Cruel Optimism in the Slow Violence of Apocalypse

Abstract

While early ecofeminist writers of science fiction focused on utopias, contemporary ecofeminist writers seem to rely on the mode of dystopia. A great example of this trend is Claire Vaye Watkins’ 2015 novel Gold Fame Citrus. In this chapter, I examine how living within systems of late capitalism and climate change can render a utopia unthinkable. Dystopias are more suited to showing the failures of living within failing systems that seemingly have no solution. Watkins’ novel portrays the idea of slow violence, that the impacts of climate change are presented over such a long time period that it is difficult for human minds to accept them as a real threat. As such, contemporary societies (and the one in the novel) persist in outmoded and harmful lifestyles and habits, despite being aware of the damage they have caused and cause. By showing the failure of contemporary society to produce utopian solutions to climate change, these science fiction dystopias force us to ask where we can find new ways of living within our world.