American (Un)sustainability and Transcendental Resilience in Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article dissects the entanglement of the pandemic fear with anthropogenic destruction in the futuristic novum London creates in his SF novella The Scarlet Plague. By situating the story in its historical and cultural context, the article examines the reliability of Granser’s narration of his post-pandemic memory and observes the multi-faceted unsustainability of America at the turn of the 20th century. The article then argues that London actually laments the loss of the transcendental lifestyle based on self-reliance and simplicity, in the hope of reviving it as the remedy both for curing his contemporary social ills and for the world-rebuilding after a possible apocalypse in the future.