'Cli-Fi' is changing how sci-fi is viewed by the mainstream in 2018

Yes, in the past few years, worldwide, the rise of climate fiction (aka ''cli-fi'') has been  changing how ''sci-fi'' is viewed by the mainstream media. Why? Because cli-fi is now valued by the literary establishment, and cli-fi novel and movies get reviewed by big publications.


In addition, cli-fi has been boosted by hundreds of academic papers worldwide written about it. In fact, in today's climate (no pun intended) cli-fi is taken more seriously than any sci-fi subgenre ever has been.
Not only is cli-fi trending well, it is broadly recognized even outside the SFF (science fiction and fantasy) community as well.


‏So, yes, climate fiction is taken seriously by the mainstream now, the first time for a sub-genre of science fiction. Sci-fi and its subgenre of cli-fi are growing close and closer as a result.


While her new album ''Solastalgia'' muses on the end of the world, Missy Higgins is finally feeling relaxed about her career and place in the world, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.


The term "solastalgia" was coined by Dr Glenn Albrecht in Australia and is used to describe the distress of environmental change. With Higgins' album, it signifies beginnings and endings.


If you haven't heard of "cli-fi", it's a genre of dystopian fiction dedicated to environmental disaster; the successor of nuclear disaster and influenza novels, The Sydney Morning Herald says.


The heavyweight trilogies are Margaret Atwood's ''MaddAddam''; NK Jemisin's ''The Broken Earth'' series and Jeff VanderMeer's​ ''Area X''. Higgins, a long-term eco-activist, admits to a macabre fascination with cli-fi.

"In a way, it's dealing with your fears head on by immersing yourself in them," she told the newspaper. "But it's also a form of escapism, because you're giving up on the present, on hope."

So do check out Missy Higgins, an Australian singer and composer who has issued a new CD titled "Solastagia" which includes several powerful songs with cli-fi lyrics.

LYRICS TO SOLASTAGIA song:

Our father was always the rational kind
He followed the news he read all the science
There’s no room for more, no room to expand
Would you really give birth astride sinking sand?
For the world is a lung we barely breathe through
Why make a new life to pass it on to?
So I searched for a way to keep you a dream
One that lived in my heart and would never be seen

But you, my son, you broke through it all
Through every reason each side of the wall
You, my light, my hope at the end
You my son, my starting again
My starting again

Your father was always a practical man
The oceans are rising, the hole is expanding
I’ve seen what’s coming, the ash in the sky
He told me “My woman, we don’t have a right
You’ll never find a reason better than this
To keep your heart in a closed fist.”
So I searched for a meaning bigger than you
Tried telling myself the right to do

But you, my son, you broke through it all
Every reason each side of the wall
You, my light, my hope at the end
You my son, my starting again
My starting again
My starting again
My starting again

When you appeared
It was louder than sense
Stronger than life
Bigger than fear
Yeah when you appeared
It was fire and God and tears and oceans of light and suddenly hearing his heart loud and clear
Like he was starting again
Starting again, starting again, starting again, starting again
Yeah we were starting again, starting again, starting again
Your father was always the rational kind, till you arrived…

Written by Missy Higgins & Pip Norman
Published by Missy Higgins Productions / Mushroom Music Publishing