One great thing about college, the main reason why we’re all here is to learn new things. Something I learned this term is the literary genre known as “cli-fi”. The thing that I learned about cli-fi stories is this: they are depressing and do NOT excite me about the future at all.
Pretty much every story we’ve read in class has been set in the very near future and seem as though they are in a post-apocalyptic society where the feel is that they’ll get attacked by a zombie at any point or die due to something completely random.
There was only one story this term we have read for this term even had somewhat of a happy ending (happy being used very loosely). The graphic novel was the only story that had the happier ending. The ending being more optimistic with no one dying… at the end of the story. The very end.
“The Weatherman” was one of the most depressing stories I have ever read because the main character killed himself just for the sake of possibly evening the playing field for the rich and poor social class levels. He left his son with a psycho (Marly was crazy let’s be honest) and jeopardized the human race because of what his wife was saying.
Another example of a depressing cli-fi story was “Diary of an Interesting.” That story was so depressing it made me NOT look forward to the year 2040. Even though that’s only 25 years. The narrator was 30 in the story and she had been through serious Hell and we as the reader got to read her thoughts.
I understand that with the cli-fi genre, part of the narrative are depressing story lines and making the future seems as bleak as possible with the hopes that the author’s thoughts will not come true. But there has to be some sort of story that actually has a happy ending. I feel as though man will eventually get it together and figure out someway to undo the damage.
By that point, Generation Y, AKA the Millennial, will be in the position to make laws and have legitimate power to make and enforce laws. And since out generation has grown-up with the problem of climate change our entire lives (it seems like), we will ultimately have to be the ones to undo what our parents generations caused.
I feel as though not all cli-fi has to be depressing. There can be some stories that have a happy ending or the world would be as we envisioned as a child. But I guess that would just be more so “sci-fi” than “cli-fi.”
I definitely agree with what you are saying about how the Cli-Fi genre is depressing, but that is also because climate change is a depressing topic to discuss. Many people don’t like talking about it because there are more negative aspects of it rather than positive. However, I do agree with what you said about how not all Cli-Fi has to be depressing. I think that if Cli-Fi had more happy endings, then it would make people more hopeful for the future and actually want to talk about climate change rather than avoiding it.
I agree with you as well that many works of cli-fi are quite sad and dark, but I think Casey makes a great point: climate change is pretty sad and pretty serious, and so these writers are perhaps taking cues from reality and from the research that they do to write their stories.
I do disagree with you a bit on your interpretation of “The Weatherman” specifically. I think the ending is incredibly hopeful. The protagonist gives his life to destroy an unjust system and a violent machine so that many, many people in the world (the Sandtowners) will no longer be oppressed and killed. We don’t know that the human race will be jeopardized by his actions; that’s just what the people in power in the story tell him/us. What we do know is that he self-sacrifices for the Sandtowners. And I think the story provides evidence to interpret Marly not as crazy, but as oppressed by the people in power and depressed that her husband isn’t doing what she thinks is right. To me, this might be a scary situation, but it isn’t depressing because the protagonist does what is right.
I definitely agree with your focus on the power of young people, and the hopefulness of that. I think we can still create the world we dreamed about as children (and still dream about). Because of climate change, that world might be more dangerous and not as easy to create, and we will have to consume less and reshape our economy to create it, but we can certainly create a world that’s fair, just, democratic, beautiful, and sustainable. I think that young people will be able to create this world, but not in the future; they’re doing it already now. For instance: http://www.imatteryouth.org/
Seeing things like this always gives me hope.
Thanks for your post and reflections!