Blue Planet: Place, Paradox, and Staying on Earth in Contemporary Science Fiction

Abstract

This project examines the intersection of contemporary environmental and social anxieties present in the science fiction (sf) of the 2010s by close reading and analyzing a range of sf texts, films, and other multimedia from the decade. This study reveals that environmental and ecological preoccupations, ranging from the crisis of climate change, collapse of ecosystems, global loss of biodiversity, and their resulting human societal implications, became dominant themes of the genre over the course of the period. While the 2010s proved to be a decade overrun by environmental fatalism, the concomitant cosmic escapism proposed by figures like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Stephen Hawking, to name but a few, imagined a flight from the environmental and societal perils of Earth through the dream of colonizing outer space and Mars. However, I propose, many sf works produced during the decade often point in unexpected, paradoxical, and frequently ironic directions. This study examines sf works that, rather than revelling in humankind’s recent fascination with Mars and the stars, instead provide an alternative vision. An inherent paradox thus emerges in numerous contemporary examples of sf. I argue that stories about exploring other planets, colonizing new worlds, or fleeing the problems of home—like Andy Weir’s The Martian (2011), James Cameron’s Avatar (2009), Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014), James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse series (2011–2022), and numerous others—do not support such actions. Instead, I contend, a recurring theme of sf of the 2010s is that humankind should stay home on Earth and focus on revitalizing our troubled planet and repairing human society and ourselves, rather than the rash plan of ditching our Blue Planet for Mars or some other impossible “Planet B” in outer space.