There were three different ways climate changed was presented to us last week in class. One is the Global Weirding website that shows us how the earth will change throughout the years. The Global Weriding website has a timeline that takes you through the future years and how the earth is going to be permanently affected. The second is the scientific book, “Climate Change” by Mark Maslin which talks about the evidence of climate change, the impacts, the politics, and much more. It tells the reader about the facts surrounding climate change and what is the cause. The third way climate change is brought up is through a fictional story. One fictional story we read was “Diary of an Interesting Year” by Helen Simpson, that described how terrible global warming had become and how it has affected her family. Out of all three forms of information about climate change the story, “The Diary of an Interesting Year,” had the biggest affect on me.
The short story written by Helen Simpson was most impactful because of the obstacles the main character had to face due to global warming. She went through horrible conditions like no sewage system, no food, no heat and much more. People in this futuristic world had to fight over something as simple as a can of sardines. The bugs, due to the lack of sanitation left people with bites and sores. But, the biggest difficulty the main character had to battle with was the violence. In a society where order has been lost violence breaks out because people will do whatever it takes to survive. She had to fend for herself and in some situations she was unable to protect herself. The lack of structure allowed for peoples survivor instincts to take over, and this means doing anything and everything they can to stay alive. Doing anything and everything includes having to make one of the biggest sacrifices as a woman, and that is giving up her child. The main character writes, “I’ve wrapped your remains in my good blue shirt; sorry I couldn’t let you stay on board, but there’s no future now for any baby above ground” (114). The main character had to sacrifice her child because she thought the conditions were too horrific. To me, that’s when you know climate change has taken over. When people no longer want to reproduce and bring a beautiful baby into the world.
Even though this is a fictional story, it could one day become reality. The story is based in 2040, which means I would be 46 years old and that’s a frightening thought. I would still be young and wanting to enjoy life, but global warming could get in the way of that. People can read facts and scientific information about climate change, but I feel the real way for people to realize what is happening is through stories. People don’t understand the significance of what is happening around them, and once they read a disturbing story like the “Diary of an Interesting Year,” they start to grasp the impact of climate change. For some people facts and predictions open their eyes to the reality they can someday face, but for me reading a fictional story opens my eyes.
Cite:
Simpson, Helen. “Diary of an Interesting Year.” I’m with the Bears. N.p.: Verson, n.d. 101-15. Print.
By knowing that we’ll be middle aged in during this time the story takes place really opens my eyes. When we were younger, “the future” was all about flying cars and robots, now when I think of “the future” it’s more like a baron wasteland of 70 degree winters (of course that seems great now but we all know that’s a horrible thing in retrospect). But I really like what you said about how you don’t even want to bring a kind into such world. Which is odd to think that a 30 year-old doesn’t want a kid.
I agree with how you were talking about stories really bringing the reality if global warming into view. Facts can be tossed around and forgotten but stories stick in our minds. They really show us what the world could be like. They say the oceans will raise, but what does that do to a person’s daily life? This is where cli-fi comes in and illustrates for us what life would be like under these conditions.
I agree with you that while the fiction is not completely true, it definitely resonates with me more. The story we read last week helped me to imagine the situation as real life rather than just having it be facts that I do not connect with emotionally. While the facts are helpful, they are not the only way that people should be informed about climate change.
I agree with you that this fictional story really brings out the readers’ emotion. By making this story in the first person, and having the protagonist go through such intense struggles and horrific events, it really illuminates to the reader how severe this problem could get. Without fictional stories like these, many people wouldn’t understand the true affect that global warming could have, and therefore wouldn’t be driven to make any changes to help the environment. It is because of authors and fictional stories that will bring climate change to a national level.
Stories connect with readers on an emotional level in a way in which facts can’t do. I like how you pointed that out and mentioned how a story is more likely to lead the reader to a conclusion that Climate Change is real, and it’s effects could be disastrous. “Diary of an Interesting Year” is very good at illustrating what a broken down society in the future could be like due to the effects of Climate Change.
I have learned from being in this class for a few weeks that fictional books about climate are very powerful to the readers. Although they may not be about events that have happened, it is the fact that these events occurring in these stories could very well become true within just a few short years. I completely agree with your statement about how in order for people to realize what is happening due to climate change is through stories. People don’t want to be told a bunch of random facts because that’s boring. Stories make people actually interested in reading and finding out more information. That’s why I think that fictional books about climate change are very powerful and may very well be an effective way to get information across to people.
Thanks for sharing these interesting ideas Nicole! Your reaction to “The Diary of an Interesting Year” — and specifically how, after reading the story, you began to imagine yourself in the narrator’s shoes (so to speak) — really highlights the power that stories have to increase our own powers of empathy and perspective taking. Do you think all stories have this kind of power, or do some stories engage readers’ empathetic abilities more than other stories? And if the latter, what is it about a narrative (formally, stylistically, thematically) that helps us form a connection with its characters?
Also, Casey’s comment about facts being boring and stories being interesting makes me wonder about the title of this particular story: why do you think its title is diary of an “interesting” year, rather than something like diary of a “disturbing” or “horrible” or “dystopian” or “violent” year?
Great post and comments!
I completely agree with you that fictional stories tend to grab my attention then an article just listing off facts about how climate change is ruining our world. I think through stories like “The Diary of an Interesting Year” it brings out natural human emotions that make you care more about the subject and in this case, climate change.
Touching on the question above about why this book is titled this way. I think that maybe it was titled an “interesting year” because the author knows that this is the only way to get an audiences interest in this type of subject. Or maybe he is playing on the fact that no one cares about climate change now but once something happens, like what happens to the character in this book, you are going to start to be interested in it.
Tasha — that’s a very interesting (pardon my word choice) interpretation of the story’s title, particularly your idea that the realities of climate change might themselves shift the stakes by which we judge a series of events to be interesting or not interesting. Or in other words, to us as readers the speculative events that take place in the short story might seem much more than merely “interesting” (rather they seem extraordinary, even unprecedented). But by suggesting that those events are “interesting,” the author could be drawing attention to how commonplace these sorts of events might become in a future climate-changed world. So maybe the title of the story is meant to be a bit of an understatement?