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Spaceship Earth and Technological Utopianism: Liu Cixin’s Ecological Science Fiction

宇宙飛船地球與科技烏托邦:劉慈欣的生態科幻小說

摘要


With the occurrence of energy crises and ecological degradation since the 1960s, many ecologists, philosophers, economists, and sf writers have begun to adopt the intergenerational spaceship as a metaphor and a model of human life in a finite environment. This article explores how the idea of Spaceship Earth is reflected in the Chinese sf writer Liu Cixin's (b. 1963) four novellas. These narratives deal with various key issues in environmental discourse: clean energy, water shortages, resource depletion, and the possible solution of minimizing production and consumption. They depict the disastrous consequences of exploitive relationships between humans and natural resources, and the paradoxical relationship between the tapping of new energy sources and the devastating ecological consequences that are likely to ensue. Aside from these serious environmental and energy issues, I also inquire further into the technological supremacy the narratives put forward. I argue that these narratives' optimistic and triumphalist finales are problematic, and remind the reader of what Lauren Berland has called the "cruel optimism" in contemporary life. People become attached to technological fixes because technology provides a cluster of promises: advances in science and technology perfectly generate all desired improvements in ecology and environment, solve energy problems, and bring people a better life in general. This naively optimistic view enables people to keep on consuming resources at a high rate and go on living their lives the same old way. However, what is cruel about this attachment to technology is that the presence of technology is actually threatening people's well-being by bringing about more damage to the environment and the ecological system. Technology might offer various partial solutions to ecological crises, but it alone cannot provide a path to a more sustainable future for humanity.

並列摘要


自從1960年以來,隨著能源和生態危機的顯現,越來越多的生態學家,哲學家,經濟學家和科幻作家開始用「代際宇宙飛船」來比喻幾代人生活在其中的環境資源有限的地球。本文著重探討中國科幻作家劉慈欣(生於1963年)的四部中篇小說是如何反映宇宙飛船地球這個概念。這幾部作品觸及了環境生態的幾個關鍵問題:清潔能源,缺水,能源枯竭,以及減少生產和消耗的可能途徑。這些作品也描述了因人類與自然的掠奪性關係而造成的災難性後果,以及開發新能源可能對生態環境造成的損害。除了嚴重的環境和能源問題以外,我也探討了這幾篇小說中流露出來的科技至上主義。我認為作品中呈現的樂觀主義和勝利大結局令人堪憂,並可以借鑑學者勞倫.博蘭德描述當代生活的「殘酷樂觀主義」概念加以分析。人們對科技越來越依賴,因為科技給人類帶來一系列希望:科學科技的發展可以幫助我們改善環境生態,解決能源問題,給人類創造更好的生活。這種天真的樂觀主義使人類繼續高消費的生活方式。可是,這種對科技依賴的殘酷之處在於科技的無處不在實際上威脅了人類的福祉,因為科技的發展同時給環境和生態帶來破壞。科技雖然可以為生態危機提供部分解決方法,但是它無法為人類提供一條通向未來的可持續發展的途徑。

參考文獻


Liu Cixin. “Xiaoshi de xiliu: bashi niandai de zhongguo kehuan” [“The Vanishing Stream: Chinese Science Fiction in the 1980s”]. 2000. Jiujiu dushu wang [Jiujiu Book Network], http://www.99lib.net/book/430/15230.htm. Web. 14 Sept., 2016.
Office of Fossil Energy. “How Coal Gasification Plants work.” Energy. Gov. network, http://energy.gov/fe/how-coal-gasification-power-plants-work. Web. 28 March, 2014.
Berland, Lauren(2006).Cruel Optimism.Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies.17(5),20-36.
Buell, Lawrence(2005).The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination.Malden:Wiley-Blackwell Publisher.
Canavan, Gerry(ed.),Robinson, Kim Stanley(ed.)(2014).Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction.Middletown:Wesleyan UP.

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