All they do is consume
Only animal that ravage everything in its path
They turned a natural resource into a bundle of cash
Rainforest by Noname
Schedule
These are the dates the discussion posts will go up, but remember you can go at your own pace and contribute when you’re ready!
Kick-off: August 4, 2023✓Midway Check In: August 18, 2023✓Final Discussion:September 1, 2023 at 5PM PST✓Didn’t finish? Who cares? Come hang out anyway.
Remember if you can’t make it to the book club meeting you can always use the comment section to leave your thoughts, reviews, and reflections.
We Too Are Nature
by Rebecca Ureña
When did we forget that we too are nature? “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Was it when we formed our ever migrating tribes of a handful of families? Or was it when we settled onto the fertile land of riverbanks to sow the first seed? Was it when we constructed the walls for the first city-states? Now with the hallmarks of civilization created: government, culture, ethics, and religion, we finally breathed a sigh of relief. For we were not like them, the swine rolling in mud, the hyenas biting at each other over decaying flesh, the rats devouring their young. We mistook productivity for correctness and opulence for goodness. We were careless in our advances and extractions and waste. And now while reaping the benefits of the land, we are also condemning ourselves and everything around us. It’s hard to recognize, but we are an inextricable part of nature. Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors continuously reminds us of this.
It is said we are made in the image of God, therefore the Earth must be a god of sorts for we too are born 70% water and the rest dust. The titular story reminds us of how hard it is to keep the illusion of “you” and “me” once you’ve learned that, on a micro level, we are an amalgamation of cells, bacteria, and fungi. On a macro level, ecology is the strongest of spider webs we cannot detangle ourselves from. As illustrated by “The Cloud Weaver’s Song” and “When It’s Time to Harvest”, to change nature is to change ourselves for we are continually adapting. For over 2 millions years, before we were even human, we have been creating solutions to survive in our environment. Our innate ability to develop tools will help some of us survive the worst. However, it is still prudent to prevent the unnecessary extinction of millions of species. To save nature is to save ourselves, to save ourselves is to save nature. What will save the oceans, will ultimately save us. “Tidings” shows us that social justice and climate justice are interdependent. On a national level, environmental racism is perpetrated through the redlining of neighborhoods. Those producing the most pollution are not those most exposed to pollution. Internationally, the climate crisis cannot be The White Man’s Burden 2.0. The most vulnerable nations need to have the voice and autonomy to make the decisions to benefit their land and their people. We need to uplift their voices, not talk over them.
Eventually, the climate crisis will have to come to an end. The Earth will recalibrate, ultimately indifferent to how it will affect us. A punishment fit for the crime. Best case scenario, as imagined in “A Seance in the Anthropocene”, the great moral climate dilemma of future generations will be whether to forgive or forget the hubris of generations past. Whether to tuck us away, another skeleton in humanity’s closet or to reveal our flooded tombstones and say “Look! This is what happened and this is what cannot happen again.”
Learning From Drowning: An Afterglow Broken From the Colony Reflection
by Autumn Brown
Working my way through Afterglow was a slow emotional experience. Each story is a keyhole into devastating visions of the mass loss we face in climate disaster, but also ripe with imaginative futures sprinkled with tips and inventive survival ideas. As someone who has lived on an island my whole life from Manhattan to Long Island, I often think about the only home I've ever known being underwater. In this way I was immediately immersed in the story “Broken from the Colony” by Ada M. Patterson. Swimming through this story with the main character the reader becomes lost in time and her physical body. What is clear is that she and the world around her is in a state of constant change and transition and what grounds the reader and the M.C. herself is her spirit.
“They all believed survival was something you bought in a store”
She is at odds with the people she's lived her whole life among on the island she calls her home because they fall short for her in a myriad of ways; through their connection or lack thereof with her identity, the land and the water around them. She acknowledges these shortcomings without judgment, and provides context to why they live the way they do. But the true struggle is not only rooted in their unwillingness to change but their inability to recognize it.
“She wanted more from them. For them.”
Drowning is used throughout the story as both its literal definition as well as a metaphor of what it feels like to constantly push parts of your authentic self under the surface. Drowning in identity, underwater in a world that refuses to see you. Despite the murkiness around the changes happening to her body, her spirit and motivations are steadfast and clear. She leans into the unknown and becomes conscious of what it means to experience a transformation that is invisible to those around you.
“How could you live your whole life on an island and not know how to swim?”
An existence that is not able to recognize or adapt to change is unsustainable. And so is one that disregards life and its changes around them. “Broken from the Colony” highlights that our refusal to accept change and infinite possibilities will not only leave us unable to recognize the ways the world is reacting to our influences but further limits the ability to see those who are adapting and creating new life and new ways to live and learn in transition with the earth.
“Had anybody told them what had happened, what had changed?”
At the center of the discussion around climate change and how we treat the earth engages conversations about how we view, engage and interact with each other. Introducing discussions of gender, language and who we dismiss from society, Broken from the Colony is a story of drowned islands and a tale of trans existence and resilience. Those whose existence is to be change, and to be fluid and to shift in ways outside of the boxes we have housed them in. Uplifting those who understand what it means to drown because they are the same as the ones who will to breathe underwater and teach us how to live with the earth again.Trans people and others who live on the fringes of society embody survival because they at their core understand change and the fluidity of life. It is their strength, flexibility and understanding of community that will pull us toward a new world, a world in which we are
“Caring for each other's bodies like we lived in each other's bodies”.
🌎
Rebecca (she/her) and Autumn (they/them) live on an island that loses pieces of itself with every hurricane. Despite this, they have nothing but hope. They run a booktual aid called LongDistanceReads & Shares. They collect donations of BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA+ books and redistribute them within their communities. You can find them on Instagram at longdistancereads.
Time to Get Solarpunk
Credit where credit is due! I found a couple of jams for this month’s posts on this playlist here. Today’s song was chosen by the guests! I definitely skewed towards the sillier songs to balance out the climate dread. I hope you find something you like in here as well.
Welcome to the Final Discussion 📖 Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors
These are simply questions to get you thinking. You’re not required to answer any of them to participate. Remember to keep comments and replies respectful and hate-free!
Final Thoughts
Did the stories meet your expectations? Did anything surprise you?
What was your favorite story? What about it made it your favorite?
Did you notice any recurring motifs or symbols in the stories? How do they contribute to the overall message of the anthology?
Were there stories that left you with a sense of hope for the future despite the challenges presented by climate change? How did they convey that sense of hope?
Conversely, which stories highlighted the bleak and despairing aspects of a world grappling with environmental crises? How did these stories affect your mood or perspective?
Overall, how strong was the anthology for you?
Going Further
The anthology includes stories from various cultures, backgrounds, and regions. How do these diverse perspectives enrich the anthology's portrayal of climate change?
How did reading this anthology influence your perception of our current world and the environmental challenges we face?
Did any story make you reflect on your own role in contributing to or mitigating climate change?
How does storytelling, especially within the context of fiction, contribute to the broader conversation about climate change? What unique advantages does fiction offer in addressing this topic?
Share your other thoughts in the comments!
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