‘Fidget Spinners in the Anthropocene’
— Melissa Mesku
As you razor open each box you feel like an asshole, a prime example of your parasitic species the earth will shake off like a bad batch of fleas.
Climate fiction, or cli-fi, is literature that deals with climate change. The fact that it exists as a sub-genre of its own makes sense: environmental concerns are something many think about, and seeing how they are handled in fiction helps us navigate them in real life. But at the same time, many people—perhaps even most—do not yet have the stomach to face the gravity of a changing climate. So who is reading cli-fi? As someone who studied environmental science, reads ecological philosophy for pleasure, and can stomach (and even enjoy) the monstrousness of the truth, even I don’t read climate fiction.
But after reading this exquisite piece by Melissa Stephenson, I have changed my tune.