Red Mars An analysis of the novel from the Cli-Fi perspective ENG456 Climate Fiction & Films Shehzad Hathi (12666)
Agenda • About the novel • Red Mars as Cli-Fi • Martian Utopia • Critique of Capitalism
About the novel • Science fiction masterpiece by Robinson published in 1992 • First in the Mars Trilogy, Nebula award winning book • Robinson called it an attempt to write "utopian fiction" • Human colonization of Mars in 2026 • 100 chosen scientists aboard Ares • Deals with the scientific, political and socio-economic issues in creating a colony on Mars
Red Mars as Cli-Fi • Extra-terrestrial climate change - Terraforming • Anarchy on Earth - "Things are always going to be falling apart on Earth, you might as well get used to it." • Mining on Mars, Oil drilling in Antarctica • Transnats vis-à-vis CorpSeCorps • Areophany vis-à-vis God's Gardeners • "Metaphors describing what we need to do here [...]"
Martian Utopia • Imagination of a perfect society on Mars - Red Star (1908), Alexander Bogdanov • The Dispossessed (1974), Ursula K. Le Guin - popular utopian sci-fi novel • "God gave us this planet to make in our image, to create a new Eden." • Robinson's "Dialogical Utopia"
Critique of Capitalism • Modern capitalism as an outgrowth of feudalism • "There's a feeling of fear and political apprehension that late global capitalism is not fair." • Eco-economics - earn as much as their real contribution to economy • Non-money economy initially • Inertia of history, domination by transnats
References • Szeman, I., Whiteman, M., & Robinson, K. S. (2004). Future politics: an interview with Kim Stanley Robinson. • Jameson, F . (2000). ‘If I find one good city I will spare the man’: Realism and Utopia in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. Learning from Other Worlds: Estrangement, Cognition, and the Politics of Science Fiction and Utopia, 17 , 208. • Paulson, Steve (2015, July). What Could Happen If We Did Things Right: An Interview With Kim Stanley Robinson, Author Of Aurora. Electric Literature .
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