Vegetarianism and Science Fiction

ISBN-13: 9783031383465 / Angielski / Twarda / 2023

Joshua Bulleid

Opis

Vegetarianism and Science Fiction: A History of Utopian Animal Ethics examines how vegetarian ideals promoted within science fiction and utopian literature have had a real-world impact on the awareness and spread of vegetarianism and animal advocacy, as well as how the genres' engagements have been altered to reflect changes in ethical and environmental philosophy. Author Joshua Bulleid examines the representation of vegetarianism in the works of major science fiction authors, including Mary Shelley, H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ernest Callenbach, Marge Piercy, Octavia E. Butler, Kim Stanley Robinson and Margaret Atwood within their evolving social contexts, tracing the development of vegetarian trends and their science fictional representations from the early-nineteenth century to the present day.

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Spis treści

1 The Speculative Politics of Meat: Utopia, Carnism, and Critical Animal Studies.

Utopia and Science Fiction.

Carnism and Speciesism.

Vegetarianism and Veganism.

Critical Animal Studies.

Food Studies and Science Fiction.

Chapter Breakdown.

References.

2 Feed My Frankenstein: Mary Shelley’s Romantic Vegetarian Precedent.

Percy Shelley’s Vegetarian Vindication.

Frankenstein.

Frankenstein’s Fall.

Child of Nature.

The Creature’s Fall.

Children of Cain.

Ecocritical Inclinations.

The Last Man and Others.

Conclusion.

References.

3 You Are What You Eat: Bestiality and Other “Carnal Cravings” in the Works of H. G. Wells.

Darwinism.

The Time Machine.

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

The War of the Worlds.

Later Scientific Romances and Mainstream Novels.

Modern Utopias.

Conclusion.

References.

4 My God, It’s Full of Starch! Arthur C. Clarke, Alternative Meat, and the Hunting Hypothesis.

Alternative Meat and the Dystopian Tradition.

Space Exploration and Environmental Sustainability.

Ethical Endorsements and Buddhist Influences.

Space Odyssey Series and the Hunting Hypothesis.

Conclusion.

References.

5 Should Androids Eat Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick, Interspecies Empathy, and Animal Liberation.

Early Empathetic Experiences.

Early Short Stories and Novels.

Dr Bloodmoney.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

Blade Runner.

Later Theological Turn.

Conclusion.

References.

6 The Critical Carnist Shift: Marge Piercy, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ernest Callenbach, Octavia E. Butler and the Critical Utopian Period.

The Critical Utopian Canon.

Piercy’s Primitivist and Post-Catastrophic Carnisms.

Coming Home to Carnism in Le Guin.

Callenbach’s Carnist Ecotopia(s).

Octavia E. Butler.

Patternist.

Xenogenesis.

Later Parables.

Conclusion.

References.

7 Where’s the Beef? Kim Stanley Robinson’s Carnist Climate Change Catastrophes.

Future Primitive.

Three Californias.

Mars Trilogy and Other Space Colonisation Novels.

Science in the Capital.

Climate Policy.

Buddhism.

Nineteenth-Century Influences.

Nonhuman Subjectivity.

(Erasure of) Nonhuman Sympathy.

The Ministry for the Future.

Conclusion.

References.

8 That Way Maddness Lies: Returning to Carnism in Margaret Atwood’s Science Fiction.

Survivalism and Realist Fiction.

The Handmaids’ Tales.

The Blind Assassin and Later Realist Fiction.

The MaddAddam Trilogy.

Children of “Nature”.

Inner Animality.

Alternative Meats.

Sexual Politics.

Interspecies Empathy and Animal Activism.

Neocarnist Environmentalism.

Conclusion.

References.

9 The Last Word in Gastronomy? Veganism, Ecocriticism, Pandemic Science Fiction and the Future.

Veganism.

Climate Fiction and Ecocriticism.

Pandemic Science Fiction.

Looking Forward.

References.

O autorze

Joshua Bulleid completed his PhD in literary studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. In addition to contributing chapters on vegetarianism and utopia to the Palgrave Macmillan collection Ethical Futures and Global Science Fiction (2020) and The Edinburgh Companion to Vegan Literary Studies (2022), his articles on vegetarianism and animal ethics have appeared in the field-defining science fiction journals Foundation and Science Fiction Studies. He also hosts the Terry Pratchett podcast Unseen Academicals.

Blurb

“This is an important book on an important topic. From Mary Shelley through to Octavia Butler, Anglophone science fiction has repeatedly speculated about vegetarian variants of utopian and dystopian futures. Yet, the topic is only rarely and often very inadequately addressed in the relevant secondary literature. Bulleid’s Vegetarianism and Science Fiction: A History of Utopian Animal Ethics more than fills the gap. It will be a must for all serious scholars of the genre.”

—Andrew Milner, co-author of Science Fiction and Climate Change: A Sociological Approach.

“To imagine alternative worlds allows a fiction writer to re-imagine our relationships with the other animals. Numerous novels envision an end to our tawdry and selfish human-centered attitudes. How marvelous that Joshua Bulleid examines, with care and alertness, this creative refashioning of ethical commitments.”

—Carol J. Adams, author of The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory.

Vegetarianism and Science Fiction: A History of Utopian Animal Ethics examines how vegetarian ideals promoted within science fiction and utopian literature have had a real-world impact on the awareness and spread of vegetarianism and animal advocacy. Author Joshua Bulleid explores how the genres’ engagements

have been altered to reflect changes in ethical and environmental philosophy from the early-nineteenth century to the present day, through an examination of the works of major science fiction authors, including Mary Shelley, H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ernest Callenbach, Marge Piercy, Octavia E. Butler, Kim Stanley Robinson and Margaret Atwood within their evolving social contexts.

Joshua Bulleid is an independent early career researcher from Melbourne, Australia. His articles on vegetarianism and animal ethics have appeared in Science Fiction Studies and Foundation, as well as the Palgrave Macmillan collection Ethical Futures and Global Science Fiction (2020) and The Edinburgh

Companion to Vegan Literary Studies (2022). He also hosts the Terry Pratchett podcast Unseen Academicals.