PRZEGLĄD KULTUROZNAWCZY NR 1 (47) 2021, s. 79–97 doi:10.4467/20843860PK.21.005.13459

www.ejournals.eu/Przeglad-Kulturoznawczy/ 

W KRĘGU IDEI

 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5293-6757 Grażyna Gajewska Adam Mickiewicz University e-mail: [email protected]

ECOLOGY AND SCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION IN THE AGE OF THE ANTHROPOCENE

Abstract: When formulating proecological strategies, social imagination is devoted relatively little attention. Contribution of the humanities to the management in the age of the Anthropocene is most often perceived as explaining threats that we and the future human and non-human beings will have to face as a result of irresponsible environmental policies. Hence, the presumed task of the humani- ties (and social science) consists primarily in analyzing and presenting the causes and the processes which culminated in the climate crisis and the decline of biodiversity. However, such an approach does not allow this knowledge to be actively engaged in constructing alternative, proecological atti- tudes. Consequently, I argue in this paper that in order for the state of affairs to change one requires not only new scientific tools (methodology, language), but also new sensitivity and aesthetics. The author argues that the challenges of the current times, resulting from environmental change, destruction of habitats and ecological disasters, direct our sensibilities and aesthetics ever more tangibly towards the fantastic: horror, science fiction, or fantasy. However, while ecohorror mainly exposes the negative aftermath of the Anthropocene – culminating in the inevitable disaster – sci- ence fiction offers leeway for a more speculative approach, enabling one to construct such visions of reality in which multispecies justice will be observed and cultivated. It is therefore suggested that there is much need for a science fiction aesthetic and narration that would be capable of guiding us out of the anthropocentric entanglement and the Anthropocene into the Chthulucene (as conceived by Haraway).

Keywords: science fiction, fantasy, ecohorror, Anthropocene/Capitalocene, social imagination

ECOLOGY AND SCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION IN THE AGE… 79 W KRĘGU IDEI  Audiovisual Arts During one of the 2019 seminarswith students of the Institute of Film, Media, and of the Anthropocene/Capitalocene 1. Introduction – managing imagination inthe age Grażyna Gajewska 80 1 affairs to change one requires not only new scientific tools (methodology, tools scientific new only not requires one change to affairs language), cological attitudes.Consequently, I argue inthispaperthat orderforthestateof not allowthisknowledgetobeactivelyengagedinconstructing alternative,proe- in theclimatecrisisanddeclineofbiodiversity. However, suchanapproachdoes primarily inanalyzingandpresentingthecauses processeswhichculminated tal policies.Hence,thepresumedtaskofhumanities (andsocialscience)consists man andnon-humanbeingswillhavetofaceasa resultofirresponsibleenvironmen - Anthropocene ismostoften perceived as explaining threatsthatweandthe future hu- ly littleattention. Contribution of the humanitiesto the managementin age of the vironmental justiceencompassingmultiplespecies. responsibility ofenterprises.Management thus understoodwouldideallyleadtoen- business world,anddevelopstrategies for sustainable development and ecological actions attempts aremade –withvaryingsuccess – tomobilize thepolitical and the order toovercomeoratleast mitigate the destructive environmental impact of human the sphereofexpectations with regardtopolitical strategies and partyplatforms.In not onlywhereindividual lifestyles are concerned but also(orperhapsaboveall)in seem thatthepublicimaginationincreasingly awareoftheneed forchange, grows a individuals, as (whether affairs of state the optimistic about the fact that so many people want tolisten, talk, and act to change ical activists suggestthatthealarmshouldbesoundedveryloudlyindeed,onefelt Democracy. Although theforecastspresentedatcongressbyexperts andecolog Ecology,whose eleventheditionin2019washeldunderthecatchphrase Equality, side andinfrontofthePalaceCulture Warsaw duringtheCongressof Women, Anthropocene. Similarsentiments wereexpressedbytheyoungpeoplegatheredin- future generationsthat theymaylivea healthyandsafelivesintheageofadvanced anxiety is engenderedbytheenvisionedinability to ensuresuchconditions for the peers tofearstarting a family. Itfollowedfromtheconversationthat the mostacute climate change and the associated social consequences cause heranda circle of her

the future and/oralternativeworld. entitled 2019/2020, year academic the BAin seminar When formulatingproecologicalstrategies,socialimagination isdevotedrelative- ECOLOGY ANDSCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION THEAGE... IN 1 a female student admitted that thedisquieting reports concerning Kim StanleyRobinson, Coronavirus IsRewritingOurImaginations community, or institution). It would It institution). or community, Science fictionisthe realism ofourtime. Science fiction literature film:fiction and Science of Visions -  W KRĘGU IDEI 4 - - 81 – in Am, ed. Glotfelty, Glotfelty, genre, while in while genre, assume that fantastic that assume Grażyna Gajewska Grażyna – among other things More specifically, it is argued argued is it specifically, More 2 prominent place in ecocritism, - con – in literature, film, theatre, computer genre variety. In this article, I article, this In variety. genre combining it with the analysis of alternative or fu- of alternative it with the analysis combining , Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa Naukowe PWN, Warszawa literackich, Wydawnictwo gatunków 5 Wills, Fordham University Press, New York 2008, p. 136. York Fordham University Press, New Wills, Słownik rodzajów i rodzajów Słownik genre and that science fiction, fantasy, and horror are varieties of fantastic literature. See: See: literature. fantastic of varieties are horror and fantasy, fiction, science that and genre

ECOLOGY AND SCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION IN THE AGE... IMAGINATION MANAGING FICTION. AND SCIENCE ECOLOGY Gazda (ed.), Gazda thinking and orient our attention, sensibility and aesthetics towards biodiversity. thinking and orient our attention, sensibility 2019, 2nd edition, term: science fiction, pp. 998–1001. In American and English literary studies ‘science fiction’ is consistently defined as a as defined consistently is fiction’ ‘science studies literary English and American In Polish literary studies sci-fi is rather defined as a as defined rather is sci-fi studies literary Polish The Animal That Therefore I Animal the conviction of human superiority over animals. J. Derrida, The That Therefore M.L. Mallet, transl. D. Press, Athens–London 1996, p. XIX. Press, , Cambridge University Press, Cam Environment the and Literature to Introduction Cambridge The 2012; G. Garrard (ed.), The Oxford York G. Garrard, Ecocriticism, Routledge, New bridge 2011; 2014. York Handbook of Ecocriticism, Oxford University Press, New through the trauma of Darwin’s theory of evolution. According to the French philosopher, the trau According to the French philosopher, theory of evolution. through the trauma of Darwin’s ma is at the root of the logocentrism/phallogocentrism which manifests Ecology, University of the Georgia Literary in Landmarks Reader: Ecocriticism H. Fromm (eds.), The Just as ecocriticism cannot be claimed to be an exceptionally innovative approach innovative to be an exceptionally claimed be cannot Just as ecocriticism a is literature G. Ecocriticism takes as its subjects the interconnections between nature and culture, specifically the specifically culture, and nature between interconnections the subjects its as takes Ecocriticism As a critical stance, it has one foot in literature and cultural artifacts of language and literature. human and the nonhuman. the other on land; as a theoretical discourse, it negotiates between the Clark, T. On the changes of the thematic and methodological scope of ecocriticism in past decades see L’animal que donc je suis, Jacques Derrida that we have not yet worked je donc que In the series of essays entitled L’animal Introduction: Introduction: Literary Glotfelty, C. Studies in an Age of Environmental C. [in:] Crisis For these reasons, science fiction occupies a 3

4 5 3 2 but also new sensitivity and aesthetics. Thus, the management of imagination referred of imagination the management Thus, aesthetics. sensitivity and but also new epistemological, of cognition at a novel model would mean constructing to in the title for such types, also means searching aesthetic levels. It axiological, and ontological, genres, and genre varieties of cultural texts of scenarios convey diverse and vividly clearly – which most games, or visual arts second proposition advanced hereThe (or injustice). human – non-human justice carries the greatest potential it is the genre of the fantastic which states that at present “hues” of the fantastic into one has to take the various Naturally, in terms of ecology. fantasy. and fiction, science horror, including account, that particular attention should be paid to speculative science fiction which explores the fantastic seeksThis current within and multispecies justice. the themes of ecology rethink the thus provoking the readers to pictures of reality, to unfold alternative with non-humans and po- Earth and reconsider our relationships place of people on shapes of the future. responsibility for possible (or probable) litical-ethical-aesthetic of their times – reveal the con- – as products At the same time those speculations temporary notions of sci-fi authors and readers concerning the possible, to transcend anthropocentric, phallogocen- or anticipated direction we may follow probable, tric in the field of literature studies, current in literature studies which examines the natural world as it is rep- studies which examines strued as a current in literature As Cheryll Glotfelty explains: resented in literary texts. W KRĘGU IDEI  based on what has been envisioned. crisis and conflict the of extrapolations ecological reveals as well as forms, life man much information abouttheimaginedrelationships between humanswithnon-hu- yield may literature fiction science environmentally-oriented of analysis that served ans, participants oftheForumonLiteraturesEnvironment: it wasalreadyovertwodecadesagothatUrsulaK. Heise,wroteinherlettertothe a not is fiction science in depicted realities turistic Grażyna Gajewska 82 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 datgs f cec fiction science of advantages which offers a offers which been discussedbysuchresearchersas Ali Sperling, ing theworld”andhaltingdetrimental human impactontheenvironmenthas Ibidem.

A. Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable , The UniversityofChicago State UniversityPress,Columbus 2012. EnvironmentalismTransformativeOhio , The and Fiction Science Speculations: E.C. Otto, Green P.K. Nayar,Posthumanism, PolityPress,Cambridge2014. R. Evans, Nomenclature, Narrative, and Novum: ‘The Anthropocene’ and/as Science Fiction, “Sci pp. 94–110. and Queer Futurity, “Resilience: A ence FictionStudies”2018,no.45,pp.484–499;eadem,Fantastic Futures? Cli-fi, Climate Justice, Press, Middletown2014. pp. 231–255. Sickness in ‘The Southern Reach Trilogy’, “Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres” 2016, no. 28, 2.03.2021). (accessed: http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0013481/otto_e.pdf online: published dissertation Doctoral D. Patrick by terms specific more in articulated was issue The and theirchallengetoourvisionofthefuture. of the genres that have most persistently and most daringly engaged environmental questions Kim Stanley Robinson, and Scott Russell Sanders in the 1980s and 1990s, science fiction is one Brunner, and Ursula K. Le Guin in the 1960s and 1970s to those of Carl Amery, David Brin, John Brian Aldiss, of stories short and novels the from fiction: science is clearly most emerge [O]ne ofthecontemporarygenresinwhichquestionsaboutnatureandenvironmental issues Press, Chicago–London2016. G. Canavan, K.S.Robinson(eds.),Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fictions, Wesleyan University Melbourne–New Delhi2019. Literatureand A. Johns-Putra (ed.),Climate , CambridgeUniversityPress,Cambridge–New York– Speculative VegetationSpeculative Walesof 2020; University Cardiff , Press, Jeff VanderMeer’s Fiction [in:]K.E. Bishop,D.Higgins,J.Määtä(eds.),Plants in Science Fiction: ExposureWeird,Ingestions: , ICIBerlinPress,2020,pp.41–62;Queer Vegetative in Bodies Exposures [in:]C. Holzhey,pp. 1–17;Radiating A. Fictions, “Paradoxa:Studiesin WorldA. Sperling, Climate LiteraryGenres”2019–2020,no.31, Conscience, UniversityofFlorida,2006,p.15. Ecological the and Fiction After: E. Otto,Science Quoted fromtheletterbyU.K. HeisesenttoForumonLiteraturesofEnvironmentin1999. 10 Adeline Johns-Putra, Adeline ECOLOGY ANDSCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION THEAGE... IN conduit for the anxieties, hopes and speculative visions of “improv of visions speculative and hopes anxieties, the for conduit 11 EricC. Otto, o te atsi i te rae sense broader the in fantastic the or – Journal oftheEnvironmentalHumanities”2017,vol.4,no.2–3, 7 Murphyisnot alone in his argumentation. The 12 6 Amitav Ghosh, Amitav Wedemeyerof (eds.),Weathering:Ecologies novel trend either. For instance, For either. trend novel 8 GerryCanavan, Second Skins: A Skins: Second 13 andPramodK. Nayar. Murphy, who ob- Murphy,who 9

Rebecca Ev- Body Ecology of Ecology Body a a as – genre 14 - -

 W KRĘGU IDEI - 83 Posthuman – an idea that – an idea Grażyna Gajewska Grażyna variety of ways. Perhaps ani- splendid point of departure. of point splendid 15 world of planetary disasters, emerging pandemics, emerging disasters, world of planetary – a states as follows: 16 , Bloomsbury, [in:] R. Braidotti, M. Hlavajova (eds.), Posthuman Ecohorror Glossary, Bloomsbury, , vol. 1, Zero Books, Winchester–Wash Philosophy, vol. 1, Zero Books, of Horror Planet: This of Dust the In ECOLOGY AND SCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION IN THE AGE... IMAGINATION MANAGING FICTION. AND SCIENCE ECOLOGY ington 2011, p. 1. ington 2011, It is the speculative potential of the fantastic which both reveals the social anx- of the fantastic potential It is the speculative has been a central motif of the horror genre for some time. in slight- are formulated of the fantastic The themes and the tasks of that variety Ecohorror reflects our fears about non-human nature in a unthinkable world is increasingly The tectonic shifts, strange weather, oil-drenched seascapes, and the furtive, always-looming threat seascapes, and the furtive, always-looming oil-drenched shifts, strange weather, tectonic of extinction. In spite of our daily concerns, wants, and desires, it is increasingly difficultis to this idea confront To to and of which we are a part. the world in which we live comprehend all at world the understand to adequately to our ability limit an absolute confront or perhaps top of the animal hierarchy, mals will attack us, perhaps we will lose our place at the so, ecohorror In doing beings. other with our interconnectedness acknowledge to have we will built upon, but ecohorror also asks us they are risks reinforcing those fears and the categories what might happen if we were not to insist so to reconsider some of those fears and to imagine vehemently upon such divisions. Thacker, E. Thacker, Tidwell, C. Tidwell, Delhi–Sydney 2018, p. 117. York–New London–Oxford–New

16 15 Ecocriticism studies the images of nature and human approaches to non-human life to non-human approaches and human of nature images studies the Ecocriticism cultural areas, em- periods and historical genres from distinct forms in various literary a particular The fantastic is given for that purpose. ploying a range of methodologies texts one engages in critical as both in public debates and place in those discussions, and protagonists to the plots, motifs, reference making with the fantastic”, “thinking from horror, science fiction, the and Predominantly, references fantasy. draw on the This horrors. and fiction science dark so-called the in presented scenarios pessimistic are Anthropocene the problems and issues of the that is hardly surprising, considering Dust the The preface to In of the fantastic. brought to the fore in those very modalities of Philosophy of This Planet: Horror 2. The fantastic in the ecocritical discussion ecocritical in the fantastic The 2. Despite certain differences of themes and methodologies employed in their inquiry, all researchers underline that literary (and filmic) representationsof nature are not such role in creating an important but also play cultures, by particular only generated envi- towards the attitude our contemporary we want to understand Thus, if cultures. a provide may film and literature fiction science ronment, ieties associated with the consequences of the Anthropocene and makes it possible associated with the consequences of the ieties things in order” (e.g. with respect to scenarios of “getting to conceive alternative ly different terms by the author of the entry for ‘ecohorror’ in the 2018 Glossary: W KRĘGU IDEI  have grown accustomed to and take for granted. I granted. for take and to accustomed grown have Capitalocene, Anthropocene or, asDonnaHarawayputsit,inthehorrorof Anthropocene and a genre ofthefantastic, but todemonstrate that thechallenges faced intheeraof as horror to superior is fiction science that prove to intention my not is it that stress are neither the onlyviable nor thebest. As I donotwishtobemisconstrued, I should fosters thenotionthat the orderinwhichwelive and theprinciples on whichitrests ence, socialorderor –morebroadlyinterweavinghumanandnon-humanagencies alternative realities or a is unlikely to lead to a happyending. In contrast, within the fantastic, envisioning to inspirefear, whiletheriftinreality caused bya violent (most oftenirrational) event greater potential in thatrespectthanhorror,bours asthelatter isbydefaultexpected potential than apocalyptic scenarios. philosophy and social movements to raise ecological awareness hasgreater political found understanding of our relationships with nature. The marriage of science fiction, fiction which promotes green revolution, though not through fear but by virtue of pro- challenges ofthecontemporary worldwithregardtoecological future requirescience Conscience Ecological the and Fiction the viewofauthorScience of transformation thatcouldleadtoecologically fairer future.Inthisrespect,I share pessimistic bleak, Its overtones make it politically weak, incapable of becoming involved in the process change. to committed is that ecofiction as deliver really not does fiction science of facet apocalyptic the reasons, those For tales. macabre any speciesism Grażyna Gajewska 84 20 19 18 17 and more realistic with each generation, explore andsubjugatenature,humansmakethehorror ofthe Anthropocene more realize that having long produced tools, processes,and mechanisms to appropriate, human of relationshipsbetweenhumanandnon-humananimals,diverseecosystems itable doom, whereas speculative thinking gravitates towards a

P. Singer,Liberation: Animal A by a substantialhumanimpactontheecosystems andgeologyoftheEarth,thereisnoconsensus characterized the is that Anthropocene community scientific the in assumed universally is it While E. Otto, ScienceFiction…,op.cit.,p.22. and capitalism of mechanisms the market, the between links the underline to Capitalocene’, ‘the of ‘the Besides a Anthropocene’, i I. However, itshouldnotservehumansto elevatetheirownspeciesina wayleadingtospeciesism.” rights. human of breach any against exploitation, debasement, enslavement, racism, against flicted, in been have they harm the against persons of category some defend to wish we when significant “According to the author, emphasizing dignity of each human individual becomes momentously dom House, New York, 1975. In a Making KinintheChthulucene,DukeUniversityPress,Durham–London 2016,p.3. human actions which prove destructive to Earth’s ecosystems. D.J. praktyce. Antologia tekstów, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, Wrocław 2001, p. 276.

Lazari-Pawłowska, ECOLOGY ANDSCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION THEAGE... IN – non-human agencies. Perhaps what needs to be done in the first place is to is place first the in done be to needs what Perhaps agencies. non-human – 17 ) onEarth,notnecessarilyinaccordance with thenotionalpatternswe 18 require science fiction to be engaged in the discussion rather than rather discussion the in engaged be to fiction science require Kręgi ludzkiej wspólnoty. Egoizm gatunkowy reality organized anew, embracing various forms ofexist- term in wide use today, Haraway also takes advantage of the notion the of advantage today,takes use also wide Haraway in term

New Ethics for Our TreatmentOur for Ethics New of New Animals, YorkReview/Ran commentary to Singer’s new ethics, Ija Lazari-Pawłowska writes: 19 Catastrophic thinking nurtures visions of inev- 20 only to conclude later that a believe that science fiction har fiction science that believe Haraway, [in:] Z. Kaleta (ed.), Etyka w different arrangement Staying with the Trouble: change of the thatthe

teorii - - -  W KRĘGU IDEI ------85 political and Grażyna Gajewska Grażyna 22 21 , Penguin , Anthropocene the Created We How Planet: Human The Maslin, Lewis, M.A. Lewis, ECOLOGY AND SCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION IN THE AGE... IMAGINATION MANAGING FICTION. AND SCIENCE ECOLOGY Interestingly enough, Ghosh delves into the Anthropocene beginning with liter with beginning Anthropocene the into Ghosh delves enough, Interestingly Amitav Ghosh, Bengali writer and cultural critic, drew attention to those issues to drew attention and cultural critic, Bengali writer Amitav Ghosh, ity see: S.L. see: ity Random House UK, London 2018. as to the periodization of the process. This is because the process may be approached in terms of as to the periodization of the process. industrial and generations past several spans which duration, short and duration long so-called the activ to human due geological changes and environmental phases of On the successive revolutions. temporal concurrence between intensifying cli between intensifying concurrence Furthermore, the author notes a temporal (…) it was in exactly the period in which human atmosphere activity was changing the earth’s nonhu- the as Inasmuch human. the on centered radically became imagination literary the that man was written about at all, it was not within the mansion of serious fiction but rather in the had been banished. outhouses to which science fiction and fantasy I have come to recognize that the challenges that the challenges that climate change poses for change climate that that the challenges the challenges that to recognize I have come the contemporary writer, although specific in some respects, are also productsof something forms and conventions of literary grid the from ultimately derive they and older; that broader of that period when the accumulation in precisely imagination to shape the narrative that came destiny of the earth. carbon in the atmosphere was rewritings the The Great Derangement…, op. cit., p. 7. A. Ghosh, The Great Ibidem, p. 66. The Great The Derangement: Great Climate Change and the chapters . In three Unthinkable

ature, which he justifies by stating that climate change is not merely a from the crisis of imagi issue as well, stemming economic problem but a cultural of the realist novel, stating that it cele The author points out the limitations nation. relation and social inwards, interpersonal focused individuals individualism, brates with non-human relations multilateral ships which are in a sense isolated from other, about the world and the forms of narration beings. Ghosh juxtaposes the established of exploitation development, industrial dynamic with the in it human of the place nature, and pollution: 21 22 dedicated respectively to literature, history and politics, the author describes those in- the author describes politics, history and literature, to respectively dedicated humans which ushered realities social-political-economic sane modes of organizing - sys of aftermath the is change Ghosh, climate to According Anthropocene. the into us to be wardens of our own of that framework, which forces “derangement” temic that future concern absent, ecological With future. of an empty prisons, guardians growth and of economic imperative the market, whims of the the by is blackmailed of those processes and taking analysis Instead of a critical the coercion to consume. of multiple a pageant witnesses planet the beings, of all well-being for the action injustices. state of affairs requires not only novel scientific and technological apparatus, but also but apparatus, technological and scientific novel only not requires affairs of state and aesthetic. a distinct sensibility in mate change in the modern era and the popularity of realistic prose: mate change in the modern era and the W KRĘGU IDEI  noticed inpreviousages. a change oflanguage,soastobeablenamethephenomena whichremained un- while simultaneously problems research of exemplifications and description of forms hybrid of value the one thinksabouttheworldandrelationships between variousbeings,underlines need each other.” Capitalocene. Haraway statesexplicitly that “science fact andspeculative fabulation cusses human responsibility for the fate of the world in the age of the Anthropocene/ Chthulucene the in Kin Trouble:Making the with Staying inspiring action for change developing alternative scenarios ofconceiving the worldandourselves –aswell conviction that thefantastic plays a crucial role intranscending existingordersand male pseudonym James Tiptree, jr., and prose writer Octavia Butler. The researcher’s Neveryon bySamuelR. Delany, worksby Alice BradleySheldon,writing under the McCaffrey, Anne by Sang Who Ship Latin writer Cherríe L. Moraga, The posthumanist perspective, recalls thefollowingtexts:Loving in the War Years bythe world. The research, postulating the construction of a simulate alternative orders andexperiment with novelmodalities ofourbeing inthe to ability the in chiefly lies sci-fi Haraway’sof potential In the instead. opinion, tion distancing oneself from the bourgeois novel and realism whilst affirming science fic- egy included departure from depiction or representation in favourofsimulation, and Cyborgsfor . Inthetext,someofvital points ofargumentation andrhetoric strat- a single lifeorseveralgenerations ern novel covers narrowscopesoftime and space and unchangeable while the resources arelimitless. Ghosh maintains that since mod- (in theindividual andcollective dimension),itwaspresumedthattheclimate is stable advocates a advocates a future worldwhichisfriendlytohuman which hasthepotential to depict threats as welladvance alternative scenarios of fiction science but prose realistic the not is it that believes Ghosh critic, and writer tions, and relationships between the human and the non-human. As a in progress, to see it as a thus does not allow the reader to “acquire” a before.” consequence, “theactofreading itselfwillchangeonceagain,asithas manytimes ary forms and language capable of describing the problems of the Anthropocene; in ally conditioning categories of science fiction, speculative feminism, science fantasy, Grażyna Gajewska 86 24 23

Donna J. Haraway expressed a D.J. Haraway, StayingwiththeTrouble…, op.cit.,p.3. Ibidem, p.84. At the time when realistic prose concentrated on the complex human experience ECOLOGY ANDSCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION THEAGE... IN 23 To Ghosh,thefantastic carriesmuchofwhat ittakestochangetheway turn towards science fiction and fantasy, to develop new, hybrid liter hybrid new, develop to fantasy, and fiction science towards turn 24 Describing her method as SF, sheexplains that it denotes the mutu- – asmany other posthumanists crucial factor affecting the condition of bodies, minds, emo- – is also expressed in Haraway’s most recent monograph, similar view already in the 1980s, in her – itdoesnottakeclimate change intoaccountand – non-human agencies, which iswhyhe sensitivity to the environmental change – rarely going beyond the span of – recognizes the necessity for feminist-hybrid identity in (2016),inwhich she dis- pro-ecological Manifesto Talesof -  W KRĘGU IDEI - - - - 87 and 26 Human Vint, Science Vint, Gray et al. (eds.), Grażyna Gajewska Grażyna As Haraway argues, interlacing argues, As Haraway 25 show Tomorrows New Scientist, or Twelve where the emphasis is put on human relations with highly is put on human relations emphasis where the , “Critical Posthumanism. Genealogy of the Posthuman”, 24.05.2014, fluctuation between building and destroying models as cer as models destroying and building between fluctuation 27 ECOLOGY AND SCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION IN THE AGE... IMAGINATION MANAGING FICTION. AND SCIENCE ECOLOGY Fiction and Posthumanism https://criticalposthumanism.net/science-fiction/ (accessed: 12.02.2021). searchers subscribing to transhumanism, as well as in the strategies of AI companies. For instance, as in the strategies of searchers subscribing to transhumanism, as well descrip the with along extropianists, the of lists must-read the in included were works sci-fi numerous tions of anticipated technologies which in themselves differed little from science fiction narratives. Extropy Institute, or University, such as the 2045 Initiative, Humanity+, Singularity Organizations Articles fiction. science from deriving future of models on based function Institute Humanity of Future , Magazine Press journals such as Arc published in MIT argued even is fiction Science sci-fi. in technologies new developing people the of interest increasing S. to be a kind of consciousness through which transhumanists shape and test reality. Sherryl Vint Sherryl argues Vint that science fiction plays quite an important role in the narratives of many re Ibidem, p. 10. On the involvement of science fiction in cyborg anthropology studies see: C.H. Arcy-nie-ludzkie. Przez Przez 1995; G. Gajewska, Arcy-nie-ludzkie. York–London Handbook, Routledge, New Cyborg The UAM, Poznań 2010. Wydawnictwo , cyborgów science fiction do antropologii

tain themes and useless tropes are rejected, between risking failure and opening to the and opening risking failure between are rejected, and useless tropes themes tain not has which beautiful) even (perhaps constructive something of discovering chance it possible to present Thus construed, SF makes hitherto. been noticed and expressed vital issues of the contemporary world, analyze specific and multiple relationships (at or rejection nodes of inclusion, switching the emerging as they change, examine cate of those The interweaving e.g. through tradition). a former site of attachment, that behaviours, actions, and bonds attitudes, and stimulate gories aims to simulate eth- the so that Anthropocene, the and anthropocentrism to alternative an constitute - There both humans and non-humans. encompasses and solicitude perspective ical the highlights for kinship, which familiality of notion the exchanges Haraway fore notion the them; and bonds that link and the relationships of lifeforms multiplicity marked the negatively is extended to symbiogenesis, while of origin and genesis - tran or fluidity, potentiality, denote to Chtulucene, the with replaced is Anthropocene (living-with, dying-with). sitionality of certain lifeforms into others those categories means a means categories those advanced technology as opposed to conceiving the human as an actor/actant Latour’s (and ANT) of extensive, continually transforming visions of from transhumanist stress has shifted years the in recent that I believe ecosystems. Nevertheless, improving the human through science and technology (symbolized by H+ / correlative, community-based thinking which encompasses both hu- thinking which encompasses both community-based Plus) towards a correlative, 26 25 3. Managing imagination the posthuman way posthuman the imagination Managing 3. with “thinking employ to researcher only the is not Haraway aforementioned The “thinking Thus far, posthuman. of the concepts the as she elaborates fantastic” the with the fantastic” was chiefly associated with the concepts of transhumanism speculative speculative fabulation, science fact, string figures. 27 anthropology of cyborgs, anthropology W KRĘGU IDEI  versified world. versified experiment, a fiction provide an important component of science the argument, of as works a cinematic and/or literary texts critical many in as fiction, science rary (post)humanities are witness tocharacteristic “immersion” or“indebtedness” in and the essential goals of both intellectual currents differ, tices of exclusion and discrimination.” make it inherently negative, just highly regulatory and hence instrumental to prac- As Rosi Braidotti observes, “[t]he human is a that the ontological status of the human proves highly problematic in posthumanism. existence in termsofheterogeneity, multiplicity, immersion, which owestothefact to unfoldposthumanistconcepts. human affirming and presenting of mode that evince particular man and non-human forms oflife. The conceptions within critical posthumanism in Grażyna Gajewska 88 33 32 31 30 29 28 gies, immersions,andintrojections. cyborgs from sci-fi prose and films are often seen as figures of a figures as seen often are films and prose sci-fi from cyborgs and groups, posthumanists contribute to the emergence of such fields as disabili as fields ty studies such of emergence the to contribute posthumanists groups, and excluded over thecenturies. By rehabilitating the excluded or marginalized persons cumscribes the notion of “human,” by virtue of which numerous groupshave been economic status are the principal categories of that normative convention which cir fiction is a is fiction

post-anthropocentrism. More broadly on the differences between the premises and goals of post­ of goals and premises the between differences the on broadly More post-anthropocentrism. In themostgeneralterms,criticalposthumanismmaybedescribedas post-humanism,post-dualism, These termsoftentendtobeconfusedorerroneouslytreatedassynonymous,whichisdue –among pp. 77–87. On thesharedareasofposthumanism andmonsterstudiessee:P.K. Nayar,Posthumanism, op.cit., Macmillan, New YorkDis and Disability 2013;seealsopassword:D. Goodleyetal., Posthuman See: K. R. Braidotti, ThePosthuman,PolityPress,Cambridge2013,p. 26. M. It is a discussion withoutreferringtosci-fi. pp. 356–358, 438–439. Transhumanism/Posthumanism humanism andtranshumanismseethefollowingentries:C. from othersources:anti-humanism,post-structuralism,deconstructionism, andfeminism. its lineagetotheEnlightenmenthumanisticvisionofimprovinghuman life,posthumanismderives and simultaneously real entity, or figure of the “future shock”). However, while transhumanism traces and postulations in the 1980s, while certain issues and notions are shared (e.g. cyborg as a other things –totheirconcurrenceintime,asbothintellectualcurrentsdeveloped principaltheses Human Studies[in:]R. Braidotti,M. Hlavajova (eds.),PosthumanGlossary,op.cit.,pp.342–345. First, oneseekstorevisethehumanistic vision ofthehumanandapproach Although the intellectual roots ofposthumanism and transhumanism are distinct Bakko, J. ECOLOGY ANDSCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION THEAGE... IN phenomenon characteristic of Western culture, because in Poland, for example, research scuch 32 Disability in Science Fiction: Representations of TechnologyCureRepresentationsof as , Palgrave Fiction: Science in Alla (ed.),Disability andmonsterstudies, privileged variety of the fantastic for posthumanism as well. Contempo well. as posthumanism for fantastic the of variety privileged Brach-Czaina, E. figure of new subjectivity and settling-in in a 30 Onecandiscernthreemajorareasinwhichthefantastic is applied Domańska, J. Posthuman Posthuman (eds.), Hlavajova [in:]R. Braidotti,M. , op. cit., Glossary 33 inwhichvariousmonsters,hybrids,polyforms, 31 Gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, health, Bednarek, T. normative convention, which does not Sławek sucessfully conduct posthumanist Wolfe, Posthumanism;F. Ferrando, 29 I wouldargue thatscience multidimensional and di- metaphor or intellectual – non-human syner non-human – new posthuman new fictitious 28 - - - - -

 W KRĘGU IDEI - 89 The - af 34 Grażyna Gajewska Grażyna , which is why it enjoys interest interest enjoys is why it , which The Companies Species Manifes- 36 species are animals, or human animals. Since science Since or human animals. animals, are species ), the same author spoke of the exceedingly complex spoke of the exceedingly author same ), the Nayar aptly notes that “[s]ci-fi asks: what does it mean to mean it does what asks: “[s]ci-fi that notes aptly Nayar ECOLOGY AND SCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION IN THE AGE... IMAGINATION MANAGING FICTION. AND SCIENCE ECOLOGY At the same time, they deconstruct the anthropocentric vision of the animal the anthropocentric they deconstruct At the same time, 35 being subordinate to the human, and demonstrate that the animal is not the other/ the not is animal the that demonstrate and human, the to subordinate being nexus of manifold relationships with the aim is to show humans in a nexus of manifold Secondly, Mazurov, Monster/The Unhuman [in:] R. Braidotti, M. Hlavajova (eds.), Posthuman N. Mazurov, Glossary, op. cit., p. 262. Posthumanism, op. cit., p. 81. Nayar, P.K. Ibidem, p. 93.

among the posthumanists. On the one hand, there are the relations linking humans linking relations the are there hand, one On the posthumanists. the among with the flora and fauna, as well as the animal and vegetal aspect of the human that concerns our took its shape in the course of evolution; on the other hand, the matter human self-evolution. and potential technology with highly developed relationships Nayar further observes: firmative attitude of posthumanism towards monstrosity stems from transcending the transcending from stems monstrosity towards posthumanism of attitude firmative in as a being who takes part the human is perceived vision, also because humanistic processes, vital levels, in various ecosystems, transformation at various evolutionary departure the is It ancestors. vegetal and animal from inherited material genetic or atten draws the that vision of subjectivity anthropocentric and from the humanistic protagonists in science fiction. tion of posthumanists to the monstrous came impulse The things, and objects. bacteria, plants, animals, entities: non-human entitled monograph from Donna J. Haraway in the to: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness, in which she wrote about trans-species (in the as animals to ensure happiness of humans as well and taking care relations humans); in anoth- to of canine companions text, Haraway focused on the happiness er books (When Species Meet relations between people and test animals which work for us in laboratories. As an which work relations between people and test animals for us in laboratories. studies “[show] connections, discourse, animal posthuman of the element integral struc- embedded within relational together, networks and linkages across life evolve tures.” 35 36 34 subjectivity that is inclusive instead of exclusive. As Nikita Mazurov explains, the Mazurov As Nikita of exclusive. instead is inclusive that subjectivity de- disassembly, project of changing and simultaneously a continuous monster is figuration and illegitimate combinations; the monster is concrete and yet relational, through it functions formalization, notional elude forms which on hybrid it relies in oth and dissolving- – shifting, adapting, troublesomeness and certain contestation er forms/bodies. The monster undermines the essentialist, Vitruvian concept of the it is not though male, able-bodied healthy, a white, heterosexual, (hu)man: inevitably of aberration the human, but a polymorphous, monstrous of negation a “a simplistic entirety.” its in form subject anthropocentric and humanistic unitary, the fiction is replete with humanimals, plantimals, hybrids and monsters, it offers splen- of paths fictitious and possible concerning experimentation intellectual for scope did based on anthropo- and attribution recognition as denounces value as well evolution, K. Pramod criteria. centric as a as as a humans that also but alien, be ‘truly’ human, or ‘merely’ machine human, or or be animal?” ‘merely’ ‘truly’ W KRĘGU IDEI  perspective, which entails intellectual and actual inquiry intothemultiple connections I reasons, these For world. the describing and quently ithampersmorespeculativeandcreative in proecological essays thinking of relations betweenhumansand non-human othersandtheenvironment. Conse- vides a pro- as well as suffered, has it abuse the for humans on nature” of “vengeance the of fear and environment the of state the with disquiet our reveals which horror ary-film of sociallife.Here,posthumanismhighlightsecohorror, meaning a subgenreofliter (resulting infoodshortage)leadstoa dramatic environmental change andcollapse water, exhaustion of fossil fuels and extinction of numerous plant and animal species of lack where future dystopian of depictions filmic and literary of plenty offers ture attempts to formulate an ethics ofconcern for the world all beings share.Popularcul- to mitigate the aftermath of several centuries of adverse environmental impact, and such relationshipsarearticulated. coevolve, the posthumanists critically analyze those works of science fiction in which which machines, human,biological bodies andotherlifeforms mutually coexist or condition but itsintegral component. Hence, directing their attention to the ways in it ispresumedthattechnology is notsomucha prosthesisorextensionofthehuman animals and other actors/actants which inhabit the Earth. the inhabit which actors/actants other and animals crises and focusing onthe manifold relationships between human and non-human future, as well as critical tropes and studies geared towards analysis of the ecological the of scenarios terrifying yet fictitious deliver which works both comprises horror Dead. Inthe opinion ofthe authors, eco- We’llBe Soon PrettyAll Dread, in Living article the in Soles Carter and Rust Stephen by advanced definition for thosetwointerpretations of theterm“ecohorror” may befoundintheconciliatory Grażyna Gajewska 90 39 38 37 proecological academicdiscourse. aspect, demonstrating at the same time that ecohorror is an integral element in the the range of works classified as horror in film and literature to include the ecological approval with posthumanism, because ecohorror understoodinthisfashionexpands

tion: whatwillthehumanbeliketomorrow? What comesafter(post-) the human? evolu- human of course future the on speculate to us upon calls also Sci-fi existent? and extant C. Tidwell, Dead’, “InterdisciplinaryStudiesinLiterature andEnvironment”,21.03.2014,pp.509–512. Be All We’llSoon PrettyDread,Fear, in in Living ‘Living Cluster: S. Rust, Carter,Special Ecohorror Ibidem, p.3. This viewpointhasa certaindrawbackasitconcentrates on thenegativeaspects Third, the posthumanist turn towards the fantastic also involves the strategies These issuesarewellwithinthehorizonofposthumanistdeliberation, in which cultural history ofthe human needs todeal with the question: what formsofthe much of the sci-fi, the dystopian novels and other popular expressions, we understand that a of thehumaninageadvanced biotechnology, genetic engineering and computers. From nature the explore does it science, contemporary detail explicitly not does fiction when Even ECOLOGY ANDSCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION THEAGE... IN metaphor for the actual effects of the Anthropocene. A Ecohorror, op.cit.,pp.115–116. 39 am more in favour of Haraway’s SF Haraway’s of favour in more am 38 This perspective found

common denomination Living in Fear,in Living human 37 are now new -  W KRĘGU IDEI - 91 , in which vital role in role vital differentworld, Grażyna Gajewska Grażyna It’s All Just Beginning It’s am also much inclined to agree with Ghosh that science fiction and fan- ECOLOGY AND SCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION IN THE AGE... IMAGINATION MANAGING FICTION. AND SCIENCE ECOLOGY Due to the peculiar nature of the genre, the fantastic can play a play can fantastic the genre, the of nature peculiar the to Due 40 Haraway, Capitalocene D. Haraway, and Chthulucene [in:] R. Braidotti, M. Hlavajova (eds.), Posthuman Those three areas in which the posthuman is coupled with the fantastic are ap- are fantastic the with is coupled the posthuman which in areas three Those Glossary, op. cit., p. 79. The concept behind the notion is of elucidated the in ‘Chthulucene’ detail . in the previously cited monograph Staying with the Trouble

the transformation, insofar as it provokes the authors and the readers or viewers to or viewers readers the and authors provokes the as it insofar transformation, the insofar as it conveys diverse spectacles delve into various scenarios of the revision; it involves human and non-hu- insofar as of life passing into death and into life; man actors/actants; insofar as it experiments, poses question, tries to show and tell language and the emotions reason, the the imagination, the directs Chthulucene; the that fact the to us sensitize which ethics and aesthetics an and sympoiesis towards forms of life on Earth multiple with many; as one of the being one means becoming or abided isolated from other beings: we do we have never been and never are alone, and fluctuating systems. function entangled in complex, dynamic, 40 Shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 Shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 historian and philosopher of pandemic, entitled a text published Justin E.H. Smith science 4. Eco-sci-fi in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic COVID-19 the of age the in 4. Eco-sci-fi he shared his reflections on the human attitudes to animals and, even more broadly, knowledge of the laws of on the human conviction that they have gained complete they are, they proud of how exceptional or tamed it. Now, nature and have mastered parently separate from one another. However, in order to “think” a great role to play in transforming our sensibility and language to make it to make and language our sensibility transforming tasy have a great role to play in human and non-human eco- and links between the relationships of portraying capable mindset or descending continuously to the anthropocentric systems without reverting which narration and aesthetics such an need We of ecohorror. scenarios bleak the into into Anthropocene and the of anthropocentrism us out of leading capable would be the Chthulucene. between various lifeforms in order to foster multispecies justice. Science fiction plays fiction Science justice. multispecies foster to order in lifeforms various between ground testing an intellectual becomes as it insofar respect, in that role a crucial of that jus- notions existent, conventional with the one to experiment which enables tice, and to transcend the modes of describing (inter)species differences, similarities and the philosophical tradition in established which have become and dependencies social life. I of rela through the convolution world of the Chthulucene: the non-anthropocentric on Earth, of various forms of life introjections synergies, transitions, tionships, their temporariness and disruption the as in as well complexity, evolutionary entire the in those of the notions of the human as an element one should also revise of existence, humus. we are homo; not are We compost. we are posthuman; not are processes. “We ob- Haraway indeterminate”, are we many; are we earthlings; are we terran; are We serves. W KRĘGU IDEI  thinking: and wroughthavocontheeconomy, Robinson encouraged readerstospeculative the world the coronavirus pandemic took a yond our descendants’ ability to repair.”to descendants’ability our yond disposable income, wrecking our one and only home in ways that soon will be be- our children’s hopes for a for hopes children’s our wasting biosphere, the with synch of out been “we’ve that wrote Robinson Stanley entitled over theEartharenotonlyillusorybutalsounethical. to illustrate his argument, seekingtodemonstrate that thedreamsofpowerandreign tions; perceives popularcultureasanemanation of deeplyentrenched buthiddenconvic have noticed with surprise that they are by no means such a Grażyna Gajewska 92 43 42 41 ness, Smithdrawsontheportrayalsinsciencefiction,whichmostoften… ble species asmany have believed. Describing human notions oftheir own unique-

S. Fiennes, Austria, The Netherlands,GreatBritain, 2006. Cambridge 1991,andintheseries ofrecordedlecturesentitledThe Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, dir. A week after Smith’s article was published, “The New Yorker” featured a featured Yorker”New “The published, was article Smith’s after week A , “The New “The Yorker”,Imagination , Our K.S. Robinson, CoronavirusRewriting https:// Is 1.05.2020, S. a advanced Žižek J.E.H. DtNkNb0Cwsh8iywfaJHBOeEeUk (accessed:26.03.2020). com/examined-life/its-all-just-beginning/?fbclid=IwAR3N1PpT1bZqU27I7JTg8kQbeukekhHuF On the one hand, drawing on the diagnoses of psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek, Smith be mistakeninthisconclusion. humans, but not animals at all, it is difficult to come up with an argument as to why they would suppose after some reconnoitering that the true representatives of this planet are not only not a in around swarming by vehicles they might even themselves be plantlike or microbe-like. They might control their interstellar far more attuned to other kinds oforganisms, in particular plants and microorganisms, and that a as planet duumvirate arrangement between humanandcattle. But itisjustaslikelythattheywouldbe our see probably would they salient, megafauna locomoting only find to working togetherwiththeChineseandRussians. the into goad Americans and affairs, international in interest an take even they but octopuses), single-minded interest inhumanbeingstotheexclusion of plantsandmicrobes(nottomention resentatives. In 2016’s Arrival, for example, the gastropod-like space travelers not only express that visitors to earth would naturally see our own species as this planet’s true and legitimate rep- and atworstourenemies. In movies featuring aliens, in particular, itisalwaystaken for granted (…) human beings remain the lords of this planet, while other life forms are at best our wards, 7bN2QUnFjlhHQDnEZ0_5bKuVUBymtfdJUSpWbN-M5nmtOzPcV3i2o (accessed: 2.07.2020). (accessed: 7bN2QUnFjlhHQDnEZ0_5bKuVUBymtfdJUSpWbN-M5nmtOzPcV3i2o www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/the-coronavirus-and-our-future?fbclid=IwAR2S3r 42 Žižek, ECOLOGY ANDSCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION THEAGE... IN This isimplausible, to saytheleast. Eveniftheextraterrestrials were themselvesevolved on the other, he takes advantage of the speculative potential of science fiction The Coronavirus Is Rewriting Our Imaginations. American sci-fi writer Kim Smith, It’s All Just Beginning, “Examined Life”, 23.03.2020, Web-Only, https://thepointmag. Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan Through Popular Culture, MITPopular Press, Through Lacan Jacques to IntroductionAwry: An Looking psychoanalytical interpretation of texts and films within popular culture in e.g. in culture popular within films and texts of interpretation psychoanalytical normal life, burning our ecological capital as if it were it if as capital ecological our burning life, normal 41 tank of fluid. If such beings were to come to earth, and to and earth, to come to were beings such If fluid. of tank 43 Ina periodwhereinmanyplaces around cruel toll, forced people into isolation splendid and indestructi sort of sort text - - - -  W KRĘGU IDEI - - - - – 93 – which they which – heat wave (…). wave heat Grażyna Gajewska Grażyna – G.G.] – these are also single postulated change; readers co-create, heat wave hot enough to kill anyone not in an in not anyone kill to enough hot wave heat little less surprised by whatever does happen. 45 food scare would do. Imagine a Imagine do. would scare food kind of training. It can help you feel more oriented in the history we’re making profound concern about the future of the next generations in view of in generations next of the future the profound concern about ECOLOGY AND SCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION IN THE AGE... IMAGINATION MANAGING FICTION. AND SCIENCE ECOLOGY 44 is engaging science fiction writers and graphic artists. The aim of the project 46 airconditioned space, then imagine power failures happening during such a such during happening power failures imagine then space, airconditioned are easier them, like These events, and others the coronavirus. than deadlier pandemics Image to imagine now than they when were they back were in the January, stuff of dystopian science fiction. IMAGINER AU-DELÀ. Document d’orientation Document AU-DELÀ. The innovation agenda is outlined in the report entitled IMAGINER de l’innovation de défense 2019, https://www.defense.gouv.fr/actualites/articles/document-d-orien tation-de-l-innovation-de-defense-doid-2019-les-nouvelles-ambitions-du-ministere-en-matiere-d-in novation (accessed: 10.12.2020). The new feeling in our time to which Robinson refers is not only fear for the fear only Robinson refers is not to which our time in new feeling The (…) if you read science fiction, you may be a I do not know whether all readers of the article found it easy to imagine the “what the easy to imagine found it article of the readers all I do not know whether Often, science fiction traces the ramifications of a this Doing history. of theories their interrogating ingenuity, and plausibility writers’ the judging repeatedly is a good to bad, which creates such a profound disorienta spread of possibilities, This radical now. stage [future reality next awareness of the emerging tion; this tentative Imagine what a what Imagine new feelings in our time. Ibidem. Ibidem. conceived by the Agency Defence (Agence Innovation de l’innovation de défense 44 45 46 The speculative functions of science fiction drew the attention of the French military. military. French the of attention the drew fiction science of functions speculative The an- Parly Armed Forces Florence of the Minister French 4th, 2020, the On December for 2019– planned innovation military of strategic one of the elements nounced that 2025 – breaching the wall of imagination of wall the – breaching Conclusion 5. Team Red so-called the of persons ten The future. the of war the on reflection is AID) to venture expected are they i.e. of imagination,” wall the with “breaching tasked are As Parly explains, the idea is to conflicts. modes of predicting beyond the traditional climate change, the waves of migrations of people looking for safe, fertile and un- looking for safe, fertile of people the waves of migrations change, climate and access to natural limited land, as well as new class divisions resulting polluted technological resources. Interestingly, Robinson finds that science fiction performs events. of those scenarios various of creating in terms compellingly and most best ics, but also a but also ics, health and life of our loved ones and ourselves in the face of the spreading pandem health and life of our loved ones and broader, a broader, in life about thinking promotes of disquisition this mode certainly but if,” writers and readers of It is not that now.” and than “here spectrum future-oriented future the predicting of gift exceptional an possess prose fiction science do not – but that… W KRĘGU IDEI  dertakings havea longtradition. contrary, un- the such on projects; military with sci-fi combining of attempt first the graphic artistswhomakeuptheRed Team andthearmedforces,althoughitisnot mission isserious,valuable,andchallenging.” sance forcewhichscoutsthedirections we havenotnoticed or refusedtosee. Your push us,cut across outpathsandtake us outofourcomfort zone. Bethe reconnais us, “surprise words: these with authors fiction science to appealed Parly project, the nable andquestionwhatonlyyesterdayseemedunchangeable.” unimagi the imagine impossible, the believe differently, us think let to dare us “Let countermeasures. potential develop and like look may conflicts future how imagine Grażyna Gajewska 94 50 49 48 47 project was alsopresented in a promotional video. social controlbymeansofbrainimplants and aftermath of theglobalwarming. The that the writers andgraphic artists are expected to explore include conquest of space, cially in the shape of speculative science fiction – plays a plays – fiction science speculative of shape the in cially Forces maybeanotherargument supportingthepropositionthatfantastic – espe- openly recruited to help devise new strategies of the French Ministry of the Armed environment andmineralresources. water, to biodiverse access land, fertile seize to attempts the from resulting conflicts the priority issues isglobal warming, understood asa ing contemporaryimagination. Interestingly enough, the recognized thatoneof AID Ibidem. ’ntaie e Ta Dfne hts/wwyuuecmwthvjf3FVc (accessed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRfp37FYVNc Défense: Team Red L’initiative conditions and surviving the no less extreme conditions of space, considering that “altering man’s“altering that considering space, of conditions extreme less no the surviving and conditions The ideawastocreatehuman-mechanicalhybridsthatwouldbecapable ofperforminginextreme advanced technologyintothehumanbodymayresultinnumerous advantageoustransformations. Cybernetics. The scientists,working at the time for theNASA,suggestedthatintroducinghighly and Space Astronautics publishedanarticlebyManfredClynesandNathanKlineentitled Drugs, even earliermilitary-relatedconceptinvolvingcyborgs towhichParlyherselfalsoreferred.In1960, Clearly,communicated. the an recall AID’s to worthwhile be may it and one, first the not is project a futuristic project. The detailswereunknown,andtheresultsofcollaborationhavenotbeen In 2013,themediacirculatednewsthatUSmilitaryhadengaged MaxBookstoworkon Speech byFlorenceParly, Ministerofthe Armed ForcesonthelaunchingofRed Team, atthe providing anearthlyenvironmentfor himinspace.” The scientistsclaimedthatcreatingself-controlled bodily functionstomeettherequirementsofextraterrestrialenvironments wouldbemorelogicalthan 10.12.2020). (accessed: 10.12.2020). sion-du-lancement-de-la-red-team-au-digital-forum-innovation-defense-a-paris-le-4-decembre-2020 -presse/discours/discours-de-florence-parly/discours-de-florence-parly-ministre-des-armees-a-l-occa Digital Forum Innovation Défense, Paris, December 4th, 2020, https://www.defense.gouv.fr/salle-de and writers the between collaboration of outcomes the foresee to difficult is It being. Onsuchambivalencessee: G. Gajewska,Arcy-nie-ludzkie…, op.cit.,pp.21–32. RoboCop), aswellovercomingthevision ofhuman as an exclusively biological andspiritual as such films (in provenance military the both connoted and culture popular in place their day, and suggested to call them “cyborgs.” Later on, the figure of the cyborgs found of advancement a technological and scientific of stage the at possible was systems technical-organic ECOLOGY ANDSCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION THEAGE... IN 50 Still, the fact that science fiction authors were so were authors fiction science that fact the Still, 49 48 Inherspeech at thelaunch of probable cause of newarmed significant role in manag in role significant 47 The rangeofissues Terminator or prominent - - - - -

 W KRĘGU IDEI , - - - 95 feel Jour

- Corona , Wesleyan , Wesleyan from which it which it from 51 Grażyna Gajewska Grażyna Wills, Fordham Uni- Wills, Mallet, transl. D. Am, ed. M.L. Mallet, Green Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fictions , Bloomsbury, London–Oxford–New London–Oxford–New Posthuman Bloomsbury, Glossary, sentence taken from Robinson’s article entitled entitled article Robinson’s from taken sentence , Routledge, New York 2012. York , Routledge, New , Palgrave as Cure Disability in of Science Technology Fiction: Representations ECOLOGY AND SCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION IN THE AGE... IMAGINATION MANAGING FICTION. AND SCIENCE ECOLOGY The Posthuman, Polity Press, Cambridge 2013. , “Resilience: A “Resilience: Futurity, Queer and Justice, Climate Cli-fi, Futures? Fantastic , Cambridge Univer Environment the and Literature to Introduction Cambridge The As this text opens with a with opens text this As sity Press, Cambridge 2011. „Science Fiction Studies” 2018, no. 45, pp. 484–499. two UAM, Poznań 2010. Macmillan, New York 2013. York Macmillan, New University Press, Middletown 2014. 2008. York versity Press, New vol. 4, no. 2–3, pp. 94–110. nal of the Environmental Humanities” 2017, York–New Delhi–Sydney 2018. York–New : https://ec.europa.eu/clima (accessed: 20.02.2021). ronment While previously “thinking with the fantastic” tended to be associated primarily primarily associated be to tended fantastic” the with “thinking previously While Energy, Climate change, Envi change, Climate On this issue see e.g. reports and documents of the European Union: Energy,

clearly follows that little time is left to tackle the effects ofAnthropocene the (such attention to the various as scenarios global of warming), the directing future one’s is by all means justified. Due to the inherent qualities and properties of the genre, sci- ence fiction is particularly well suitedfor the task. Its significant role in delineating is emphasized reality organizing modes of alternative futures or suggesting possible experts (e.g. literature by authors (e.g. already cited Robinson, Ghosh), ecocritical in the involved Otto), and intellectuals Canavan, Evans, Johns-Putra, Heise, Sperling, Nayar). posthuman (e.g. Haraway, virus Is Rewriting Our Imaginations: “Science fiction is the realism our time,” I the paper – which by no means ends the discussion to conclude it would be legitimate from Armed Forces, Ms. Parly, of the as such – with the words of the French Minister anymore” fiction science be not will it “Soon, speech: December aforementioned the (“Bientôt, ce ne sera plus de la science-fiction”). The Animal That Therefore I Derrida J., The Animal That Therefore Gajewska G., Arcy-nie-ludzkie. Przez science fiction do­ antropologii, Wydawnic cyborgów Garrard G., Ecocriticism 51 Alla K. (ed.), Alla References Braidotti R., M. (eds.), Hlavayova R., Braidotti Clark T., R., Evans and/as Science Fiction Anthropocene’ Narrative, and Novum: ‘The R., Nomenclature, Evans Canavan G., Robinson K.S. (eds.), G., Robinson Canavan with transhumanism, AI industry and cyborgization, such an approach is evident to- evident an approach is such cyborgization, AI industry and with transhumanism, with consequences. Faced of its of simulations change of climate context day in the warming, global and prognoses concerning reports distressing the W KRĘGU IDEI  tyn wt te rul: aig i i te Chthulucene the in Kin Making Trouble: the with Haraway D.,Staying the in Feminism Socialist and Technology, Science, Cyborgs: for Haraway D.,Manifesto Gray C.H. etal.(eds.),TheCyborg Handbook,Routledge,New York–London 1995. Glotfelty C.,FrommH. (eds.),The Ecocriticism Reader. Landmarks in Literary Ecology Johns-Putra A. Otherness, Significant and People, Dogs, Manifesto: Species Companion Haraway D.,The , “Examined Life”, 23.03.2020, Web-Only,https://the 23.03.2020, Life”, “Examined Beginning, Just Smith J.E.H.,It’sAll Singer P., Animal Liberation: A Soon PrettyDread, in Fear,Living in ‘Living Cluster: Special Rust S.,SolesC.,Ecohorror Imagination , “The New Yorker”,Our 1.05.2020, Rewriting is Robinson K.S.,Coronavirus Parly F., EnvironmentalismTransformative, The and Fiction Science Speculations: Otto E.C.,Green Otto E.,Science Fiction and the Ecological Conscience Nayar P.K., Posthumanism,PolityPress,Cambridge2014. Anthropocene, Penguin the WeCreated How Planet: Human Lewis S.L., Maslin M.A., The I., Lazari-Pawłowska Sperling A., Sperling A., Ghosh A., Ghosh Ecocriticism, OxfordUniversity Press, New of OxfordYorkHandbook Garrard G. (ed.),The Grażyna Gajewska 96 1980s, “SocialistReview”1985,no.80,pp.65–108. versity oftheGeorgia Press, Athens–London 1996. cago Press,Chicago–London2016. Prickly ParadigmPress,Chicago2003. Press, Durham–London2016. Random House,New York 1975. no. 21/3. Dead’ , “Interdisciplinary Studies inLiterature and Environment” 2014, Be All We’ll cV3i2o (accessed:2.07.2020). - bclid=IwAR2S3r7bN2QUnFjlhHQDnEZ0_5bKuVUBymtfdJUSpWbN-M5nmtOzP https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/the-coronavirus-and-our-future?f- innovation-defense-a-paris-le-4-decembre-2020 (accessed:10.12.2020). parly-ministre-des-armees-a-l-occasion-du-lancement-de-la-red-team-au-digital-forum- defense.gouv.fr/salle-de-presse/discours/discours-de-florence-parly/discours-de-florence- Ohio StateUniversityPress,Columbus2012. 2.03.2021). (accessed: http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0013481/otto_e.pdf online: published dissertation Random HouseUK,London2018. Wrocław 2001. w ka bridge–New York–Melbourne–New Delhi2019. g8kQbeukekhHuFDtNkNb0Cwsh8iywfaJHBOeEeUk (accessed:26.03.2020). pointmag.com/examined-life/its-all-just-beginning/?fbclid=IwAR3N1PpT1bZqU27I7JT no. 31. tion, Universityof Wales Press,Cardiff2020. VegetaSpeculative Fiction: Science in K.E. Bishop, D.Higgins,J.Määtä(eds.), Plants 2014. ECOLOGY ANDSCIENCE FICTION. MANAGING IMAGINATION THEAGE... IN The Digital Forum Innovation Défense Innovation Forum Digital The i teorii The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable Queer Ingestions: Weird and Vegetative Bodies in Jeff VanderMeer’s Fiction lmt Fictions Climate (ed.), praktyce. Antologia tekstów Antologia praktyce. Climate and Literatureand Climate Cambridge, Cam- , CambridgeUniversityPress, Kręgi ludzkiej wspólnoty. Egoizm gatunkowy wspólnoty.Egoizm ludzkiej Kręgi , “Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres”2019–2020,

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