Ursula Le Guin’s 1974 science fiction utopian text The Dispossessed reads as an imminent warning to grave and dangerous climate change issues. Literary critics have argued the reception of Le Guin’s text as an environmental warning, questioning whether utopian readings of the text take ecology seriously. Critics have debated that The Dispossessed does not stimulate readers’ longing for a better world in the 'context of crisis' we face today, as the ecological warnings in the text have been constantly ignored and overlooked. Why is it that these environmental warnings have been overlooked for so long? Is fiction not an effective way to convey climate change issues? Does that mean that non-fiction would be a more effective method to spread the message? Would the climate change warnings in The Dispossessed be more prominent now than in the 1970s thanks to activists like Greta Thunberg?
Ecocriticism exists as a literary theory concerned with the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment. Le Guin draws upon conventions of ecocriticism in her text by presenting the planet Anarres which has been hugely impacted by climate change and has been forced to drastically alter the way they run society in order to cope with the environmental changes. Every political and personal decision appears to be guided by an ethic of environmental sacrifice on the planet.
In the text, Le Guin describes a region on Anarres called the Dust, which was once an area abundant with plants and life, but was affected by climate change:
‘the current climate was hotter and drier. Millennia of drought had killed the trees and dried the soil to a fine grey dust’
Le Guin contrasts the environmental condition of the planet of Anarres to its twin planet, Urras, which has not been affected by climate change. The surface of Urras is described as made up of ‘five-sixths water. Even its deserts were deserts of ice’. These images of plentiful water and ice on Urras suggest that plant and animal life can be sustained, which creates a stark contrast to the dry and barren surface of Anarres. The novel’s protagonist Shevek comments that ‘this is what a world is supposed to look like’ when he first sees the planet of Urras. Delving in closer at the aforementioned term 'context of crisis’, Le Guin is presenting the world of Anarres as one in a climate crisis, whereas Urras becomes the alternative, ideal world. This is meant to stimulate the reader to acknowledge the issues with our climate (our context of crisis) and recognise that changes need to occur for our version of a better world to be reached. By combining ecocriticism with the utopian genre, Le Guin has created a new kind of utopia, an ecological utopia, or utopian ecocriticism.
There is a critical debate around ecocriticism and how it is received as a literary genre. An example of this debate is that ecocriticism is not always taken seriously, being described as a 'misfit' by critic Timothy Clark in literary debate. This interpretation is stating that the literary genre of ecocriticism itself could be the issue in conveying climate change warnings, as readers do not take the genre seriously. Synonyms of misfit include ‘freak’ and ‘weirdo’, which are words that have been previously used to describe Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg in the media. Despite this backlash, speeches by Thunberg have triggered climate discussions by political leaders all across the globe. Her speeches act as non-fiction prose and have hugely impacted the way climate change is viewed in both politics and society, becoming a central part of today’s news and media coverage. If both ecocriticism and Greta Thunberg herself are considered to be misfits, then why is Thunberg making more of an impact in than ecocriticism as a genre? Do people respond to non-fiction prose with more urgency and seriousness that fiction? It is widely considered by literary critics that non-fiction texts are received by the audience as more subjective, realistic and trustworthy, reaching a wider audience. This suggests that audiences would respond with more trust to climate change messages from Greta Thunberg’s non-fiction speeches, rather than to Le Guin’s environmental issues in the fictional The Dispossessed.
I find it important to examine the ‘context of crisis’ in literature. Reader response is heavily dependent on this ‘context of crisis’, and it is this crisis that affects the reader’s ‘longing for a better world’. Now that we have seen climate change activists like Greta Thunberg and environmental groups such as Extinction Rebellion expressing environmental issues through non-fiction news and media outlets, our society is heading closer to recognising a more serious ‘context of crisis’ in our climate, closer than it was in the 1970s when The Dispossessed was published. Now that activists such as Thunberg have made society more aware of this crisis through the effectiveness of non-fiction prose, fictional ecocriticism such as The Dispossessed has been given a platform to be read with more urgency, and Le Guin’s environmental warnings will finally ‘stimulate readers’ longing for a better world’.