Volume 4, Issue 1, July 2020 ISSN 2472-0837 Sponsored by the 1 Museum of Science Fiction Washington, DC JOURNAL OF SCIENCE FICTION Volume 4, Issue 1, July 2020 ISSN 2472-0837 MOSF Journal of Science Fiction Volume 4, Number 1 31 July 2020 ISSN 2474-0837 Managing Editor: Aisha Matthews, M.A. Editors: Anthony Dwayne Boynton, M.A.; Barbara Jasny, Ph.D.; Benet Pera, Ph.D; Doug Dluzen, Ph.D.; & Melanie Marotta, Ph.D. Editorial Board: Nancy Kress, M.A., M.S.; Charles E. Gannon, Ph.D.; Patrick Thaddeus Jackson, Ph.D.; Terence McSweeney, Ph.D.; & Marleen S. Barr, Ph.D. Cover Art: A Blessing by Rosana Azar Reflections: Beyond Dystopia: Joy, Hope, & Queer Ecology in Sam J. Miller’s Blackfish City By Christy Tidwell, Ph.D. Reading Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation in the Anthropocene By Jim Coby, Ph.D. Scenting Community: Microbial Symbionts in Octavia Butler’s Fledgling By Melody Jue, Ph.D. The Ecologies of Postwar Hard Science Fiction and Where to Find Them By Veronika Kratz Mortal Critters Join Forces: Living in a Kaiju Film By Bridgitte Barclay, Ph.D. Articles: Monolithic, Invisible Walls: The Horror of Borders in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy By Pearson Bolt No Windup: Paolo Bacigalupi’s Novel Bodily Economies of the Anthropocene By Jonathan Hay 2 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE FICTION Volume 4, Issue 1, July 2020 ISSN 2472-0837 Articles (cont.): Humans as Ecological Actors in Post-Apocalyptic Literature By Octavia Cade, Ph.D. & Meryl Stenhouse, Ph.D. The Cost of Production: Animal Welfare and the Post-Industrial Slaughterhouse in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake By Stephanie Lance, Ph.D. The Mutant Land: How the Island Krakoa Dictates the Mutant Society in House of X By Brett Butler, Ph.D. Book Reviews: Tidwell, C. and Barclay, B. (Eds.) (2018). Gender and Environment in Science Fiction By Sarah Powell Price, M.Sc., M.S. Canavan, G. and Stanley Robinson, K. (Eds.) (2014). Green Planets Ecology and Science Fiction By Zaida Ortega, Ph.D. Russel, C. (2016). Fragment By Elizabeth Diago-Navarro, Ph.D. Additional Artwork: Infinite Search by Rosana Azar Background by Julia Slocomb Dluzen Sponsored by the Museum of Science Fiction & hosted by the University of Maryland Libraries. Museum of Science Fiction University of Maryland Libraries PO Box 88 7649 Library Lane Alexandria, VA 22313 College Park, MD 20742 3 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE FICTION Volume 4, Issue 1, July 2020 ISSN 2472-0837 Open Access Policy This journal provides immediate open access to its content in keeping with the principle that mak- ing research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. 4 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE FICTION Volume 4, Issue 1, July 2020 ISSN 2472-0837 Table of Contents Masthead…………………………………………………………………….………….......................................................................................2 Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………………..……...........................................................5 Cover Art by Rosana Azar………………………………………………………………………………………..…….............................................................7 Letter from the Editor by Aisha Matthews …………………………………………………………………….…………....................................................................8 Foreword to the Special Issue on Environmental Science Fiction by Gerry Canavan, Ph.D……………………………………………………………………………………….....................................................10 Reflective Essays: Beyond Dystopia: Joy, Hope, & Queer Ecology in Sam J. Miller’s Blackfish City by Christy Tidwell, Ph.D. …………………………………………………………………….…………...........................................................12 Reading Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation in the Anthropocene by Jim Coby, Ph.D.……………………………………………………………………………….......................................................................15 Scenting Community: Microbial Symbionts in Octavia Butler’s Fledgling by Melody Jue, Ph.D. …………………………………………………………………….…………................................................................17 The Ecologies of Postwar Hard Science Fiction and Where to Find Them by Veronika Kratz …………………………………………………………………….…………....................................................................20 Mortal Critters Join Forces: Living in a Kaiju Film by Bridgitte Barclay, Ph.D. …………………………………………………………………….…………......................................................22 Artwork: “Infinite Search” by Rosana Azar ....................................................................................................................................................................24 Articles: Monolithic, Invisible Walls: The Horror of Borders in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy by Pearson Bolt, Ph.D. ........................................................................................................................................................25 No Windup: Paolo Bacigalupi’s Novel Bodily Economies of the Anthropocene by Jonathan Hay .…………………………………………………………………….…………......................................................................34 5 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE FICTION Volume 4, Issue 1, July 2020 ISSN 2472-0837 Table of Contents (cont...) Articles (cont...) Humans as Ecological Actors in Post-Apocalyptic Literature by Octavia Cade, Ph.D. & Meryl Stenhouse, Ph.D .........................................................................................................47 The Cost of Production: Animal Welfare and the Post-Industrial Slaughterhouse in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake By Stephanie Lance, Ph.D. ........................................................................................................................................................60 The Mutant Land: How the Island of Krakoa Dictates the Mutant Society in House of X by Brett Butler, Ph.D. ...................................................................................................................................................................75 Artwork “Background” by Julia Slocomb Dluzen, Ph.D. .......................................................................................................................................86 Books in Review: by Sally Powell Price, Zaida Ortega, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Diago-Navarro, Ph.D. ...............................................87 Press Release/Announcement for Escape Velocity Extra (EV), 8/26 .................................................................93 About the Contributors......................................................................................................................................................95 6 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE FICTION Volume 4, Issue 1, July 2020 ISSN 2472-0837 Cover Art Cover Art: A Blessing by Rosana Azar 7 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE FICTION Volume 4, Issue 1, July 2020 ISSN 2472-0837 Letter from the Editor In the midst of our current moment of ecological and fiction. The essays in this issue include scholarly environmental crisis, the current state of the global discussions of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach COVID-19 pandemic has only served to intensify Trilogy, Margaret Atwood’s Oryx & Crake, and Paolo the urgency with which we look towards our public Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl, amongst many other institutions—chiefly, our government—for answers about works of environmental science fiction from the last where to turn, what to expect, and what to do next. seventy years, both popular and obscure. Some take Unfortunately, for those of us in the United States as well a look humanity’s role in ecological action, while as many other places around the globe, the “official” others explore representations of animal and plant response has fallen monumentally short of our needs and life that foreground non-anthropogenic cosmologies. expectations. While television and print news sources Still others underscore the symbiotic relationship have, in many cases, largely contributed to the chaos in between (post)humakind and the environments in this “post-truth” era, not all media threatens to catapult which they live, struggle, and survive. us into deeper panic. While some more moderate voices In that vein, I also point you to the contributions prevail in mainstream reporting, times such as these drive of some of the top scholars in the field, including us towards our cultural repository of human experience— a Foreword offered by Dr. Gerry Canavan, and literature, film, and other modes of media that capture reflections by Dr. Christy Tidwell, Dr. Bridgitte Barclay, our humanity and reflect it for examination. Ironically, and Dr. Melody Jue, amongst the many other insightful despite its many dire warnings by way of ecological and voices featured in this issue. sociopolitical apocalypse, science fiction has consistently served as a serious, if cognitively estranging medium for Our current environmental moment is a dire one, to frank discussions of the challenges at stake in the face of put things as lightly as possible. Even as I write this, ecological devastation and social disarray. wildfires are burning across Colorado and California, residents of the American Southeast and Midwest Science fiction—and more broadly, speculative are recovering from the devastation of powerful fiction—provides a medium for discussion of the ethics of tropical storms, and one of the hottest summers on technology and neoliberal capitalism, offers insight into record rages on across the U.S., compounding the alternative social formations and institutional possibilities, current public health crisis which has already had and echoes ominous warnings about the possible disproportionately negative and severe