Fantasy and Myth in the Anthropocene: Imagining Futures and Dreaming Hope in Literature and Media

by Marek C. Oziewicz (Editor), Brian Attebery (Editor), Tereza Dědinová (Editor)

The first study to look at the intersection of the discourse of the Anthropocene within the two highly influential storytelling modes of fantasy and myth, this book shows the need for stories that articulate visions of a biocentric, ecological civilization. Fantasy and myth have long been humanity's most advanced technologies for collective dreaming. Today they are helping us adopt a biocentric lens, re-kin us with other forms of life, and assist us in the transition to an ecological civilization. Deliberately moving away from dystopian narratives toward anticipatory imaginations of sustainable futures, this volume blends chapters by top scholars in the fields of fantasy, myth, and Young Adult literature with personal reflections by award-winning authors and illustrators of books for young audiences, including Shaun Tan, Jane Yolen, Katherine Applegate and Joseph Bruchac.

Chapters cover the works of major fantasy authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Terry Prachett, J. K. Rowling, China Miéville, Barbara Henderson, Jeanette Winterson, John Crowley, Richard Powers, George R. R. Martin and Kim Stanley Robinson. They range through narratives set in the UK, USA, Nigeria, Ghana, Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia. Across the chapters, fantasy and myth are framed as spaces where visions of sustainable futures can be designed with most detail and nuance. Rather than merely criticizing the ecocidal status quo, the book asks how mythic narratives and fantastic stories can mobilize resistance around ideas necessary for the emergence of an ecological civilization.

Genres: Fantasy, Academic

493 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 14, 2022

Reviews

[Saige · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really well put together collection of essays thinking through fantasy's relationship to the Anthropocene. Many of these essays draw on the same theory texts, such as Harraway and Attebery, so reading through these in order gives a good sense of those works as well, at least in this specific context. My understanding grew throughout the volume as the different essays, poems, and musings from various authors spoke to one another's work. I love the inclusion of visual art and poetry alongside more traditional literary criticism. The volume teaches a lot about the power of art and stories to make change, and it's nice that it practices what it preaches. It's not quite 5 stars for me just because I think there are one or two essays in here that shouldn't be. The one about Rowling is particularly egregious, and made me question the editors' other decisions more than I likely would have otherwise.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a full-length review of this coming out shortly in Strange Horizons, so this is only a few short comments. Usually, when I think about speculative fiction that envisions hopeful futures, it tends to be within the science fiction umbrella - particularly solarpunk. I've paid less attention to the potential contributions of fantasy, so this was an interesting collection to read. There's a genuine attempt to prioritise readability here as well, at least readability in academic terms, and though it doesn't always succeed I appreciate the effort. The stand-out chapters were on Pratchett and VanderMeer, I think, and I particularly enjoyed the range of texts that were analysed here.

In some ways, however, this is a little one-note. Donna Haraway's work is indeed both important and influential, but the constant repetition back to it makes me wonder if including some of Haraway's readings in here might have been a useful reference, and I'm not sure I needed the repeated discussion, over multiple chapters, of potential alternatives to "Anthropocene." Perhaps in cases such as this, it may be better to corral such into a single chapter, or to embed it more heavily in the introduction so as to limit repetition and increase readability.

[~Geektastic~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

We live in a geological age that we call the Anthropocene. But what is the Anthropocene? Originally, the term was almost exclusively used in the geologic sense—as a way to denote the massive changes caused by human industrialization that will be traceable in the physical and ecological record of the planet. But the term has become much more than a scientific demarcation and has opened up a complex conversation about where humanity belongs in the discussion of Earth’s future.

Climate change is the “greatest change facing humanity” according to Marek Oziewicz, one of the three editors of Fantasy and Myth in the Anthropocene: Imagining Futures and Dreaming Hope in Literature and Media. The market-driven reluctance or even refusal to act on scientific information has made the use of the term “anthropocene” more than a neutral acknowledgement of humanity’s impact on the planet. Ozciewicz posits that this label has become a potentially dangerous term as it acknowledges human activity without recognizing the negative and destructive aspects of industrialization, reinforcing the all-to-common perspective of humanity as the center of the universe. As the essays in this collection highlight, there is increasing concern that this human-centered focus, divorced from any real sense of responsibility, has led us to our current crisis. As a part of the resistance to this neutral way of centering humanity, fantasy is a crucial tool for tackling both the literal destruction of our ecological future and our metaphorical conceptualization of the era.

Fantasy and Myth in the Anthropocene is a collection of essays, poems, artworks, and criticism from a range of fantasy authors, creators, and teachers that demonstrate how fantasy and the power of story can help us “reimagine ourselves and our place on a multi-species, biodiverse planet” rather than our too-common conception of humanity as the ordained exploiters of depleting resources. On the surface, fantasy may seem like a strange tool to tackle real issues. “Fantasy,” both as a term and a genre, suggests the opposite of reality, and despite its success in books and other media, it continues to have a low-rent reputation as escapism. But good fantasy actually tackles real-world concerns in a way that creates distance between the reader and reality. This distance can provide clarity and open our minds to new possibilities—and, as many of the writers in this collection argue, it can also create hope.

While science fiction is more generally associated with climate change and other real-world issues, the SF genre has more often than not focused on the disaster scenarios—extrapolating dystopia from our present difficulties rather than offering hope. This is one of the reasons why the editors and contributors to this collection have embraced fantasy and myth as crucial tools in how we conceptualize and analyze our current situation, and all of its possible futures. The line between fantasy and science fiction has never been a solid demarcation, so there are some authors and works included that could fall into either category. I will admit that, prior to reading this collection, I was also inclined to look to science fiction when thinking about climate change, and didn’t consider fantasy as a conduit for serious reflection on the real world. Which is a little embarrassing, given how often fantasy has been used as the vehicle to look at issues like war, prejudice, family relationships, and other very real concerns.

Fantasy as commentary on and reflection of the real world is not new; J. R. R. Tolkien included a strong thread of anti-industrial commentary in The Lord of the Rings. This same commentary is at play in the works of contemporary writers all over the world. And many writers and creators are growing more open about their intention to refresh and reshape the way we think about our own world. Fantasy and Myth in the Anthropocene covers a range of works in different media and from many different perspectives. From world-famous works like those of Terry Pratchett, JK Rowling, NK Jemisin, and Disney films, to the mythology of indigenous peoples and children’s animated television, the range of perspectives is wide and the issues varied.

A common thread through many of the essays is the way fantasy allows for new narrative frameworks that reject destructive, colonialist perspectives—or at least ask us to consider the possibility of alternative viewpoints. Two such fantasy stories may seem a little surprising, given their source: the Disney animated films Moana and Frozen 2. Both stories center allegories of human-driven environmental destruction, with Maui’s theft of the Heart of Te Fiti acting as (problematic) allegory for damaging fuel extraction, and Frozen 2 offering an anti-colonialist take on the destruction of indigenous ways of life that are more balanced with the natural world. Even these “safe” and deeply commercial stories can play a role in resisting the framework of anthropocentric thinking.

Not every fantasy story needs to provide a grand allegorical perspective to create positive change. As the essay “Fantasy for the Anthropocene” highlights, humor is also an important tool to recalibrate our perspectives. For example, the early-grade chapter book series AstroNuts “radically decenters the human” by focusing on non-human characters, giving a voice to various animals as well as the planet itself. Even stories featuring an anthropomorphic dung beetle have the potential to open new avenues for exploring our current crisis and to widen our perspective.

One of the most powerful elements of fantasy is its ability to center us in a different reality. And yet, every good fantasy story reflects reality, too. Much like our own reflections in the mirror can reveal things we may not have noticed otherwise, the power of fantasy and myth to reveal truth through fiction is a powerful tool for shaping the way we think about the world. Instead of escaping reality through story, Fantasy and Myth in the Anthropocene outlines the ways story can offer a different kind of escape: liberation from our own anthropocentric conception of the world and the immense harm that conception has caused.


[This review was originally published by Ancillary Review of Books https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/20...]

[Lori]

DNF....too academic

[Liz Busby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skimmed for Mythopoeic Awards. I was intrigued by the unique format of alternating scholarly and creative responses to the central question of how speculative fiction can address the Anthropocene.

[Gemma Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

This new collection from Marek Oziewicz, Brian Atteberry and Tereza Dedinova provides a unique contribution to the academic study of the fantasy genre and its intersection with the Anthropocene. There is an abundance of scholarship on the representation of the Anthropocene in science fiction (sf) literature, but there is a relative dearth of academic literature on fantasy and the Anthropocene. The environment has always figured in fantasy texts, given their almost inevitably pastoral settings, and while the matter of fantasy worlds has received a degree of scholarly attention, this text offers the first book-length discussion of fantasy as it pertains to the weighty discourse of the Anthropocene and all that word entails. Oziewicz, Atteberry and Dedinova’s new collection, Fantasy & Myth in the Anthropocene, provides a much-needed contribution towards that nascent body of scholarship. This is not a conventional academic offering, however - the essays sit alongside poetry and creative prose, on topics ranging from theme parks to the birth of humankind to children’s cartoons. This whimsical turn is a decided academic effort: Oziewicz says as much in his introduction. This project begins from an activist standpoint, that of elucidating the environmental advocacy and problematic modes of engaging with the non-human world with the aim of outlining and defining alternative modes of inhabiting and engaging with the Earth as they are represented in the registers of the mythic and the fantastic and argue that the mythic and fantastic are precisely the registers in which to do so. Many of the critical essays in this collection take their cue from Donna Haraway’s Making Kin in the Cthulucene. Both a strength and a weakness, the concentrated study of a single text provides an in-depth exploration of Haraway’s works and demonstrates their versatility, but at the risk of crowding out other possibilities for “imagining futures and dreaming hopes”, to quote the book’s subtitle.