The Power of Imagination: The New Genre of Cli-fi
What do stories such as Tolkien’s Lord of Rings, Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and McCarthy’s The Road have in common? They all use environmental destruction at the hands of humans (in Tolkien’s case, a wizard) as subtext for their fictional narratives.
“Cli Fi” is a new genre coined by journalist and activist, Dan Bloom, and encompasses narratives that focus on Earth, humans, and the exploration of science-based futures. For those who call Earth home, the new genre of cli-fi presents our climate change fears and anxieties as a motif. Cli-fi is a new platform that brilliantly presents information and outlooks on future, human-Earth relations.
Knowledge we have on studying Cli-fi includes additions to the history of artistic “response time”, new ways of pushing for action through cultural imagination and current opportunities for pedagogy.
The public is always able to react, but artists are able to give us perspective. Artists have always been able to grapple with political debate for us, whether it is stand-up comedy, film, poetry, sculpture, etc. We look to the art world, as we always have, to be “able to traverse a realm of uncertainty” and help us come up with a “process of speculation and interpretation “ (Duxbury).
Back in 2005, a heated Guardian article written by Robert Macfarlane asked us where our literary outpouring was in response to climate change. His logic came from the presence of fear-based-narratives during the nuclear threat of the Cold War. These narratives, in his words, “did not only annotate the politics of the nuclear debate, [but] helped to shape it. As well as feeding off that epoch of history, it fed into it.” (Macfarlane).
Ever since we have known about climate change, it has existed to us as “journalism, as conversation, and as behaviour”, but rarely as art. Now, especially after the film The Day After Tomorrow in 2004, we have witnessed cli-fi stories capturing large, global attention. Macfarlane would be pleased to hear that, in 2018 “searching for the term ‘climate fiction’ on Amazon today returns over 1,300 results” (Ullrich).
People want to read about the world they live in, they always have. But, it is easy to be intimidated by scientific jargon, data-heavy charts, and sensationalized documentaries that don’t seem to have calls to action. Writers, who are artists for the people, can contribute to cli-fi; as well as filmmakers. These artists can create works that are “beautiful, accessible, and alarming but not alarmist” (Duxbury). In a time where humans face such a looming, slow-burning threat such as climate change, it is important that we are listening to the artists.
Human action can be pushed through cultural imagination, and what better way to explore our imaginations than through fiction. The human mind can be a tool that we didn’t think of before.
Specifically, climate fiction. Right now, climate change exists in our imagination as just nature, by giving climate change a new role in our imagination, it can be explored in a constructively modern way. Bruce Meyer, in an interview about his book “Cli-Fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change”, expands on the notion that nature can become a conversation.
A way to breed hope is through escape and there is no greater escape than fiction. Humans have always been able to grasp the idea of hope in the face of hopelessness. Within fictional narratives we can explore the current global threats to huamns, “pandemics, extreme weather, droughts, and militarized process of securing natural resources” (Narin).
Progressive environmental policies or movements would benefit from the collective people consuming fiction that presents them worlds in which said policies or movements have either failed or succeeded. Cli-fi can separate itself from its close cousins, dystopia fiction or sci-fi, by having more room to be optimistic; like being able explore “how present political and cultural movements might realize their missions — such as … #NODAPL, and the end of late-stage capitalism” (Nairn). Accessibility for contemporary stories that try to “include the viewer as an active participant in the work rather than a passive observer” (Duxbury) is important.
Bookstores and movie theaters exist all over the globe and will, hopefully, be here for a while. As Brigitte Nerlich illustrates in her expository essay “Climate Fiction: The anticipation and exploration of plausible futures”, the simplicity of cli-fi can be viewed as “from the laboratory bench (imagine rows of supercomputers) to people’s bedside (imaging reading a cli-fi novel in bed)” (Nerlich). It is hard to grapple with life-threatening information, especially if those in control can’t stop denying it.
Reading cli-fi can be healthy, fun, and entertaining, but, it is best advised that readers do not “expect the propositional work of artists to come up with answers to the great problems of climate change”(Duxbury). That is up to us. Cli-fi should be viewed as artistic work that can be used as “tools for reflection, discussion, and awareness” (Duxbury).
It is becoming clearer and clearer that humans need a new approach to teaching ourselves about the threat of climate change. It is very real and we are already feeling its effects, just visit NASA’s Global Climate Change site for the data.
It is important that every generation, new and old, knows that the world as a habitat for humans is being threatened. Looking at how we teach children about science can be a way to change their outlook.
Sarah Holding is a children’s writer and laments that there is a flaw in climate change being “covered as part of science and geography in schools, so the complex human implications rarely get[s] discussed and let’s be honest; in this context it’s a little-bit dull” (Holding). There is opportunity here to cross curriculum of science and the arts.
Neglecting to encourage children to incorporate science into their lives is a move we cannot make; the threat is to dire. It might be time to present it in a new way, side by side with art, imagination, and entertainment.
Artists themselves might be wondering, why do I have to do all the work? But, cli-fi opens doors for artists as well. A new genre means new characters archetypes, story structure, thematic modes, etc. It is a new frontier that can allow a writer to pick up a dusty, old story that was always missing something, and give it a fresh, progressive twist. It can help a struggling filmmaker sell their idea. It can get a starving artist into a gallery where people want to be challenged emotionally. Cli-fi should be embraced by those who wish to teach since it is not only personally rewarding but socially beneficial when others can “unintentionally learn real science” (Abraham).
In conclusion trust and respect are being neglected when it comes to society’s relationship with science. When we are able to step away from our fiery, finger-pointing reality, and retreat to the safety of fiction, we can curate our imagination.
Imagination is a powerful thing, it is what drives our actions since it gives us an image of a future we believe in. Whether or not we desire the futures we read about in cli-fi (let’s hope we don’t), they are shaping what we think of as possible.
As J. A. Baker states in his dark, ecological novel The Peregrine, “the hardest thing of all to see is what is really there.”
Works Cited
Abraham, John. “CliFi — A New Way to Talk about Climate Change | John Abraham.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 18 Oct. 2017
Duxbury, Lesley. “A Change in the Climate: New Interpretations and Perceptions of Climate Change through Artistic Interventions and Representations.” Weather, Climate, and Society, vol. 2, no. 4, Aug. 2010, pp. 294–299., doi:10.1175/2010wcas1053.1.
Holding, Sarah. “What Is Cli-Fi? And Why I Write It.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 6 Feb. 2015
Macfarlane, Robert. “The Burning Question.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Sept. 2005
Nairn, Carly. “13 Female ‘Cli-Fi’ Writers Who Are Inspiring a Better Future.” Sierra Club, 8 Mar. 2018
Nerlich, Brigitte. “Climate fiction: The Anticipation and Exploration of Plausible Futures” University of Nottingham Blogs, July 27th, 2014
Ullrich, J.K. “Climate Fiction: Can Popular Books About Environmental Disaster Save the Planet?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 14 Aug. 2015
