The Anthropocene Extinction: Exhibited Through the Climate-Fiction Genre
In this 3 AM darkness there’s nothing left for us to see, but everything to hear. The cicadas, who have made their ways to the treetops, have been playing their tune since before we even got here – and I’m left feeling like a spectator to a hidden orchestra. This performance is not for us. But we’ll never realize that and just go on listening. The cicadas’ song sets the baseline rhythm for the whole park – a steady whirring, tap, tap, tap, replays over and over again in the space above our heads until we can’t remember what silence felt like. I know how much you hate it, you’ve told me before, even now you brought your headphones to protect yourself – you extend one ear bud out to me as a show of affection, but I decline. I like, too much, the way their hums fill my bones until I too feel like part of their song.
This is an excerpt from my current draft of a short story I’ve been working on as my final project for the environmental communications class of Spring 2020. This story, which is currently untitled and written in the “climate-fiction” genre, is a culmination of my love for writing, my concern for the environment, and the rhetoric skills I’ve learned here in class. My story is currently in the early stages of the publishing process, and I’m still working with members of the public to workshop and revise this piece to get it to a level where it can be submitted to literary magazines for publication. While I cannot share my entire story yet, here I hope to give you a look into my process as a writer and the research I’ve conducted for this piece.
 |
| Orion Magazine |
The environmental issue addressed by my story is the Anthropocene extinction, or the way in which humans are playing a huge role in the endangerment of wildlife, globally. I feel strongly both morally and emotionally for the loss of biodiversity on the planet that often comes as a result of human development, wildlife exploitation, and overconsumption of resources. In order to consolidate this large, general problem, I utilize the fictional short story to create an intimate narrative that interlaces many of these problems within a much smaller scope. To do this, I took the time to analyze many climate-fictions as well as consulted course materials on environmental rhetoric to create images in my own story that have a higher chance of resonating with the values and emotions of my readers. Particularly, I render many of my character’s actions and emotions to reflect current viewpoints and environmentally-related issues, creating symbolism in my work. I hope to continue fine-tuning these images to build an impactful piece.
Members of the public play an important role in my writing process. Friends and professors act as critiques of my early drafts and give me feedback to help in my revision process. So far, I’ve only consulted with one reader on this story, so in the coming months I intend to share the unpublished draft with several more people before confidently sending it in for submission.
 |
| Ecotone Magazine |
Overall, the writing process looks extremely different for each person, but I hope that sharing a part of mine may help you understand what the creative process looks like from the other side, or maybe even help you reflect on what your own process may look like. It especially difficult creating with deadlines, as I found to be an issue within the timeline of this project. In writing this piece, I found myself strongly fascinated with imagery of cicada and associated qualities and began to use them and the sense of hearing as the heart and soul of this piece. As my characters have auditory experiences with the world around them I invite my readers to do the same, both in their heads while they’re reading and then when the put down the story and go into the world themselves. I’m looking forward to one day being able to share a published story with you all, but for now I’ll leave you with the literary magazines pictured throughout this post, where you can find intriguing climate-fiction pieces.
Photo credits:
Comments
Post a Comment