Here’s the prompt for the first blog post, due Thursday:

All three of the authors we’ve read so far (Nixon, Lemenager, and Ghosh, our reading for Thursday) emphasize “representational” problems represented by climate change. In one way or another, all wrestle with the way the “slow violence” (Nixon) of climate change is hard to visualize or conceptualize in ways that make it seem possible to act effectively. Using one or more of these authors’ arguments, discuss some ways in which novels have a special role to play in helping us think more richly, more clearly, and more deeply about climate change.

I’ve posted more about the mechanics and the rhetoric of how to blog here: please take a look as you prepare this assignment.

Due before class on Thursday.

Very short and superficial, but here’s the author of the second piece we’ll discuss tomorrow, talking about the category of “cli-fi”:

Stephanie LeMenager | What is Cli-Fi? || Radcliffe Institute

The 2016-2017 Radcliffe Institute fellow Stephanie LeMenager explains the broad and burgeoning genre of climate fiction and how artists, filmmakers, and authors alike are using it to tell the story of climate change.

Here are some questions we’ll be digging into in class tomorrow in our discussion of Nixon’s piece:

Nixon, TPS on SLOW VIOLENCE

What is “slow violence”? How does the anecdote about Lawrence Summers’s memo help us to understand it? What are some of the tensions between the ideas of slowness and violence? Why is slow violence

Feel free to review as you read; otherwise, they’re on the blog for convenience when we meet tomorrow.

I thought you might find it interesting to consult one of the foremost experts in climate science …

I don’t know if you’ve been following the World Cup coverage and the tragic death of 48-year-old sports journalist Grant Wahl, but in an uncanny coincidence, he died from a ruptured aortic aneurism, precisely the condition that Lerner’s protagonist worries over in 10:04.

He was a superb reporter and all-around good guy, who was harassed by officials this month for his refusal to remove a rainbow-themed tee in support of the rights of LGBTQ+ folk who suffer under Qatar’s draconian policies. Rest in peace.