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It is not only a future certainty
As wildfires rage across Europe and Britain swelters through its hottest summer on record, literary fiction has a vital role to play in capturing the severe consequences of climate crisis
TL;DR
- Europe is experiencing record-breaking heatwaves and wildfires, highlighting the immediate consequences of the climate crisis.
- The author draws parallels between current heatwaves and Hurricane Sandy, emphasizing the disparity in how climate disasters affect different populations.
- Amitav Ghosh's 'The Great Derangement' argues that literary fiction is failing to adequately represent the climate crisis.
- Ghosh identifies issues such as the focus on individual psychology and the limitations of the novel form in capturing large-scale, improbable events.
- The author's debut novel, 'Under Water,' aims to counter Ghosh's critique by representing climate change through a realist novel centered on an individual's experience.
- The novel attempts to imbue an improbable event (Hurricane Sandy) with expectation and document the 'slow violence' of climate change.
- Literary fiction's strength lies in its ability to foster determination and pay close attention to the people and places being lost due to environmental crises.