Comments on Andrew Milner, JR Burgmann, Rjurik Davidson and Susan Cousin’s Essay (2015) "Ice, Fire and Flood: Science Fiction and the Anthropocene"

By Razie Mah

Cli-fi is a genre defined by fictional responses to contemporary scientific research. As such, cli-fi (accompanying sci-fi) occupies a nexus between nature and civilization. Catastrophic cli-fi should not be likened to the kind of apocalyptic fiction inspired by the Christian Book of Revelation. That concept downplays the historical novelty of science fiction.
Yet, judgment plays an important role.
Judgment is a triadic relation involved in science, as elaborated in Comments on Jacques Maritain’s Book (1935) Natural Philosophy. Consequently, traces of positivist and empirio-schematic judgments should appear within the narrative structure of cli-fi.
Indeed, they do.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Razie Mah
• Release date: Aug 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9781942824770

Razie Mah

See website for bio.

Book preview

Comments on Andrew Milner, JR Burgmann, Rjurik Davidson and Susan Cousin’s Essay (2015) Ice, fire and flood: Science fiction and the Anthropocene

By Razie Mah

Published for Smashwords.com

2019

Notes on Text

This work comments on an article by Andrew Milner, JR Burgmann, Rjurik Davidson and Susan Cousin, appearing in 2015 in the journal, Thesis Eleven. The title is Ice, fire and flood: Science fiction and the Anthropocene. My goal is to comment on this work using the relational models developed within the tradition of Charles Peirce.

‘Words that belong together’ are denoted by single quotes or italics.

Prerequisites: Comments on Jacques Maritain’s Book (1935) Natural Philosophy

Recommended: Comments on Nicholas Berdyaev’s Book (1939) Spirit and Reality

Table of Contents

Where Are We Now?

Apocalypse or Historic Novelty?

Modeling the Phenomenon

Scenarios and Catastrophe

Getting into the Details

Veils and the Things They Hide

Conclusion

Where Are We Now?

0001 In 2015, four authors publish a collaboration. Andrew Milner and JR Burgmann hale from Monash University in Australia. Rjurik Davidson is an independent scholar and author of the 2014 book, The Unwrapped Sky. Susan Cousin contributes from University College, London.

The article appears in Thesis Eleven, an eclectic journal, dabbling in a host of disciplines, yet aiming for a consolidating insight. The essay is titled Ice, fire and flood: Science fiction and the Anthropocene.

The title is phenomenal. The subtitle is empirio-schematic.

0002 What is the Anthropocene?

The technical term labels the past 200 years of elevated emissions of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. The industrial revolution starts in the early 1800s. Coal substitutes for wood as a fuel source. Coal is almost pure carbon. By the early-1900s, oil and gas