Catching up with the next generation of cli-fi writers

Catching up with the next generation of cli-fi writers

In a global community that attracts atheists, activists, anarchists, antipodian optimists, die-hard dystopians and heroes of hope, horror and hutzpah, one just might anticipate some lively lamentations and death-defying debates.

Welcome to the Anthrocene (three syllables, 10 letters, emphasis on the first syllable -- and much easier to pro-pro-pro-pronounce than its four-syllable cousin the An-throp-o-cene, emphasis on the second syllable)

by staff writer with agency

Here we go. Are you with us?

Ages 21 to 81

Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl
John Lanchester  THE WALL

Megan Hunter

Margaret Atwood

Jeff Vandermeer ANNIHILATION

Charlie Jane Anders 

Omar Elakkad AMERICAN WAR

Helen Phillips 

Bruno Arpaia 

Jean-Marc Ligny AQUA (TM)

Lorris Murail THE DOOMSDAY DAY CLOCK

Olga Ponjee

Jesper Weithz 

Bucket Unuzer 

Iljya Trojanow EISTAU

James Bradley CLAUDE

Alice Robinson ANCHOR POINT

Mireille Juchau 

N.K. Jemisin
N. H. Callister, ''Weird Weather''
Anneleen Newitz, AUTONOMOUS

MORE NAMES and TITLES to be added later as they come in from readers here:

 

Sam Bleicher 

Neal Shusterman,  DRY

Sarah Holding SEABEAN TRILOGY

Hamish MacDonald  FINITUDE

George Turner THE SEA AND SUMMER

Arthur Herzog HEAT

Peter Heller

JG Ballard

Jules Verne 

MORE NAMES to be added as they come in from readers here:

Segue now quietly to an excerpt from student oped at a Yale campus newspaper:

''I believe that the emerging literary genre of climate fiction, or “cli-fi,” may be the key to turning climate passivity into climate activity.''

 

''Dystopian literature has long been used to inform readers of impending threats. By drawing unnerving futuristic “what-if” scenarios, books such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and George Orwell’s 1984 frightened their readers about the possibility of a world gone awry. Decades later, their warnings still pervade popular consciousness. As artificial intelligence develops, we talk of technology backfiring just as Victor Frankenstein’s creature did. As Generation Z becomes increasingly taken by social media, we look back to Huxley’s commentary about constant distraction blunting the mind. And most topically, as politicians like President Trump forgo norms of truth in favor of “alternative facts,” we are reminded of Orwell’s Party slogans: “War is peace,” “Freedom is slavery.”

 

''If we cannot rely on the warnings of the scientific community to disrupt climate complacency, perhaps we must turn to tales of flooded cities, mass migrations, and barren lands. After all, what’s more viscerally terrifying: the figure “1.5°C,” or a story about millions of people being swallowed by a hurricane?

 

''Dystopian climate literature might scare people into action. But it could also prove to be counterproductive. When confronted with an existential threat so unfathomably grave as climate change, it is easy to become overwhelmed, cynical, pessimistic — the opposite of what needs to occur. There is a fine line between a doomsday scenario inspiring action, and a doomsday scenario prompting despondency. Besides, who in their right mind wants to spend their free time reading about climate catastrophes?

 

''If cli-fi is truly to provoke alarm, I believe that it won’t be through inspiring fear. Rather, it will be through inspiring empathy. The type of cli-fi I’m imagining does not feature sinking cities and crashing buildings; instead, it centers on the narratives of individuals.

 

''Through cli-fi, perhaps the readers who think of climate change as abstract and unfathomable would be pushed to rethink it as a threat on individual lives.

 

''The clock is ticking and we must convince seven billion people to care. For a minute, let us set aside phrases like “1.5°C,” “four foot sea level rise,” and “increasing number of extreme heat-days.”

 

''Instead, let us tell stories about a mother struggling to find food in a drought, a fisherman losing his

livelihood due to acid rain, or a child whose teddy bear gets swept up by a flood. Writers have always had the power to shape popular consciousness. Today, they face the most urgent of challenges. For the sake of our planet, authors must unleash their imaginations and do what they do best: write some good stories.''