In his article for the Guardian Amitav Ghosh suggests that there is a lack of fiction which successfully opens up the conversation about the Anthropocene or environmental crisis. He argues that the technical language of climate change and the tradition of the arts and humanities may be a reason for this. Furthermore he suggests that our desires for the products and commodities that contribute towards climate change are not due to what they are made of, but rather the images they conjure up. Ghosh suggests that these images are the result of the arts and humanities, and so in fact encourage what literature should be challenging.
While we think of our current literature proudly due to it's 'self-awareness', Ghosh believes that in the future it will be known as the "Great Derangement".[1] He introduces the idea that realist novel is ironic: it's attempt to portray things realistically essentially conceals reality. Ghosh also exposes the problem with magical realistic and surrealist novel as they "rob them of precisely the quality that makes them so urgently compelling – which is that they are actually happening on this Earth, at this time."[2]
To examine his claim I will look at three texts which attempt open up the topic of climate change or environmental crisis.
First is Ruth Ozeki's All Over Creation. Being a fan of Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, I was looking forward to opening this novel. However, what I found upon opening it disappointed. For me it didn't engage and I did not feel motivated to read on and so I did not finish the novel. Whether my lack of motivation was partly down to the number of other university books I was reading, or purely the novel itself, I cannot say, but the fact that All Over Creation did not tempt me to read on suggests a sense of failure in successfully creating a dialogue between the reader and the text on the topic of the environmental crisis.
Perhaps the topic of seeds is not as tangible or as pressing to readers as other topics on the environmental crisis are. However, Ozeki's attempt to open up a discussion on the importance of knowledge about seeds is a crucial one as to whoever controls them, controls our food and thus life. Yet, this attempt to talk about seeds can be seen to be overshadowed by the theme of relationships, which was the vehicle for the plot. Ultimately I think that All Over Creation is an example of a novel that tries to open up a conversation about the environmental crisis, but somewhere in its 400 pages, this attempt gets lost and swallowed up and thus fails.
The next novel, however, is one that Ghosh suggests is successful. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is an apocalyptic novel that reveals a possible future if we are to continue treating the planet as we have been. The Road uses a lot of biblical imagery, however in placing itself in the apocalyptic genre, The Road also takes on a biblical genre. While in ancient culture there are many types of apocalyptic literature, biblical apocalyptic literature distinguishes itself from Greek or Roman equivalents through being concerned with applicability. David Helm, commenting on Leon Morris' suggestion, says that:
Interestingly, the Jewish and Greco-Roman counterparts in the genre of apocalypse were not all that concerned with contemporary applicability in their use of the genre [...] The kind of apocalypse one finds in the biblical record is very different. Biblical apocalypse is intimately concerned with the ethics of the here and now. [3]Similarly, The Road makes us aware of an eventuality of our behaviour. Through the relationship between father and son, McCarthy presents a very anthropocentric narrative that prompts us to look to our own future and then back at how we can alter our behaviour now. This is why The Road is so powerful: it manipulates our own self-interest into an examination of how our behaviour is affecting the world. In this sense, Cormac McCarthy is successful in opening up a conversation about the environmental crisis.
Rather than a novel In-Flight Entertainment is a collection of short stories that deal mainly with the theme of suffering. Again, this theme of suffering plays to a sense of narcissism in the reader. However, In-Flight Entertainment's success stems from its surreptitious approach to opening up a dialogue about the environmental crisis. As a collection of short stories, not all of these deal directly with global warming or other environmental issues. Instead, some stories act as a metaphor and so it does not overtly challenge the reader. Unlike other eco-fiction, I did not feel bombarded or forced into a certain position on the environment. Thus each story subtlety tries to bring about a change of consciousness towards the environmental crisis, or to address particular obstacles to thinking seriously about climate change. In this sense, In-Flight Entertainment is successful in creating a dialogue about the environmental crisis as it does so gently and subtlety.
In conclusion we can see how using plot as a vehicle to discuss environmental issues can be counterproductive, and in fact drown the conversation out. Yet, we can also see two successful ways of creating a dialogue about the environmental crisis: firstly using the reader's own self-interest to create self-reflection and secondly, a more subtle approach that looks at challenging certain perceptions that can be obstacles in opening up a conversation about climate change and other environmental issues.
[1] Amitav Ghosh, 'Amitav Ghosh: where is the fiction about climate change?', The Guardian, 28 October, 2016 <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/28/amitav-ghosh-where-is-the-fiction-about-climate-change-> [accessed 19 February 2017].
[2] Ibid.
[3] David Helm, Daniel For You, (U.K.:he Good Book Company, 2015), p.197.
Bibliography
Helm, David, Daniel For You, (U.K.: The Good Book Company, 2015).
Ozeki, Ruth, All Over Creation, (London: Picador, 2003).
McCarthy, Cormac, The Road (London: Picador, 2007).
Simpson, Helen, In-Flight Entertainment, (London: Vintage, 2010).
