The world is full of amazing wonders. From advanced technology and labor work it also comes with its own consequences. When things happen unexpectedly without leaving any clue of what caused it. People don’t see it as a sign for them to question and try to find the answer of their own theories, And how to prevent it before it gets too complicated to diminish it from doing big destruction. As well as the type of information they receive that is mostly accurate it seems like they take it for granted and not something to take it into consideration because it’s not them who are at risk, but the entire world. Such as living plants and other biosphere species. This is what we could call the world of the anthropocene a world that drastically keeps changing faster than any other previous time period. It’s an era that we are currently living and not doing something when unexpected catastrophes happen and harm us and see it as something normal and going deep dive on the cause of it or try to stop a habit that benefits them, but for the atmosphere it causes harm. A world that changes at a fast scale because of the acts people do on the Earth, whether releasing a high amount of CO2 or releasing some harmful toxins into the atmosphere or water, damaging landscapes for sake of profits, putting animals into extinction and other more things that some people do and don’t think about the actions of their own consequence and how it affects not only them but their surroundings.

The Anthropocene has had some impact on planetary effects as well as humans and other species who have to face the consequences of the decision makers that only produce harm into the ecosystem. Even though the world evolves and does not remain the same because of new ideas and inventions it always carries pros and cons.  Haraway bring the attention around these type of words (Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene) is an excellent way to attract eyes and open the minds of those who aren’t aware of their surroundings and observing the changes in the ecosystems and how those changes will have a major effect in everyone lives including them if they don’t respond to this type of issue and find solutions or keep expanding the idea to other more eyes to realize the things that they are doing in a daily day life that only produces more harm to the earth and benefit them for a while until of that is gone in various ways. If they collaborate on the changes that maybe big people are planning to do knowing that it’s going to benefit them if they are accepting changes that will reverse the dangerous and threatening events. Another is because all of the examples mentioned have drastically increased at a fast rate that only puts it into a complex place. 

“No species, not even our own arrogant one pretending to be good individuals in so-called modern Western scripts, acts alone; assemblages of organic species and of abiotic actors make history, the evolutionary kind and the other kinds too.” – From Donna Hathaway article. Indeed humans aren’t perfect when it comes to rethinking on the decisions they decide to make and how it could either impact positive or negative to the rest of the animal kingdom and the ecosystem in general because it’s the way they reshape evolution and historical events based on their acts and whether they have an impact or not and how it could affect in every term based on how long they rely on those decisions and plans that they could think would be a good thing and a probability a gateway to a bad outcome. People don’t think about their decisions being arrogant about it until they see and face the consequences of their input to outcome because they thought they were correct and it results on having a bad effect on everyone living with various examples like industrial revolution when they transition into a more easy productive outcome when it comes to manufacturing good which it was a good thing with carrying a con that was releasing carbon dioxide in big amount that trigger this concept of anthropocene, people change and shape the environment based on their decisions.

“ It’s more than climate change; it’s also extraordinary burdens of toxic chemistry, mining, depletion of lakes and rivers under and above ground, ecosystem simplification, vast genocides of people and other critters, etc, etc, in systemically linked patterns that threaten major system collapse after major system collapse after major system collapse.”- Donna Hathaway article. Hathaway also expresses that it’s not just climate change that is having an impact on the entire world, but other types of things such as toxic chemicals, genocides, mining, depletion of lakes and rivers as well as deforestation. There are other examples of social issues people face in everyday life and not taking this as a warning to start doing something before the frightening and terrible outcome that is waiting on the other side. Which i’m surprised how people don’t see this type of examples as a warning, but take it for granted and ain’t worry about it when the time is there to find a solution, but are worrying and having this sense of fear when problems get out of hands that seems so complicated to reverse the irreversible and the only option is to accept the fate and face the consequences not realizing that there was type to switch up the outcome to a much better than a tragic one.

“My purpose is to make “kin” mean something other/more than entities tied by ancestry or genealogy.”- Donna Hathaway article.” People don’t see the earth as a living thing and the species that are affected by the way humans live and the actions they do toward the earth that has an impact on them that people aren’t aware of. Hathaway using kin is like a way to say not to only think about our own satisfaction, but to have a consideration of our own acts and how it affects the rest of the living things that surrounds us and we should start thinking more about the ecosystem and how we are changing it into a horrific outcome and the animals we are affect with releasing toxic chemicals into nature and harm them. Overall diminishing population because an increase population has an impact in the ecosystem and the habitats of animals because the more people there the less land is available and the more landscape is ruined by using the land to rebuild home affecting a lot of things that people don’t think about and project bad results and the shortage of food specially that will have an impact to every single specie if everything runs out putting everyone at risk of dying of hunger and going extinct. The more everyone is aware of how much they have changed the ecosystem the more they will realize the percentage left that is available to reverse the irreversible and preserve it in order to live and see another tomorrow. Every single decision making carries its own consequences. And all of this is visible for everyone to see how much the earth has drastically changed.

“One way to live and die well as mortal critters in the Chthulucene is to join forces to reconstitute refuges, to make possible partial and robust biological-cultural-political- technological recuperation and recomposition, which must include mourning irreversible losses.”-Donna Hathaway article. The world is the home for every biosphere and also provide us with resources that we rely, but the thing is that people who rely on these resources dont plant more so that it doesn’t die out like many things that are no longer available for its mass usage and not restarting it back and prevent it from extinction. The only way for people to prevent more losses is to restore and recover the damage landscapes from turning into a death land that has no sense of reproducing more, restore and this is all in the hands of the people if they decide to put their part and start making a change that reverse the rest of what is left before it’s gone and affect everyone because it’s on the people to make the change. And not take it as a gift and not put it back to produce more of it.

Hathaway article about humanity and how it’s leading to a terrifying ending, if people are not starting to realize the damage they have done and what more if left can be completely gone if people don’t start taking visible awareness seriously enough to make a change toward saving the earth and all of the living things that live on the earth. A bunch of examples that I didn’t know about until I read this article and after finishing the article it made me realize how much the world has changed by the hands of people and not thinking about the outcome of their actions that puts everyone at risk of extinction. From my point of view it targets currency issues that humanity is facing and not fabricated fiction stories that go years into the future. And potential endings if people don’t start taking catastrophes and things that are visible for everyone to see as a consideration to do something before it’s too late. Putting everyone life in a questionable position of what the future awaits for them.

Interestingly enough, Donna Haraway’s work, particularly in “Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene,” explores how one can navigate and reimagine one’s relationship with the world amidst the vicissitudes of the Anthropocene and related concepts. She unwinds the labyrinth of the historical and contemporary destruction of humanity. Haraway highlights terms such as Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, and Chthulucene to make readers rethink our place in the world to build new, more sustainable and equitable relationships with other beings and the environment, moving beyond destructive patterns of the past. Her distinctive tone showcases the critical analysis she develops through a visionary optimism which I admire tremendously. Her bluntness is refreshing as she describes the human race as the, “…arrogant one pretending to be good individuals (Haraway 1).”

Human-centric forces have caused environmental crises, and this is a term called the Anthropocene; the current geological effects caused by significant negative human impact on Earth’s geology and ecosystems.  Focal pointing this phenomenon too narrowly overlooks the other dynamics of ecological change. Haraway challenges the possibility that, “…assemblages of organic species and of abiotic actors make history (Haraway 1).” Are the global changes and environmental degradations solely human inflicted? It takes an open mind to see the complexity of change over the years having to do with small but vital nuances that with time, do show up as complete societal unanimity towards these impacts.

Haraway looks at neoliberalism as the lenses of Capitalocene. Capitalocene more accurately addresses the systemic nature of environmental issues tied to economic practices. In the current epoch, capitalism has a prevalent role in driving ecological destruction and inequality. This change of perspective shifts the focus from humanity  to the economic systems and power structures that perpetuate environmental harm. I find this to be very eye opening and effective reflection because it will tackle the perception perpetuating the idea shifting view that, “The edge of extinction is not just a metaphor; system collapse is not a thriller. Ask any refugee of any species (Haraway 3).” Amitav Gosh criticizes genres of literature that promotes the fantastical as it is a peril because it disarticulates with the question of agency. The novel has to adjust to the era it exists in but climate fiction, horror, science fiction and most imaginary explorative novels cross the boundary for sensitivity to reality. Making natural disasters and extinction solely exist as figurative language or a genre is dangerous because it desensitizes readers to the point that it, “…has primacy in the real world-predictable processes or unlikely events (Gosh 19).”

Humans since the beginning of time have felt the need to use up earth’s recourses to grow as societies. Plantationocene is a concept that emphasizes the influence of plantation economies and colonial histories on contemporary ecological and social crises. There are historical systems of exploitation and land use that continue to shape global environmental issues that are now as Edward Said pointed out in Orientalism from Rob Nixon, in the Slow Death in the Anthropocene , “the normalized quiet powers of unseen powers”(Nixon 7). Even to this day, there are normalized practices that are destroying the earth, “of the contemporary world because most of the reserves of the earth have been drained, burned, depleted, poisoned, exterminated, and otherwise exhausted (Haraway 2).” How will this cycle ever come to an end? Can this cycle ever come to an end? There have been some exhausted efforts seen in daily life such as a shift from plastic shopping bags to reuseable bags. Paper straws are strenuously being used, with much disapproval due to the hasteful sogginess ruining the experience of drinking. However, these small efforts do not directly cut the bloodline of what is massively harming the environment and world.

      Haraway proposes the term “Chthulucene” as an alternative to the Anthropocene. It combines “chthonic” (reference to the underworld or the deep earth) and “ceno” (epoch) to suggest a new way of thinking about and relating to our world. This is a driven solution to connect to “kin,” referring to non-human beings and the more-than-human world. It emphasizes symbiotic and collaborative relationships rather than dominance or exploitation. Haraway pleads for, “stories (and theories) that are just big enough to gather up the complexities and keep the edges open and greedy for surprising new and old connections (Haraway 2).” The division of humankind has been seen for centuries. Ironically, living in the United States of America, we have seen the most division by people due to such diversity of thought and background. However, there has always been the stressing of efforts to, “join forces to reconstitute refuges, to make possible partial and robust biological-cultural-political-technological recuperation and recomposition, which must include mourning irreversible losses (Haraway 2).” This challenges hierarchies of all kinds but advocates for more interconnectivity and reciprocal approaches to inhabiting earth. Respecting the valuing other species instead of our own can, “…exercise leadership in imagination, theory, and action to unravel the ties of both genealogy and kin, and kin and species (Haraway 4).”

Plenty to unpack but Haraway’s terms and ideas push towards a new vogue of conversation and mindsets. Going through the motions can detach a person from reality and allow for the destructiveness of human customs to perpetually wipe out earth and eventually, our own species with it.

I thought you might be interested in reading this interview with climate fiction superstar Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the “Mars Trilogy” and the “Science in the Capital” trilogy. Robinson throws some serious shade at Ghosh’s argument about the “outhouse” of science fiction v. the “mansion” of the “serious” or “literary” novel:

Kim Stanley Robinson: We Need Democratic Socialism

Utopian thinking gets a pretty bad name. But for author Kim Stanley Robinson, we should resist the idea we’re simply doomed to climate disaster – and insist that there is a world beyond capitalism.

We should be reading Robinson, but his books are very long, so they got cut from this syllabus!

“Slow Violence” is a concept introduced by Nixon that is entirely new to me, as is the anthropocene. Because of this, I am having a hard time looking at the issue of climate and the anthropocene through the lens ofthe perceived “slow violence.” I am used to looking at the climate issue as secondary part of a larger issue of what many of our readings refer to as “global capitalism,” and therefore have focused on it’s direct effect. While it is very important to look at the root of a problem, I was intrigued by the concepts introuced by Nixon to push writers to produce elements of slow violence into their works of fiction in order to make it conceivable in order to then change the framework of how society sees the issu of climate.

I am still pretty confused by the connections of slow violence, climate and literature so that is what I plan to use this blog post for. For my own practice and for the purpose of correction/clarification. Slow violence is the gradudal development of climate change that with time grows more and more violence. Because of the gradual and, hence, slow development, this type of violence becomes normalized and almost unseen, unrecognized and dismissed. So not only is sort of violence happeing slowly, there is little to nothing actively being done since it it not only develops more violent, but more normal and routine as well. So, what Nixon’s piece seeks to do is draw connections between fiction novels and modern culture and coonsciousness in order to connect how writers today can bring an almost unconscious connection between their works of fictional literature and climate to their readers.

-C

Slow violence is a term used to refer to an act that is happening slowly and does a bare impact until the long term that threatens the world and every single species that lives on earth. Yet most people aren’t really worried about the future and what awaits them because the future is unpredictable. While there are some minor examples such as natural disasters that be happening more often people don’t catch and think it’s something normal while they dont realize that there is a drastically amount of changes in the ecosystem that are abnormal to seeing, but the reason is because of the way human threat their own planet and the things they do without considering whether this is good or bad for the environment. Anthropocene is the word to describe the current era where the earth changes due to the decisions people are making on a daily basis not realizing the harm they are doing and risking not only them, but the upcoming future generations that may have to carry the consequences of people. But we are also living in an age that technology has distracted us with entertainment and affects our span of time and not be able to think and see their surroundings about the things that are happening. Because the world depends on the changes of the people and if they decide to change they would change the outcome compared to the other outcome that would end up being if people don’t act quick before it gets too complicated to solve an issue that could have been reversed when it wasnt that powerful. Humans may be the one to blame for the decisions they decide to approach while improving their society and systems. And it depends on them whether they want to do something or face their own consequences. News is a source that people rely on a daily basis that also should put out into the spotlight the threats and warnings of slow violence with evidence so people who didn’t know now know about it, think about it and find ways to fix something and have people supporting them and helping them to reverse issues that are reversible and realize that all this time they been normalizing something threatening that is unseen and does not show any threat before it gets out of hands.

Nixon talks about slow violence and specially a part that gathered my attention the most was finding ways to send out the message he wants to send out through having writers to generate fabricated stories that have something to do with slow violence with imagery ways that will gather the eyes from the public and political figures that will later on question about this potential issue that could either be terminated if they solve it before it’s too late or the biosphere is threatened by the slow violence that is complicated to combat with. Fiction that could be used to relate to the current age with an artificial outcome of what the outcome could be if people don’t respond to it quickly. And slow violence is a process that isn’t visible at the beginning until later in the future. From having examples and back up that support his own belief about how humanity is self destroying themselves with bad decision makers especially powerful leaders that could influence a society to follow and do what they say. Poor countries are the ones who experience the act of slow violence because they receive waste from rich countries and have to face the consequence, Nixon wants them to speak out because know about this issue since they are the one experiencing and their voices need to be heard by the media and the ones that don’t have to go through those challenges and struggles. So they have an idea of what is happening based on how they emotionally feel about those types of situations and how they can come together and fix it so no one has to suffer. This has happened since the industrial revolution and before could be colonialists who change the landscape of a country for the sake of profits and wealth that ain’t going to save them when catastrophe happens to a point that there is no escape from it. Just like Lemanger says that people need to get used to death because at some point everyone will go through it. Lemanger uses this idea of cli-fi that could be an option to approach everyone with fabricated novels based on the current moment everyone is living a life in anthropocene and with these type of novels hopefully people realize the potential destination they could end up if they keep letting abnormal things to happen before it gets into a bigger complexity that would be challenging to combat with and live with it. Novels that have to do with futuristic, love and life without humans are examples that can gather people’s attention and realize the things they are doing to the earth and hopefully find a way to stop this slow violence thing before it’s too late. Fictional stories that have to do with climate change and from how it started and how it ended would be a way to approach people and spread awareness of the type of world they are living in and how to reverse issues that the time is still there. Not to bring frightening into their lives, but to change something in their psyche about their lifestyle and how it harms the environment and put it at risk to potentially never see life on earth.

Additionally climate change is an example that we can use as slow violence because it doesn’t has a big impact yet and people are aware of this potential catastrophe, but people seem to take it for granted and don’t take it seriously while it barely does something, but once it gets to a point that the situation is irreversible it may do a total chaos that would be complex to repair what was destroy. Specially politics they don’t seem to see climate change as a threat yet because there is no proof of it doing a drastically amount of impact to the earth, and they are the ones who should take this issue and expand it and expose it to a big audience since they have the authority to put out laws and other type of things to diminish the potential climate change. Examples like sea water rising and ice sheets being the result of the water rise, hotter temperature, natural disasters appearing more often. Evidence that would be considered slow violence currently happening and yet not everyone is on the same page to fix this situation before it gets out of hand.