Rating: 9
Climate Trauma: Foreseeing the Future in Dystopian Film and Fiction
E. Ann Kaplan | 2015
Although I’ve always found dystopian and apocalyptic fiction stories compelling I never really understood why until reading this book. Kaplan has an excellent apprehension of how this genre of film and writing reflects our cultural fears and vulnerabilities. Her specific analysis of selected books and novels about apocalypses and climate disasters is what makes Climate Trauma particularly unique and influential. Kaplan’s introduction explains the concept of “pre-trauma,” a condition with symptoms similar to PTSD but pertaining to events that have not yet occurred. She uses this disorder to build a framework for understanding our psychological responses to future catastrophic events and how these anxieties can manifest in art. This is easily my favorite book on the intersection of film/fiction and climate change and is a great starting point for those interested in exploring this topic further.
“If people can be attracted to the horror, as it were, isn’t that better than not looking at all?”
“The subgenre of dystopian films is a genre, then, which serves as a future-oriented memory for audiences watching: we are invited to live for two hours in desolated environments, experiencing desperate humans who seek to survive the total collapse of infrastructures on which we humans depend. This offers spectators a way to remember what we have now and what we should not lose. The invitation aims to mitigate future tragedies, but there is the question of how identifying with such future traumatic selves may impact the viewer’s psyche.”