles in, 249–50; land-based perspective on, 226–27; mystical themes in SF, 256; natural dystopia in Bacigalupi, 180; natural population growth, 100–101; originary “oceanic feeling,” 233, 238–39, 240n20; utopian control of nature in Men Like Gods, 34–37; water rationing in Bacigalupi, 181. See also animals
neoliberalism, 12–13, 18, 184–85
New Wave science fiction, 80, 82
Nigeria, 153–54
1984 (George Orwell), 3
nuclear power, 43, 45, 110, 207
nuclear weapons/nuclear war: apocalyptic thinking and, 159–160; Australian nuclear doomsday novels, 116–17; Cold War SF and, 3–4, 49, 104, 116–17, 159, 197, 259; Great Acceleration and, 207; in Sea and Summer, 121–22; SF-reality dialectic and, x; spaceship allegory and, 104, 111; visual representation in Gee, 134. See also apocalypse; dystopian fiction
“Oceanic” (Greg Egan), 19, 232–38
One Boat concept, 102
optimism-pessimism dialectic, 17, 25, 53
Osborn, Fairfield, x
otherness. See alien encounters; robots
overpopulation. See population ecology
Pangborn, Edgar, 253
parody, 161–66, 169–70
Passmore, John, 89
pastoralism: Arcadian-Utopian dialectic, 1–3, 16; in Avatar, 220–21; British “cosy catastrophe” narratives, 79–80; in City series, 45–48; in Earth Abides, 52; in ecotopian societies, 183; pastoral ecological mode in The Man Who Awoke, 42–44; pastoralism in City, 45– 46; pastoral new-beginning mode, 48–49. See also primitivism; Romanticism
permaculture, 14–16, 21n38. See also sustainability
pesticides, x, 38n32. See also pollution
Piercy, Marge, 183, 185, 189
planetary awareness, 207–8
planetary romance, 253
Plato, 223
Pohl, Fred, 40
pollution: in The Drought, 80; as legal injury in Stone, 89–90; 1970s environmental crises and, 65, 68, 100–101; in “Pump Six,” 180, 187, 189; in The Sheep Look Up, 87; in Soylent Green, 10; spaceman economy and, 6, 9, 104. See also pesticides; waste spaces
population ecology: Homo contracipiens in Hardin, 105–7; lifeboat ethics and, 109–10; population ecology overview, 99–104, 108; as SF theme, 107–8, 111; wasteland as open-economy space, 111
posthuman Earths, 12, 18, 193–200, 203n4, 204n6, 222. See also human beings
postmodernism. See modernity/postmodernity
Prettyman, Gib, 256–57
primitivism: anachronistic permaculture in WALL-E, 15–16; as ecotopian fiction, xi; indigenous Other in Avatar, 13, 19; Karoo as primeval landscape in Souvenir, 150; post-apocalyptic robots as purveyors of, 3; post-apocalyptic utopia and, 49; primitive projection in Word for World is Forest, 88, 90; survivalism in The Road, 142n34; traditionalism in The Ice People, 135–36; U.S. native vs. colonial agriculture, 86; wasteland as new wilderness, 111. See also pastoralism; Romanticism
Pringle, David, 78
proleptic realism, 251
Pumzi (Wanuri Kahiu), 12
Quiet Earth post-apocalyptic theme, 11–12, 18
realism: allegorical realism in science faction, 198–99; disaster realism in Gee, 134; dystopian scenarios and, 254–55; as “inside” SF, 17; proleptic realism, 251; SF-reality dialectic, ix–x, 16–17, 53, 83, 101, 116; virtual reality, 44–45
renaissance fantasia, 251
Rieder, John, 77
Roberts, Adam, 115, 148
Robinson, Kim Stanley: ecological limits in, 7–8; on ecotopian SF, 179; literary and SF influences, 253–54; on political activism in science, 257–59; religious themes in, 256–57; on SF as ecological discourse, 251–53. Works: Future Primitive, xi; Galileo’s Dream, 245–46, 251; Green Mars, 246; Mars trilogy, 7–8, 245, 249, 256–57; Pacific Edge, 245, 247; Science in the Capital series, 127, 244–45, 257–58; 2312, 41, 245–50, 257–58; The Wild Shore, 51; Years of Rice and Salt, 256–57
robots: as anachronistic effects in WALL-E, 15; domestic robots in The Ice People, 137–38; as ecological limits mediators, 7; service robots in City, 46–47; Zeroth Law of human relations, 20n15. See also alien encounters; technology
Robson, Jenny, 150
Rolland, Romain, 233
Romanticism, 6, 90. See also pastoralism; primitivism
Rosenthal, Jane, 146–47, 150. See also Souvenir
Ross, Edward A., 108
Salleh, Ariel, 132
Sandilands, Catriiona, 133
Sargent, Lyman Tower, 115, 181
Sargisson, Lucy, 184
Sauer, Rob, 87
Sax, Karl, 108
Scandinavian crime novels, 143
scarcity: in 2312, 246; colonization of space and, 7; in Under the Dome, 8; Spaceship Earth metaphor and, x, 6; in “The Tragedy of the Commons,” 106. See also apocalypse; dystopian fiction; eco-catastrophe narratives; Spaceship Earth image; sustainability
science: influence in Kim Stanley Robinson, 252–53; political activism in, 257–59; political engagement in, 257–59; scientists as SF characters, 12, 35, 67–68, 128, 166, 168, 228–30, 245; Tansley Manifesto, 30–32. See also climate change; ecology; evolution; population ecology; technology
science faction, 18, 195–200, 204n15
science fiction. See ecological science fiction; science fiction criticism; speculative fiction
science fiction criticism: ecocritique affinities with, 41–42; ecological literary criticism and, 53; Science Fiction Studies (SFS) founding, 56; treatment of dystopia, 116–17
Science Fiction Studies (SFS), 56, 59, 65
Sea and Summer, The (Drowning Towers, U.S. title): ecological and social collapse in, 122–25; futureology in, 120–21; global cooling in, 117–20; plot overview, 117–20
Self, Will, 127
Seuss, Dr. (Theodor Seuss Geisel), 4
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 11–12
Shklovsky, Victor, 181
Shute, Nevil, 115–17
Silent Running, 3, 40
Simak, Clifford, 47–48, 253. See also City series
Singer, Peter, 89
Slonczewski, Joan, 148
Sloterdijk, Peter, 104, 109
Smith, Adam, 108–9
social welfare programs, 18, 109–10
Solaris (Stanislaw Lem): human simulacra/phantoms in, 228–30; influence on Kim Stanley Robinson, 254; multispecies relations in, 238; spatial cognition in ocean environments and, 19, 226–27, 230–32
Sontag, Susan, 107–8
South Africa: Alive in Joburg, 153; District 9, see main heading; history of colonialism and apartheid, 143–44, 150, 153–54, 157n20; Karoo travelogue, 146–47, 150; resistance to fantasy in, 144; Savannah 2116 AD, 150; self and place in speculative fiction, 144–45; SF genre in, 18, 143, 155–56; The Ugly Noo Noo, 157n20; Zoo City, 143
Souvenir (Jane Rosenthal): apocalyptic futurity in, 18; climate change themes in, 146, 150–51; as travel narrative, 146–47, 150
Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer), 3, 10, 40, 107
space exploration/colonization themes: closed ecological economy theme, 6–9; Earth-centrism in, 254; Golden Age “space empire” literature, 7; NASA Earth photographic images, 7; shared universe in Asimov, 7
Spaceship Earth image: arks compared with, 109; closed economy as theory for, 6–9; Cold War and, 104; commons resource system, 106, 109; lifeboat ethics, 18, 103, 109–11; NASA Earth photographic images, 8–9; scarcity discourse and, x; as science fiction, 17–18; Spaceship Beagle carrying capacity, 102; wasteland as open-economy space, 111. See also scarcity; sustainability
speculative fiction, ix, 155–56
Spinoza, Baruch de, 208–11, 219
Stableford, Brian, 41, 159
Stapledon, Olaf: evolutionary SF by, 42–43; evolution ethics in, 43; on “human chauvinism” in golden age works, 78. Works: Last and First Men, 37, 42–43
Star Trek, 170, 172, 251
steampunk movement, 15
Stern
, Michael, 87
Stevenson, Adlai E., 104
Stewart, George R., 51. See also Earth Abides
Stillman, Peter, 56
Stone, Christopher, 89–90, 249
Strand, Clark, 204n15
sustainability: anti-sustainability backlash in The Man Who Awoke, 44; Darwinian evolutionary model for, 43; neoliberal capitalism and, 184–85; permaculture, 14–16, 21n38; sustainability themes in SF, xi, 43–44. See also scarcity; Spaceship Earth image
Suvin, Darko: on cognitive estrangement, xi, 62, 181, 196–97; on human transformation, 14; on pastoralism in Simak, 48; on political ecology in Le Guin, 56–60, 67, 72
Suzuki, David, 193
Szeman, Imre, 12
Tansley, A. G. (“Tansley Manifesto”), 30–32
tar sands oil extraction, 192
Taylor, Alan, 83
Taylor, Gordon Rattary, 40
technology: anti-ecological effects of, 251–52; decayed technology in Bacigalupi’s “Pump Six,” 180, 187–88; dystopian stage in The Man Who Awoke, 44; future technology in The Ice People, 134; The Genocides as shift in view of, 87; human characterization in SF and, 144; invention of cell phones, ix–x; 1960s anti-technological New Wave, 80; scientific overreach in Island of Dr. Moreau, 25; SF-reality gap narrowing, ix–x; steampunk movement and, 15; technological world in Avatar, 219–222; utopian mastery of nature in Men Like Gods, 34–35. See also robots
Thompson, Flora, 254
Tidwell, Christy, 185–86
time and temporality: ancient ruins as projected future, 11–12; Cold War catastrophic future, 159; cyclical history in WALL-E, 15–16; future as ironic present in Soylent Green, 10; future-fictional uchronias, 116; futureology in Sea and Summer, 120–21; futuristic style in ecological writing, 192–93; nonsustainability as robbing the future, 250–51; radical potential of doom, 12–13; re-lived futurity in Girlfriend in a Coma, 161–66; temporality of climate change, 4–5; utopia as historical other, 14
totalitarianism, 3
transformation of humanity: apocalyptic transformation, 169–73; post-consumerism in Daybreakers, 13–14; post-imperial Other in Avatar, 13, 19. See also human beings
Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin, 254
Turner, Frederick Jackson, 6
Turner, George: career, 117; futureology in Sea and Summer, 120–21; Sea and Summer overview, 117–20; on SF political/moral efficacy, 116. Works: Beloved Son, 117; Down There in Darkness, 117; “The Fittest,” 117; And Now Time Doth Waste Me, 117; The Sea and Summer (Drowning Towers, U.S. title), 116–21