“From a certain angle”: Ecothriller Reading and Science Fiction Reading The Swarm and The Rapture

Authors

  • Eric C. Otto Florida Gulf Coast University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37536/ECOZONA.2012.3.2.475

Keywords:

ecothrillers, science fiction, extrapolation, The Swarm, The Rapture, eco-thriller, ciencia ficción, extrapolación

Abstract

     Read as apocalyptic ecothrillers, Frank Schätzing’s The Swarm and Liz Jensen’s The Rapture do not offer much in the way of critical reflection on the ecocatastrophes they stage. The Swarm’s focus on the feat of confronting the violent efforts of a superintelligent, deep-sea species to protect its ocean habitat against continued human exploitation and The Rapture’s focus on the feat of locating on time the psychically-predicted disaster zone of an impending undersea calamity overshadow their more than occasional spotlighting of, for example, the dangers of methane hydrate mining. Science fiction, however, requires readers to be attentive to those narrative moments when incongruities between the known world and the extrapolated world of the text emerge with critical, not just plot-supporting, purpose. Fundamental to the reading and interpretation of science fiction is the reader’s awareness of the genre’s extrapolative practice, which connects the now with the imagined then and therefore instigates critical thinking about present human practices. Read as extrapolative science fiction, The Swarm and The Rapture gain merit as ecopolitical works, for “science fiction reading” mobilizes the latent ecopolitics of ecothrillers, ecopolitics that “ecothriller reading” would otherwise diminish or fail to notice.

 

Resumen

 

            Considerados ecothrillers apocalípticos, The Swarm de Frank Schätzing y The Rapture de Liz Jensen no ofrecen mucha reflexión crítica sobre las eco-catástrofes que presentan. The Swarm se centra en los violentos esfuerzos de una especie superinteligente que habita las profundidades para proteger su hábitat marino frente a la continua explotación humana. Por su parte,  al centrarse The Rapture en la hazaña de ubicar en el tiempo la zona catastrófica de un desastre submarino inminente que ha sido predicho psicológicamente, se eclipsan las más que ocasionales referencias a, por ejemplo, los peligros de la minería de hidrato de metano. La ciencia ficción, sin embargo, requiere que los lectores estén atentos a esos momentos narrativos en los que las incongruencias entre el mundo conocido y el mundo extrapolado del texto surjan con objetivo crítico, y no sólo para respaldar el argumento. Es fundamental para la lectura y la interpretación de la ciencia ficción la conciencia por parte del lector de la práctica extrapolativa del género, que conecta el ahora con el entonces imaginado, incitando así a reflexionar críticamente sobre el comportamiento humano en la actualidad. Considerados ciencia ficción extrapolativa, The Swarm y The Rapture ganan mérito como obras eco-políticas, porque "la lectura de ciencia ficción" moviliza la eco-política latente de  los eco-thrillers – eco-política que en "la lectura de eco-thrillers" de otra forma pasaría desapercibida.

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Author Biography

Eric C. Otto, Florida Gulf Coast University

Eric C. Otto is associate professor of Environmental Humanities at Florida Gulf Coast University, where he teaches Environmental Humanities, The University Colloquium on Environmental Sustainability, and courses within the Interdisciplinary Studies minor. Eric is a faculty associate of FGCU’s Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education. He is the author of Green Speculations: Science Fiction and Transformative Environmentalism (The Ohio State University Press, 2012).   

Additional Files

Published

2012-10-06

Issue

Section

The Invention of Eco-Futures