Noted Novelist Jeff Vandermeer says he does not 'reject' the cli-fi term and is 'neutral' on it, at the moment

Noted Novelist Jeff Vandermeer does not 'reject' cli-fi term and is 'neutral' on it at the moment



by staff writer



In a recent magazine article online, Professor Murat Cem Menguc explored the rise of the ''cli-fi'' genre worldwide, under a headline that read "What Can We Learn From Dystopian Fiction About Climate Change" that has a subheadline reading: "If you haven't heard of cli-fi yet, you are not alone; however you have probably either read or watched some already."




Professor Menguc started off his piece this way: "Recently, a friend asked on social media, 'What do you people read to wind down?' He was referring to the distress we all suffer from the endless negative news coming from the Trump administration. I first suggested sci-fi, but upon remembering that he is a lobbyist for international corporations' divestiture from the fossil fuel industry, I decided to do some research on sci-fi novels which focus on climate change. That's when I discovered the so-called 'cli-fi' (climate change fiction) genre."



"If you haven't heard of it yet, you are not alone; most of the people I mentioned it to were unaware of it too," the professor added. "However, you have probably either read or watched some cli-fi already. A Hollywood movie website IMDB has a cli-fi page with more than a dozen titles. The Goodreads list of cli-fi novels is over 130 titles long.



During the recent months, Lidia Yuknavitch's The Book of Joan, Zachary Mason's Void Star, Jane Harper's The Dry, Margaret Drabble's The Dark Flood Rises, Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140, Cory Doctorow's Walkaway, and Sally Abbott's Closing Down have all hit the shelves described as cli-fi. And, since February of this year, the Chicago Review of Books has published a monthly cli-fi column titled 'Burning Worlds' by New York literary critic Amy Brady that is exclusively dedicated to the genre.''



Professor's Menguc's long article went from there to explore a variety of novels and movies that fit into the rising new genre. But at one point in the original piece, before it was corrected by the editors and appears now online, he incorrectly stated, without fact-checking or vetting the statement which he apparently took from an unidentified online source, that noted American novelist Jeff VanderMeer "rejects the label cli-fi." [BUT THAT STATEMENT WAS OUT-OF-DATE. SEE BELOW FOR AN EXPLANATION.]



"By far the best cli-fi out there must be Jeff VanderMeer’s 'The Southern Reach' trilogy," Professor Menguc wrote in the original article adding, BEFORE IT WAS CORRECTED: "Although VanderMeer rejects the label cli-fi, this is indeed a story about our changing climate: how a territory called Southern Reach becomes a self conscious ecology, starts to remember, thinking, and communicate with human beings."



Actually, Mr VanderMeer does not reject the label cli-fi now , and asked Professor Menguc to fix and revise that mischaracterization of his current views of the genre: "I asked the professor to remove that opinion about cli-fi from the the part about my work. I told him I had a neutral opinion about it at the moment. I'll email him and see if he can remove it." [Blogger notes: WHICH GOOD PROFESSOR AND HIS EDITORS DID!



It has now been corrected.  It was an innocent and harmless mistake on the professor's part, and in fact  Professor Menguc just wrote to me by email and said told the editor of that piece to fix the mistake as soon as possible, writing "Hi Dan,

Will get in touch with the editor right away.''

-- Best,

Cem

"Geostorm" is the next cli-fi movie from Hollywood and it opens in October

A 'cli-fi' movie for our times

MOVIE TRAILER LINK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efNuuMP7uLw


Director: Dean Devlin


Opening Day: October 21

''Nach der Sci-Fi kommt die Cli-Fi'' -- an article in Germany by reporter Julia Grillmayr -- ("After Sci-fi comes Cli-Fi")

Nach der Sci-Fi kommt die Cli-Fi (aka cli-fi.net)

18. Juni 2017, 10:00

''Nach der Sci-Fi  kommt die Cli-Fi'' --

an article in German

by reporter Julia Grillmayr

159 Postings COMMENTS

Eine Konferenz in Graz reflektierte über die Rolle von Literatur in ökologischen Diskursen. Das Genre der Climate-Fiction macht die abstrakten Folgen des Klimawandels greifbar

A conference in Graz reflected on the role of literature in environmental discourses. The genre of the climate fiction makes the abstract consequences of climate change in tangible Graz - you describe heat and tidal waves, ice ages, the extinction of species or portray natural beauty and show untamed woods, sea and animals as particularly worth protecting. For literary works which the man-made climate change and its consequences deal, the literary and cultural science has for some time been developed their own concepts and labels: it speaks of "Okokritik" (in English "Ecocriticism") or "Climate Fiction", in short "Cli-Fi".provocative and with a question mark, but not meant unernst Cli-Fi Axl good body designated as the genre of the century". The German Professor of British Bath University said last week at the conference "Literature and the environment", the English Institute of the University of Graz and among other things organised by the Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Agriculture has been supported.Okokritische literature or cli-fi occurs with a political claim. She wants to help shape such as on climate change and the associated risks and remedies under consideration. "Climate change is inaccessible for the human perception," said good body. Literature translate the global, complex phenomenon in individual space and time units. "It makes the climate change locally and directly and shows at the same time its dramatic scale." Cli-Fi could be positive and negative role images demonstrate and explore different action scenarios. Most of the works that are traded as climate fiction are American, but there are also many German examples, such as the good body showed. He called about the Proto-Cli-Fi-Roman "mountains and seas Giants" by Alfred Döblin from the year 1924 and "EisTau Ilija Trojanows" (2011).What specific function can literature for environmental discourses have? This question influences the okokritik and thus also fundamentally the Graz Conference. A central theorist in this debate is Hubert Zapf, America nest at the University of Augsburg. In his lecture lifted tap that artists a distinctive, critical Sensorium for power relations and therefore had an important voice in the negotiation of environmental justice. In view of the ecological crisis, new forms of story telling are necessary.

Kultur und Natur

Das passiert einerseits auf inhaltlicher Ebene; Cli-Fi lenkt die Aufmerksamkeit auf ökologische Themen und Motive. Andererseits geht es um das Aufzeigen von Perspektiven durch das Finden einer neuen Sprache und somit auch um eine gewisse Selbstreflexion von Literatur und Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft.
So wurde bei der Tagung oft auf Zapfs einflussreiches Konzept der "kulturellen Ökologie" zurückgegriffen, das Kultur und Natur nicht einander gegenüberstellt, sondern auf einer Ebene denkt. Die "Umwelt" ist in diesem Verständnis nicht mehr nur die materielle Umgebung, sondern auch die Ideen und Bilder, die an diese geknüpft sind und auf sie zurückwirken. "Literatur ist eine ökologische Kraft im kulturellen Feld", sagte Zapf.
Neben konkreten ökokritischen Textstudien – etwa Maximilian Feldner von der Universität Graz, der über den nigerianischen Autor Helon Habila und sein Sujet der Ölgewinnung im Nigerdelta sprach – waren daher auch die Herangehensweisen und Ziele der Wissenschaft selbst immer wieder Thema. Julia Martin von der südafrikanischen University of the Western Cape zeigte eindrucksvoll, was der Anspruch der "environmental humanities" für ihr akademisches Arbeiten bedeutet.
Mit der Idee, auch nichtakademisches Publikum zu erreichen und die disziplinären Grenzen zu überschreiten, propagierte sie "literarische Non-Fiction", ein essayistisches wissenschaftliches Schreiben. Sie ermutigte zu spekulativeren Herangehensweisen, bei Beibehaltung wissenschaftlicher Akkuratesse. Dabei sei der eigenen Subjektivität ein gewisser Platz einzuräumen: "Im akademischen Schreiben wird das 'Ich' vermieden", sagte Martin, man sollte hingegen versuchen, in wissenschaftlicher Weise ausgehend von persönlichen Erfahrungen und Gefühlen zu sprechen – ohne dass das "Ich" dabei ein narzisstisches würde.
"Interconnectedness", die Feststellung, dass alles mit allem verbunden ist, sei der Kern dessen, was aus der derzeitigen ökologischen Situation gelernt werden könne, sagte Martin. Zu dieser Verbundenheit gehören in einem wichtigen Maß auch Tiere.

Tiere sprechen lassen

Wird über ökokritisches Schreiben reflektiert, dann oftmals mit der Frage, wie die literarischen Werke nichtmenschlichen Protagonisten eine Stimme verleihen. Oft werden Tiere in Fiktionen anthropomorphisiert und kommunizieren in menschlicher Sprache – man denke an "Das Dschungelbuch". Der Kanadist Konrad Groß von der Universität Kiel zeigte anhand des Romans "L'Oursiade" der französischsprachigen kanadischen Autorin Antonine Maillet, dass es alternative, seiner Ansicht nach überzeugendere Weisen gibt, Tiere sprechen zu lassen.
Eine weitere kanadische Autorin, auf die in diesem Zusammenhang immer wieder referiert wird, ist Margaret Atwood. In einer Doppelpräsentation und im Vergleich mit der Schweizer Autorin Hedi Wyss zeigten Michelle Gadpaille und Vesna Kondric-Horvat von der Universität Maribor auf, wie Atwoods Fiktionen thematisch, aber auch stilistisch ökokritisch arbeiten. In Bezug auf eine Kurzgeschichte Atwoods stellte Gadpaille fest: "Sie schreibt ohne die Syntax des Missbrauchs am Planeten. Nicht Subjekt, Verb, Objekt; nicht jemand tut etwas einem anderen an."


(by Julia Grillmayr, 18.6.2017)


============


Translation:


''After Sci-Fi comes Cli-Fi''


by reporter Julia Grillmayr


A conference in Graz reflected on the role of literature in environmental discourses. The genre of the climate fiction makes the abstract consequences of climate change in tangible Graz - you describe heat and tidal waves, ice ages, the extinction of species or portray natural beauty and show untamed woods, sea and animals as particularly worth protecting. For literary works which the man-made climate change and its consequences deal, the literary and cultural science has for some time been developed their own concepts and labels: it speaks of "Okokritik" (in English "Ecocriticism") or "Climate Fiction", in short "Cli-Fi".provocative and with a question mark, but not meant unernst Cli-Fi Axl good body designated as the genre of the century". The German Professor of British Bath University said last week at the conference "Literature and the environment", the English Institute of the University of Graz and among other things organised by the Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Agriculture has been supported.Okokritische literature or cli-fi occurs with a political claim. She wants to help shape such as on climate change and the associated risks and remedies under consideration. "Climate change is inaccessible for the human perception," said good body. Literature translate the global, complex phenomenon in individual space and time units. "It makes the climate change locally and directly and shows at the same time its dramatic scale." Cli-Fi could be positive and negative role images demonstrate and explore different action scenarios. Most of the works that are traded as climate fiction are American, but there are also many German examples, such as the good body showed. He called about the Proto-Cli-Fi-Roman "mountains and seas Giants" by Alfred Döblin from the year 1924 and "EisTau Ilija Trojanows" (2011).What specific function can literature for environmental discourses have? This question influences the okokritik and thus also fundamentally the Graz Conference. A central theorist in this debate is Dr Hubert Zapf, American specialist at the University of Augsburg.


 In his lecture he said that artists a distinctive, critical Sensorium for power relations and therefore had an important voice in the negotiation of environmental justice. In view of the ecological crisis, new forms of story telling are necessary.


Culture and Nature


Cli-Fi draws attention to ecological themes and motifs. On the other hand is the identification of perspectives by finding a new language and thus also to a degree of self-reflection of literature and literary and cultural studies.


At the meeting it was often on Dr Zapf's influential concept of "Cultural Ecology" resorted to the culture and nature not opposite to each other, but on a plane thinks. The "Environment" in this sense is not only the physical environment, but also the ideas and images that are linked to it and get back to you work. "Literature is an ecological force in the cultural field," said Zapf.
In addition to concrete okokritischen text studies - such as Dr. Maximilian Feldner from the University of Graz, the Nigerian author Helon Habila and his subject of the oil in the Niger Delta language - were therefore also the approach and objectives of the science itself again and again. Dr Julia Martin of the South African University of the Western Cape showed impressively that the claim of "environmental humanities" for your academic work means.


With the idea, not even academic audience to reach and the disciplinary boundaries, propagated "Literary Non-Fiction", the trial scientific writing. You are encouraged to speculative nature of approaches, while maintaining scientific accuracy.


 It is the own subjectivity to grant a certain place: "In the academic writing is the 'i'", said Martin avoided, you should try to be in a scientific manner on the basis of personal experiences and feelings to speak - without that the "i" is a narcissist table.


"Inter-connectedness", the fact that everything is connected with everything that is at the core of what the current environmental situation could be learned, Martin said. To this unity are in an important dimension also animals


AND...


Animals speak it is reflected on okokritisches letter, then often with the question how the literary works of non-human protagonists give a voice.


Often animals in fiction anthropomorphisiert and communicate in human language - think of the Jungle Book". The Kana Dist Konrad large from the University of Kiel showed on the basis of the novel "L'Oursiade" the French Canadian author Antonine Maillet that are alternative, in his view more compelling ways to animals speak to leave.Another Canadian author to in this context always referenced is Margaret Atwood. In a double-presentation and compared with the Swiss author Hedi Wyss showed Michelle Gadpaille and Vesna Kondric-Horvat from the University of Maribor on how atwoods fictions topic table, but also stylistically okokritisch work. In relation to a short story Atwoods, Gadpaille hard: "She writes without the syntax of the abuse on the planet. Not the subject, verb, object; not someone does something another."


(reported by Julia Grillmayr, 18.6.2017)




derstandard.at/2000059374108/after-the-science-fiction comes-the-climate fiction

NYT asks readers: ''We’d like to hear you sing “O Canada.” for 150th birthday of the nation

We’d like to hear you sing “O Canada.”

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/17/world/canada/canada-150th-birthday-anthem.html

 

On July 1, Canada marks its 150th birthday, commemorating the moment that a cluster of British colonial provinces joined together to form a country that quickly grew to encompass a vast expanse and array of people, languages and cultures.

 

Let’s mark the occasion by performing “O Canada.” Please post on Instagram, with the hashtag #MyOCanada, a video of you singing the anthem in any language, style or setting you like, with or without accompaniment.

 

Since you can post only one minute of video to Instagram, sing the first verse and use your caption to tell us what the words mean to you. (Don’t forget to include the hashtag #MyOCanada.)

 

As you can see in the video here , we asked Canadian cast members of the Broadway musical “Come From Away” to sing a version so you have an idea of what we’re looking for. We thought they did a pretty good job.

Leslie Goodreid‏ @Leslie_Goodreid 3m3 minutes ago

 

 

@nytimes, ''thanks for the shout out, but #Canada was formed out of British and French colonies. We are a bi-lingual and multi-cultural country.''

The New York Times news bureau in Australia asks readers: ''What makes Australian intellectuals and cultural critics tick?" (It's not always a pretty picture)

 

The New York Times news bureau in Australia asks readers: ''What makes Australian intellectuals and cultural critics tick?" (It's not always a pretty picture) -- WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON ALL THIS MESHAGUS?

 

Recently, the Sydney news bureau of the New York Times, overseen by veteran reporter and editor Damien Cave, posted a brief rant in its weekly newsletter to readers about the the state of Australian  culture and its relationship with Aussie literary circles, sci-fi literary critics and public intellectuals. Cave was wondering "What makes Australian culture workers tick?"

 

 

Damien Cave is the new Australia Bureau Chief for The New York Times. He’s covered more than a dozen countries for The Times, including Mexico, Cuba, Iraq and Lebanon. Follow him on Twitter at @damiencave and on Instagram, also at @damiencave.

 

We hope you’re enjoying our weekly dispatches from our new Australia bureau. Tell us what you think at NYTAustralia@nytimes.com. - Damien Cave

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cave, who is now the editor of the New York Times in Australia bureau, a new posting for him, wonders why ''some'' (just some, most are open to new things) Australian sci-fi lit critics, among them James Bradley and Lucy Sussex, tend to be publicly negative towards the new lit genre of cli-fi, with sci-fi booster Bradley in the SMH in 2015 calling it "an unfortunate shorthand" ''[for climate fiction]'' and sci-fi short story writer Sussex calling it "an appalling term" in the Sydney Review of Books just the other day. Cave notes in a Times newseletter for readers of the Oz edition and his take is headlined

''The Fall and Rise of Australian Culture ''

and he writes among other things: ''Sebastian Smee, a wonderful Asutralian art critic who returned to Sydney this year after winning a Pulitzer with the Boston Globe, wrote for us about the Art Gallery of New South Wales and its struggle to obtain the financing it needed to expand its exhibition and event space.''

''Later in the week, Besha Rodell, another Australian who has become a standout in the United States — in her case, Los Angeles — explored the battle over how to modernize Melbourne’s beloved Queen Victoria Market. ''

''Both pieces ***mined the tension*** in Australia that ***often seems to come with proposals for the new, the bold, the different.*** This is something Ben Shewry, the world-renowned Attica chef who Sam Sifton profiled this week as part of a special series of features on Australian food and drink, talked about when we hosted an event with him in Melbourne last month: ***the degree to which Australia tends to criticize new ideas and new literary genres, the nails that stick out, [just like Japanese culture].

 

Damien added: ''So is Australia becoming more open to bold creative expression or is this country ***just as eager as always to cut down the tall poppies who stick their heads up and stand out? "***

---- ''Quick, don’t overthink it: What comes to mind? What have you seen, heard, tasted, watched or read lately that’s Australian and that has really moved you or challenged you or made you want to share it with the world? ''

****Write to us at nytaustralia@nytimes.com, *** and tell us what it is (multiple examples are welcome; if you've got a Top Five, I want to know) and explain your choice. In the next NYT OZ newsletter, I'll share a few choice contributions.

Don't feel a need to be snobby, either. What we're trying to explore here is how Australians experience culture high, low or in-between and what that might reveal about the country's attitude toward insurgent creativity. ''

Several Australians already chimed in about Bradley and Sussex, and Australian literary critics and so-called public intellectuals
saying that James and Lucy were part of the problem and not part of the solution.

An adjunct professor of literature in Perth, said: ''There is some truth in this. But the big difference between the US and Australia is size - not just of the country, but of the SF community, the literary community, the intelligentsia. In such small worlds it's often difficult to dissent: Australian intellectuals tend to hunt in packs.''

 

Another Australian said: ''As an Australian I appreciate the perspectives that outsiders bring to our public debates even if they may miss some nuances or I may disagree with them. Australia is an island and our public debate often reflects that with limited, narrow perspectives and an attitude of anti-intellectualism. ''

 

And a third Australian wrote: "As an Australian who works in climate scenario planning, preparedness and resilience, I often use cli-fi and third party narratives to help build creativity and imagination in newbie leadership workshops. Being mindful of science based models, data and output is critical though as too much fantasy can lead to nonsense and lose audiences. Having first worked on climate in the early 90's through a risk and opportunity lens, I've seen a rapid growth in the tails of climate polarity especially in Australia. With othering, left goes left and right goes right which can create some room in the middle. However as each tail from doomers to deniers gets louder it can marginalise the other, traumatise the middle and stop critical thinking. As a Sydney citizen and avid reader, I've probably only read Sydney Review of Books once in 20 years! NY and London, Delhi and Asia are markers for my perspectives. I crowdsource my reviews to avoid homophilly and seek paragogy as an aid to forming my perspectives. I think "Big island small mind "is a fair criticism for the "squatocracy" and rather conservative anti-stereotypes that hog the arts here. Dan you've shown good leadership with ypur cli-fi public relations work,and the CF community is growing worldwide -- keep going and don't fear the misguided and snarky haters / knockers in Australia!''

 

And Ed Wright, a book reviewer for the Australian newspaper, started off his recent review of an Australian novel this way, ignoring the unfortunate attack dog tactics of literary critics Bradley and Sussex, writing in his first sentence: ''Cli-fi, which imagines our world in the aftermath of climate change, is booming. It’s a brand of dystopian narrative that often features desiccated landscapes, where resources are scarce and contested and ingenuity is required just to survive. Lotus Blue (Talos, 382pp, $22.99), the debut novel from Australian writer at Sparks, a much anthologised science fiction writer, is a compelling addition to these ranks.''

Aaron Thier releases paperback edition of his 2016 cli-fi novel MR ETERNITY

Aaron Thier is a 30-something writer born and bred in western
Massachusetts, and his latest hardback novel "Mr. Eternity" has just been issued in paperback.

A comic novel and a very serious novel at the same time, and it has been characterized by readers as literary fiction, sci-fi, apocalyptic dystopian, fantasy and cli-fi. And a comic novel, as well.

Thier did his undergraduate work at
Yale, majoring in literature (Class of 2006) and later completed a
Creative Writing MFA at the University of Florida in 2012.

His surname has an interesting back story, and when asked about it,
he told me a bit of family history.

"Their is my birth surname," he said. "My parents decided that Thier was more interesting than Murphy [his father Peter Murphy is an English at Williams College."

"So the three children all have my mom's
name. This hasn't produced as much confusion as you might think.
People seem charmed by the matriarchal orientation."

In addition, in connection with his mother's surname, a former
president of Brandeis University in the early 1990s was her father,
his grandfather, Dr Samuel Thier, a medical doctor.

"I wish I knew more about where the Thier name came from. I know that the original Samuel Thier, my great-great-grandfather, was an actor in the Yiddish theater in Warsaw, Poland, but I don't know much else about him."

When asked if he was a pessimist or an optimist in regard to possible
climate change outcomes in the future, he said: "I’m a pessimist in
the sense that I don’t think we’ll get it together to avoid a very bad outcome. In many important ways we’ve already missed the
boat by a long way."

However, he added: "But I’m an optimist in the sense that I believe in
human resourcefulness. I don’t think this represents a threat to human
existence, only a threat to human civilization as it’s currently
configured. People will eke out a living somehow in a brutalized world.
There will probably be fewer of us, maybe way fewer."

A recent interview with Thier in the Chicago Review of Books updates the paperback edition of his novel and his views about global warming.

Literary critics and cultural observers planning nonfiction explorations of the rise of 'cli-fi' in the 21st Century in a series of new books

 Photo by Novelist Yann Quero in France: "The Madonna of Global Warming"


===========================================


blog post by staff writer

Adam Trexler led the way, of course, publishing "Anthropocene Fictions" with UVA Press in 2015. [http://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/4777]

Subtitled "The Novel in a Time of Climate Change," the book was widely reviewed and read in academic circles worldwide. Trexler looked at 150 novels with strong climate change themes and came away impressed with the cli-fi genre, even mentioning the new coinage in the introduction.

Dr Heather Sullivan, a professort at Trinity University in Texas and the author of ''The Cambridge Introduction to Literature and the Environment," was impressed with Trexler's work, writing: ''As an extremely timely contribution to the urgent discussions of climate change and culture in the Anthropocene, 'Anthropocene Fictions' deserves high praise for carefully documenting the longer history of climate change novels as well as projecting forward into the uncertain futures of postapocalyptic writings. Trexler’s provocative theory of 'eco-nomics,' or the inextricably intertwined aspects of ecological and economic choices made in our industrial cultures as we navigate rising waters and rising costs in the 21st Century, is one with wide relevance for anyone interested in the cultural impact of global environmental change."

In this Age of Trump and the Paris climate accord, dozens of literary critics and cultural observers are no doubt planning their own non-fiction explorations of the cli-fi genre.

These books have not been written yet,  but I do envision and anticipate their publication over the next 10-15 years, some from Britain, some from Canada and the USA and some from Australia as well.Who will be writing them? Mostly academics and literary critics, but also journalists, media critics and cultural observers. Maybe you?

Here's my tentative list:

''The Rise of Cli-Fi in the Age of Trump: A Cultural Exploration of a Literary Trend''


"Cli-Fi, Sci-Fi, We All Cry, The End is Nigh: What Cli-Fi Novels Say Aboout the Anthropocene"


"Climate Fictions, Climate Frictions: A Global Warning From Novels and Movies"


"From Trump to Paris: Cli-Fi Novels Explore The Future of Humankind"


"Anthropocene Arguments: How Cli-Fi Changed the Way Novelists Approach Global Warming Issues"


"The Power of Cli-Fi: The 'On The Beach' of Climate Change Has Yet to Be Written"

Here's my tentative list:

''The Rise of Cli-Fi in the Age of Trump: A Cultural Exploration of a Literary Trend''


"Cli-Fi, Sci-Fi, We All Cry, The End is Nigh: What Cli-Fi Novels Say Aboout the Anthropocene"


"Climate Fictions, Climate Frictions: A Global Warning From Novels and Movies"


"From Trump to Paris: Cli-Fi Novels Explore The Future of Humankind"


"Anthropocene Arguments: How Cli-Fi Changed the Way Novelists Approach Global Warming Issues"


"The Power of Cli-Fi: Has The 'On The Beach' of Climate Change Yet to Be Written?"

"To Live or Die in the Age of Cli-Fi: An Exploration of a 21st Century Genre"

''A Peaceable Kingdom: In Search of Cli-Fi Visions"

"Turning Cli-Fi Studies into Climactic Moments: The Rise of Cli-Fi in the 21st Century"

"Cli-Fi Nights, Cli-Fi Flights: Kingsolver, Rich and Robinson in These Times"

"How Novels Can Save the Planet: The Rise of Cli-Fi in an Age of Hope and Despair"

''Utopian Visions, Climate Divisions:  The Rise of Cli-Fi in a Pivotal Time"

"Faith and Love in an Age of Cli-Fi"

''The Genre Wars: Sci-fi, Cli-fi and America"

''The Battle of the Climate Genres: How Cli-Fi is Replacing Sci-Fi in the 21st Century"

"Cli-Fi: The Road to Ruin, the Road to Redemption"

"Cli-Fi: Nature or Nurture in the Anthrozoic Era"

""The Rise of Cli-Fi in an Era of Resistance and Reordering"

"Cli-Fi: Feast or Famine in the Anthrocene"

"Cli-Fi: Getting from There to Here"

"Climapocalypse or Bust: The Rise of Cli-Fi in an Age of Climate Illiteracy"

"Who Reads Cli-Fi and Why: An Inquiry Into a 21st Century Genre"



[Feel free to ADD your own imagined titles here too, in the comments below.]

Sci-Fi and Scary Website posts a good cli-fi blog today for World Environment Day with book and resource recommendations

Sci-Fi and Scary Website posts a good cli-fi blog today for World Environment Day with book recommendations


Tarred & Feathered @TandFMag   posts a blog link for                 
World Environment Day

https://tandfrestlesssouls.com/2017/06/05/news-world-environment-day/

with a pic

 pic.twitter.com/4lvJ2H6PSb

Cli-fi as a rising literary genre in the MSM is like 水滴石穿 in Chinese proverb: "dripping water penetrates stone"

Photo by Yann Quero in France: "The Virgin Mary of Global Warming" outside a church in northern France with weatherbeaten limestone today

 

水滴石穿

There is an ancient Chinese-language saying "dripping water penetrates stone" which looks like this in Chinese characters "水滴石穿" and is pronounced as
(''shui di shi chuan''). And it sort of means "never give up" or "Remember, Rome was not built in one day" or as they said in Latin ''Romam uno die non fuisse conditam."

The phrase means that grand projects are the outcome of a long period of accumulated and concerted effort., and that if something is worth doing, it's worth taking the time to get it right.
In China, the Warring States period thinker Mr. Shi Jiao, or Shi zi, of the School of Syncretism, is known from the many times he has been quoted in extant texts, even though his own book, the Shizi, thought to have originally been some 60,000 Chinese characters in 20 chapters, has now been lost for 1,000 years.

Shi zi is credited with saying that ''although water is no drill for boring into stone, persistent drops, over time, will cut through rock nevertheless.'' His point was that if one is consistent, methodical and focused on a task, that task will eventually be completed, even if it at first seems impossible, and takes many years of effort.

From this idea, we have the idiom「水滴石穿」, literally “dripping water penetrates stone.”
In the same way, we must remember that while cli-fi is a new literary genre and is still not known by most people in literary circles, it is slowly making itself known as a new genre and with persistence, it will catch on and be as well known as its sister term "sci-fi" (which also took a long time to catch on). See The Cli-Fi Report at www.cli-fi.net for news links.

(thanks and a hat tip to translator extradordinaire Mr. Paul Cooper, at Taipei Times)

Donald Trump cannot stop the rise of cli-fi novels and movies!

 

 

 

Donald Trump cannot stop the rise of cli-fi novels and movies!

 

 

 

 

Removing the United States from the Paris Agreement Climate Accord was par for the course for the current Trump administration, but it won't make any difference at all. The entire world knows that man-made global warming is a dire threat to all of humankind (and the nonhuman kind as well).

 

 

Okay, so President Trump doesn't want to lead, it's no big deal. Trump is nothing. Trump cannot stop the fight against climate change. Trump will disappear sooner or later, and then the fight will resume with even more energy and dedication. In fact, even now, in response to Trump's "just say no" to the Paris Accord, nations around the world are rising up to counter his uninformed naysaying.

Civic leaders, mayors, governors, business leaders, investors and the majority of the world community understand that we are in the middle of a clean energy revolution that no single person or group can stop. President Trump's decision was in conflict with what most people want from the American president, but no matter what he has done, the inevitable global transition to a clean energy economy will continue.

More and more cli-fi novels and movies are dipping their toes into these issues, and with film producers in Hollywood like Marshall Herskovitz and Darren Aronofsky up to Trump Denialism, we will be seeing more and more cli-fi novels adapted into screenplays and shown on the silver screen worldwide in a variety of languages.

We are in the Anthrocene, and cli-fi is here to make a difference, ring some alarm bells, set off some warning flares and generally serve as a wake-up call to humanity. Enough of this culture of empty distractions and escapism; the time has come to face facts and buckle up.

We are in for one heck of a ride, and it aint gonna be a pretty picture for the next 30 generations of man. And woman.