"Cli-fi" Wave article by Clotilde Ravel for Livres Hebdo magazine in France
PHOTO OF ACTUAL PAGES AND ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY MRS GOOGLE BELOW: photos hat tip to Yann Quero in France who took photos for this blog!
From the United States where it was first coined and promoted in 2011
as a new literary trend, in literature
as in cinema, the "climate fiction" [aka cli-fi] is spreading
in France influencing the novel as well
traditional as science fiction and YA literature
for young adult readers. [- by Clotilde Ravel and Nicolas Turcev]
After the success of
his book Une his-
bees,
elapsed to a million
copies in
the world, Norway
Maja Lunde
will publish on May 9 in France the second
part of its ecological tetralogy. Blue
tells the fight for access to water
in a southern Europe ravaged by
drought.
We find this fight for "gold
blue ", available on the African continent
Cain, in the Aqua TM saga of the
vain science-fiction Jean-Marc
Ligny (L'Atalante, 2006-2015), where
again, in southwestern
Cain, in Water Knife by Paolo Baciga-
lupi (Au Diable Vauvert, 2016). published
in different categories (literature
"White", SF or polar), these works
illustrate the interest of their authors for
environmental issues.
The expression "climate fiction" is
appeared in 2011 under the pen of the day-
American artist Dan Bloom for
to sign these novels often derived from the
Post-apocalyptic SF who portray
the devastating effects of
climate change on the world and
men.
"I invented this word to re-
watch people. Climate fiction is a
"Heart cry" [expression pronounced in
French in the interview in English], a
movement to alert the generations
future studies on the severity of environmental risks
"explains the environmental activist,
logist at Hebdo Books.
Issue of SF
In retrospect, Grapes from
the anger (1939) of John Steinbeck, who
staged the dramatic consequences
of the Dust Bowl, a storm of
dust and sand in Texas in
1935, can be considered as one
first novels of "cli-fi".
The phenomenon first developed
in the United States with Frank's Dune
Herbert (1965), adapted to the cinema by
David Lynch in 1984, but also in
Europe, with the tetralogy of English
J. G. Ballard published between 1964 and 1977
by Casterman and Denoel. The third
component, Drought, depicts an apocalypse
lypse caused by the disappearance of
waters under the influence of
industrial development of the oceans.
SF authors are the first
to draw inspiration from the theory of "anthropo-
pocene ", theorized by scientists
characterized by the determinant impact
human activities on bio-
sphere. The filmmakers fit them
step with movies such as Waterworld
(1995), a world transformed by
Matrix (1999), a world of
sky darkened by men, The day
after (2004) and the arrival of a new
Ice Age, The Sons of Man (2006),
where pollution prevents humans from
to reproduce, or the character
Cartoon Wall-E (2008), robot
evolving on a planet so polluted that
no more plants grow there.
"This kind, cousin of the science-fic-
tion, is bound to develop in
France, "prophesies Dan Bloom. Of
done, for Mireille Rivalard, director
L'Atalante, "80% of the books that we
publish in SF largely take into account
the climatic factor. The publisher of
Jean-Marc Ligny believes, however, that
the cli-fi is "neither a genre in its own right,
nor an objective in itself, "but a subject that
irrigates all literature and cinema;
an adaptation of Aqua TM is elsewhere
"In discussion" in Germany.
Other initiatives attest to the de-
development of this segment in the
country. The Arkuiris editions, special-
particular in the publication of
books around the environment,
throw a call for texts
March "with the aim of launching a col-
climate-fiction election, "says Yann
Quero, himself author of SF and direc-
collector at Arkuiris.
If French authors invest
the sector, the literature collections
are those where we find the
more novels related to the
mast. Rivages publishes for twenty years
Barbara Kingsolver, novelist "economics
lo "and former science journalist,
but also EmilySt. John Mandel, figure
of the cli-fi since Station Eleven (2016).
Sold in 30000 copies in France,
this post-apocalyptic fiction puts into
scene of characters browsing the
rubble of civilization decimated in
declaiming Shakespeare.
Present in young adult
The most recent successes in
mate-fiction were recorded at
Presses of the City and Devil vauvert,
who respectively publish the novel-
Norway's Maja Lunde and the
Paolo Bacigalupi. On the
aside, a novelist from the litera-
youth, and of which
A history of
bees, bestseller of the year 2017 in
Germany,
We find this fight for "gold
blue ", available on the African continent
Cain, in the Aqua TM saga of the
vain science-fiction Jean-Marc
Ligny (L'Atalante, 2006-2015), where
again, in southwestern
Cain, in Water Knife by Paolo Baciga-
lupi (Au Diable Vauvert, 2016). published
in different categories (literature
"White", SF or polar), these works
illustrate the interest of their authors for
environmental issues.
The expression "climate fiction" is
appeared in 2011 under the pen of the day-
American artist Dan Bloom for
to sign these novels often derived from the
Post-apocalyptic SF who portray
the devastating effects of
climate change on the world and
men.
"I invented this word to re-
watch people. Climate fiction is a
"Heart cry" [expression pronounced in
French in the interview in English], a
movement to alert the generations
future studies on the severity of environmental risks
"explains the environmental activist,
logist at Hebdo Books.
Issue of SF
In retrospect, Grapes from
the anger (1939) of John Steinbeck, who
staged the dramatic consequences
of the Dust Bowl, a storm of
dust and sand in Texas in
1935, can be considered as one
first novels of "cli-fi".
The phenomenon first developed
in the United States with Frank's Dune
Herbert (1965), adapted to the cinema by
David Lynch in 1984, but also in
Europe, with the tetralogy of English
J. G. Ballard published between 1964 and 1977
by Casterman and Denoel. The third
component, Drought, depicts an apocalypse
lypse caused by the disappearance of
waters under the influence of
industrial development of the oceans.
SF authors are the first
to draw inspiration from the theory of "anthropo-
pocene ", theorized by scientists
characterized by the determinant impact
human activities on bio-
sphere. The filmmakers fit them
step with movies such as Waterworld
(1995), a world transformed by
Matrix (1999), a world of
sky darkened by men, The day
after (2004) and the arrival of a new
Ice Age, The Sons of Man (2006),
where pollution prevents humans from
to reproduce, or the character
Cartoon Wall-E (2008), robot
evolving on a planet so polluted that
no more plants grow there.
"This kind, cousin of the science-fic-
tion, is bound to develop in
France, "prophesies Dan Bloom. Of
done, for Mireille Rivalard, director
L'Atalante, "80% of the books that we
publish in SF largely take into account
the climatic factor. The publisher of
Jean-Marc Ligny believes, however, that
the cli-fi is "neither a genre in its own right,
nor an objective in itself, "but a subject that
irrigates all literature and cinema;
an adaptation of Aqua TM is elsewhere
"In discussion" in Germany.
Other initiatives attest to the de-
development of this segment in the
country. The Arkuiris editions, special-
particular in the publication of
books around the environment,
throw a call for texts
March "with the aim of launching a col-
climate-fiction election, "says Yann
Quero, himself author of SF and direc-
collector at Arkuiris.
If French authors invest
the sector, the literature collections
are those where we find the
more novels related to the
mast. Rivages publishes for twenty years
Barbara Kingsolver, novelist "economics
lo "and former science journalist,
but also EmilySt. John Mandel, figure
of the cli-fi since Station Eleven (2016).
Sold in 30000 copies in France,
this post-apocalyptic fiction puts into
scene of characters browsing the
rubble of civilization decimated in
declaiming Shakespeare.
Present in young adult
The most recent successes in
mate-fiction were recorded at
Presses of the City and Devil vauvert,
who respectively publish the novel-
Norway's Maja Lunde and the
Paolo Bacigalupi. On the
aside, a novelist from the litera-
youth, and of which A history of
bees, bestseller of the year 2017 in
Germany, depicts the fate of a young
boy who spends his days pollinating
nature by hand after the disappearance
insects. On the other, an old
journalist in the journal Ecolo-
High Country News which has become
posed as one of the big names of
the contemporary cli-fi with the girl
tomato (2009), Scrap yard of the seas (price
Locus of the best novel for young people
adults in 2011) and then Water Knife (2015).
The publisher Paolo Bacigalupi saw
grow the climate concern
for young people. Jury member
news contest for 15-25
years, Marion Mazauric observes since
two years that "half of the finalists
"This kind, cousin of the science-fic-
tion, is bound to develop in
France, "prophesies Dan Bloom. Of
done, for Mireille Rivalard, director
L'Atalante, "80% of the books that we
publish in SF largely take into account
the climatic factor. The publisher of
Jean-Marc Ligny believes, however, that
the cli-fi is "neither a genre in its own right,
nor an objective in itself, "but a subject that
irrigates all literature and cinema;
an adaptation of Aqua TM is elsewhere
"In discussion" in Germany.
Other initiatives attest to the de-
development of this segment in the
country. The Arkuiris editions, special-
particular in the publication of
books around the environment,
throw a call for texts
March "with the aim of launching a col-
climate-fiction election, "says Yann
Quero, himself author of SF and direc-
collector at Arkuiris.
If French authors invest
the sector, the literature collections
are those where we find the
more novels related to the
mast. Rivages publishes for twenty years
Barbara Kingsolver, novelist "economics
lo "and former science journalist,
but also EmilySt. John Mandel, figure
of the cli-fi since Station Eleven (2016).
Sold in 30000 copies in France,
this post-apocalyptic fiction puts into
scene of characters browsing the
rubble of civilization decimated in
declaiming Shakespeare.
Present in young adult
The most recent successes in
mate-fiction were recorded at
Presses of the City and Devil vauvert,
who respectively publish the novel-
Norway's Maja Lunde and the
Paolo Bacigalupi. On the
aside, a novelist from the litera-
youth, and of which A history of
bees, bestseller of the year 2017 in
Germany, depicts the fate of a young
boy who spends his days pollinating
nature by hand after the disappearance
insects. On the other, an old
journalist in the journal Ecolo-
High Country News which has become
posed as one of the big names of
the contemporary cli-fi with the girl
tomato (2009), Scrap yard of the seas (price
Locus of the best novel for young people
adults in 2011) and then Water Knife (2015).
The publisher Paolo Bacigalupi saw
grow the climate concern
for young people. Jury member
news contest for 15-25
years, Marion Mazauric observes since
two years that "half of the finalists
tell a society marked by the
global warming. Last year
However, it was 50 degrees in two
velles, "she notes.
Aware that the younger generation
is very sensitive to these topics, the authors
of young adult have integrated them into
the sets of their novels. " We saw
the interwoven climate problem
with other issues in the course of the
dystopia, born five years ago with force, between
Hunger Games, Divergent or The
5evague, "says Natacha Derevitsky,
literary director of Pocket Jeunesse.
In 2018, she published L'horloge de l'apoca-
lypse, which features a heroine from
19 years old in the hot climate of the Grand
Western US: it sells to some
2,000 copies. "It's the paradox
what we live, she analyzes. We
are facing the absolute urgency of doing
what it takes to stop warming
climate change, but environmentalists are
not on the front line in the elections.
In the same way, the books around the
mat are not leading sales for now.
