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Dystopias of Reproductive Nightmares: The Ice People and The Children of Men

Year 2021, Volume: 6 Issue: 3, 645 - 657, 31.12.2021
https://doi.org/10.29110/soylemdergi.1012406

Abstract

Maggie Gee’s The Ice People (1998) and Phyllis Dorothy James’s The Children of Men (1992) are two dystopian novels introducing societies afflicted with infertility because of scientific advancements that have spun out of control. In the novels, science gives way to countless innovations that provide help and comfort in daily life. However, it falls short of determining the exact reason and finding any solution for the problem of infertility. The root cause for this calamity is suggested to be the anthropogenic activities deteriorating nonhuman environments and causing reproductive health problems. Set in Britain in 2050, Gee’s The Ice People portrays a world at the onset of a new ice age. Picturing a world after the global warming during which fertility rates decline dramatically, the novel presents a new type of human, techfixes, the children born through artificial conception, owing to the developments in science and technology. P. D. James describes a world where people abruptly become infertile in1995, which she calls the Year Omega in the novel. Mass infertility which threatens the existence of the humankind results in cruelty against the remaining aging population inflicted by the tyrannical government that never faces resistance from people. In line with this, the aim of this study is to analyze The Ice People and The Children of Men as works of dystopian fiction describing the ramifications of the misuse of science and technology, and the anthropogenic imprint on the nonhuman environment, which comes out as reproductive inability in human beings.

References

  • Alaimo, Stacy (2008). “Trans-corporeal feminisms and the ethical space of nature.” Material Feminisms (eds. Stacy Alaimo and Susan Hekman), Indiana University Press, 237-264.
  • Barreca, Alan, et al. (2018). “Maybe Next Month? Temperature Shocks and Dynamic Adjustments in Birth Rates.” Demography 55, 4, 1269-1293. https://doi.org/1 0.1007/s13 524-018-0690-7
  • Bilge Yılmaz, Victoria and Kamalova, Raushan (2019). “An Analogy between Karakalpak Rites and Bakhtin’s Carnival.” Bilig, 91, 217-234. https://doi.org/10.12995/bilig.9109
  • Braidotti, Rosi (2020). “We” Are in This Together, But We Are Not One and the Same.” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 17, 4, 465-469. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-020-10017-8
  • Crutzen, Paul (2009). “Can We Survive the “Anthropocene” Period?” Project Syndicate. Retreived June 5,2021, from https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/can-we-survive-the--anthropocene --period?utm_term=& utm_campaign=&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium= ppc&hsa_acc=1220154768&hsa_cam=12374283753 D’Angelo, Stefania and Meccariello, Rosaria (2012). “Microplastics: A Threat for Male Fertility.”International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18, 5, 1-11. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18052392
  • Düzgün, Şebnem (2018). “Maggie Gee’nin The Ice People ve The Flood Adlı Eserinde Bilim ve Toplum.” Sosyal ve Beşeri Bilimler Araştırmaları Dergisi 19, 43, 61- 75. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/sobbiad/issue/39955/504144
  • Ferrando, Francesca (2016). “Humans Have Always Been Posthuman: A Spiritual Genealogy of Posthumanism.” Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures (eds. Banerji Debashish and Marakand R. Paranjape), Springer, 243-256.
  • Ferreira, Becky (2018) “Climate Change May Practically Sterilize Male Insects.” Vice. Retrieved, February 2, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46194383#:~:text=Heatwaves%20 can %20 damage%20the%20sperm,sterile%2C%20according%20to%20new%20research.&text=Further%20work%20could%20shed%20 light ,in%20insect%20populationsFischer,Douglas.“WATCH:Fertility crisis leaves little time for solutions” Environmental Health News
  • Gee, Maggie (2019). The Ice People. Telegram, Telegrambooks. www.telegrambooks.com
  • Gluckman, Peter David (2020). “Anthropocene-related disease: The inevitable outcome of progressive nichemodification?” Evolution, Medicine and Public Health 1, 304-310. DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoaa042
  • Grech, Victor et al (2015). “The Deliberate Infliction of Infertility in Science Fiction.” World Futures Review 7, 1, 48-60. https://doi.org/10.1177/1946756715591166
  • ---. (2012) “Gaia Beware: “Infertility in SF Due to Bioterrorism, Pollution and Accidental Iatrogenic Events.” Vector 270, 26-30. https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/25519
  • Haraway, Donna (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Cthulucene. United States of America: Duke University Press.
  • Horner, Avril (2014). “Apocalypses Now: Collective Trauma, Globalization and the New Gothic Sublime.” Trauma in Contemporary Literature: Narrative and Representation (eds. Marita Nadal and Mónica Calvo), Routledge, 35-50.
  • James, Phillys Dorothy (1994). The Children of Men. New York: Warner Books Inc.
  • Johns-Putra, Adeline (2018). “Maggie Gee’s The Ice People (1998) and The Flood (2004): State of the Nation Cli-Fi.” Cli-Fi: A Companion (eds. Axel Goodbody and Adeline Johns Putra), Oxford: Peter Lang, 91-96.
  • --- (2017). “Borrowing the World: Climate Change Fiction and the Problem of Posterity.” Metaphora 2, 1-16. https://metaphora.univie.ac.at/volume2-johns-putra.pdf
  • Kaur, Harwinder (2016). “Dystopian Vision and the Hope for Humanity: P.D. James’ The Children of Men.” The Criterion 7, IV, 197-201. https://the-criterion.com/V7/n4/028.p df
  • Kaya, Hilal (2021). “An Ecocritical Approach to the Book of Dede Korkut and Beowulf.” Millî Folklor, 130, 31-43. ttps://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/millifolklor/issue/64594/690482
  • Kuznetski, Julia and Alaimo, Stacy (2015). “Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantatioocene, Cthulucene: Making Kin.” Environmental Humanities 6, 159-165. DOI:10.1215/2201191 9 -3615934
  • “Late-night use of gadgets can cause male infertility: Study” (2021). Etimes, Retrieved January 5, 2021, from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/parenting/get ting-pregnant/late-night-use-of-gadgets-can-cause-male-infertility-study/articleshow/80302210.cms#:~:text =According %20to%20a %20recent %20study,sperm%20 and%20fertility%20was%20studied.
  • MacLeod, Ken (2003). “Politics and Science Fiction.” The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (eds . Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn), CUP, 230-240.
  • Malinda, Raj Rajeshwar (2021). “When sperm can’t modify their proteins, their motors stop swimming.” Massive Science. Retrieved September 2, 2021, from https://massiv e sci.com/articles/sperm-fertility-infertility-flagella/
  • Marques, Eduardo Marks de (2013). “I Sing the Body Dystopic: Utopia and Posthuman Corporeality in PD James's The Children of Men.” Ilha do Desterro, 65, 29-48. DOI:10.5 007/2175-8026.2013n65p29
  • Max Liboiron (2013). “Plasticizers: A Twenty-first-century Miasma” Accumulation: The Material Politics of Plastic (eds. Jennifer Gabrys, Gay Hawkins, and Mike Michael), 134-149.
  • Piguet, Etienne (2008). “Climate Change and Forced Migration.” New Issues in Refugee Research, 1-13. Retrieved October 19, 2021, from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdo c download;jsessionid =00404F2B803FADDD1B8B1F27BDD5EA8C?doi=10.1.1.430.9162&rep=rep1&type=pdf
  • Sales, Kris, et al. (2018). “Experimental heatwaves compromise sperm function and cause transgenerational damage in a model insect.” Nature Communications 9, 1, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07273-z
  • Sanzo, Kameron (2018). “New Materialism (s)” Critical Posthumanism. Retrieved September 1, 2021, from https://criticalposthumanism.net/author/kameron-sanzo/
  • Sepetoğlu, Selen (2014). Women and Eco-disasters in Maggie Gee’s The Ice People and Sarah Hall’s The Carhullan Army: An Ecofeminist Approach. Unpublished MA Thesis. Ankara: Hacettepe Univesity.
  • Wolfe, Cary (2010). What is Posthumanism? Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Žižek, Slavoj (2010). Living in the End Times. London: Verso Books.

Üreme Kâbusu Distopyaları: The Ice People ve The Children of Men

Year 2021, Volume: 6 Issue: 3, 645 - 657, 31.12.2021
https://doi.org/10.29110/soylemdergi.1012406

Abstract

Maggie Gee’nin The Ice People (1998) and Phyllis Dorothy James’in The Children of Men (1992) adlı romanları kontrolden çıkan bilimsel gelişmeler sebebiyle kısırlık sorunuyla yüz yüze gelen toplumlardan bahseden distopik romanlardır. Romanlarda bilim günlük hayatta yardım ve rahatlık sağlayan sayısız yeniliğin yolunu açar; ancak kısırlık probleminin ne kesin sebebini belirleyebilir ne de bu soruna çözüm getirebilir. Bu sorunun temelinde yatan sebep insan olmayan çevreleri kirleten ve üreme sağlığı sorunlarına sebebiyet veren insan kökenli aktivitelerdir. Gee’nin 2050 İngiltere’sini konu edinen The Ice People adlı eseri yeni bir buz çağının şafağını tasvir eder. Küresel ısınmayla birlikte doğurganlık oranının çarpıcı bir biçimde düştüğü bir dünyayı resmeden roman, bilim ve teknolojideki ilerleme sayesinde yapay döllenme yoluyla doğan çocuklardann (romandaki adıyla “techfixes”) bahseder. P. D. James 1995 yılında, ki James bu yıla Yıl Omega (the Year Omega) adını verir, insanların aniden üreme yeteneklerinin sona erdiği bir dünyayı betimler. İnsan varlığını tehdit eden kitlesel kısırlık geride kalan yaşlanan nüfusa karşı zalimlikle sonuçlanır; çünkü bu insanlar baskıcı hükümete asla karşı çıkmazlar. Bu çalışmanın amacı The Ice People ve The Children of Men adlı romanları kendisini insanlarda üreme sorunları olarak gösteren bilim ve teknolojinin kötüye kullanılmasının ve insan olmayan çevredeki insan kökenli etkilerin sonuçlarını anlatan distopik eserler olarak ele almaktır.

References

  • Alaimo, Stacy (2008). “Trans-corporeal feminisms and the ethical space of nature.” Material Feminisms (eds. Stacy Alaimo and Susan Hekman), Indiana University Press, 237-264.
  • Barreca, Alan, et al. (2018). “Maybe Next Month? Temperature Shocks and Dynamic Adjustments in Birth Rates.” Demography 55, 4, 1269-1293. https://doi.org/1 0.1007/s13 524-018-0690-7
  • Bilge Yılmaz, Victoria and Kamalova, Raushan (2019). “An Analogy between Karakalpak Rites and Bakhtin’s Carnival.” Bilig, 91, 217-234. https://doi.org/10.12995/bilig.9109
  • Braidotti, Rosi (2020). “We” Are in This Together, But We Are Not One and the Same.” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 17, 4, 465-469. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-020-10017-8
  • Crutzen, Paul (2009). “Can We Survive the “Anthropocene” Period?” Project Syndicate. Retreived June 5,2021, from https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/can-we-survive-the--anthropocene --period?utm_term=& utm_campaign=&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium= ppc&hsa_acc=1220154768&hsa_cam=12374283753 D’Angelo, Stefania and Meccariello, Rosaria (2012). “Microplastics: A Threat for Male Fertility.”International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18, 5, 1-11. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18052392
  • Düzgün, Şebnem (2018). “Maggie Gee’nin The Ice People ve The Flood Adlı Eserinde Bilim ve Toplum.” Sosyal ve Beşeri Bilimler Araştırmaları Dergisi 19, 43, 61- 75. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/sobbiad/issue/39955/504144
  • Ferrando, Francesca (2016). “Humans Have Always Been Posthuman: A Spiritual Genealogy of Posthumanism.” Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures (eds. Banerji Debashish and Marakand R. Paranjape), Springer, 243-256.
  • Ferreira, Becky (2018) “Climate Change May Practically Sterilize Male Insects.” Vice. Retrieved, February 2, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46194383#:~:text=Heatwaves%20 can %20 damage%20the%20sperm,sterile%2C%20according%20to%20new%20research.&text=Further%20work%20could%20shed%20 light ,in%20insect%20populationsFischer,Douglas.“WATCH:Fertility crisis leaves little time for solutions” Environmental Health News
  • Gee, Maggie (2019). The Ice People. Telegram, Telegrambooks. www.telegrambooks.com
  • Gluckman, Peter David (2020). “Anthropocene-related disease: The inevitable outcome of progressive nichemodification?” Evolution, Medicine and Public Health 1, 304-310. DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoaa042
  • Grech, Victor et al (2015). “The Deliberate Infliction of Infertility in Science Fiction.” World Futures Review 7, 1, 48-60. https://doi.org/10.1177/1946756715591166
  • ---. (2012) “Gaia Beware: “Infertility in SF Due to Bioterrorism, Pollution and Accidental Iatrogenic Events.” Vector 270, 26-30. https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/25519
  • Haraway, Donna (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Cthulucene. United States of America: Duke University Press.
  • Horner, Avril (2014). “Apocalypses Now: Collective Trauma, Globalization and the New Gothic Sublime.” Trauma in Contemporary Literature: Narrative and Representation (eds. Marita Nadal and Mónica Calvo), Routledge, 35-50.
  • James, Phillys Dorothy (1994). The Children of Men. New York: Warner Books Inc.
  • Johns-Putra, Adeline (2018). “Maggie Gee’s The Ice People (1998) and The Flood (2004): State of the Nation Cli-Fi.” Cli-Fi: A Companion (eds. Axel Goodbody and Adeline Johns Putra), Oxford: Peter Lang, 91-96.
  • --- (2017). “Borrowing the World: Climate Change Fiction and the Problem of Posterity.” Metaphora 2, 1-16. https://metaphora.univie.ac.at/volume2-johns-putra.pdf
  • Kaur, Harwinder (2016). “Dystopian Vision and the Hope for Humanity: P.D. James’ The Children of Men.” The Criterion 7, IV, 197-201. https://the-criterion.com/V7/n4/028.p df
  • Kaya, Hilal (2021). “An Ecocritical Approach to the Book of Dede Korkut and Beowulf.” Millî Folklor, 130, 31-43. ttps://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/millifolklor/issue/64594/690482
  • Kuznetski, Julia and Alaimo, Stacy (2015). “Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantatioocene, Cthulucene: Making Kin.” Environmental Humanities 6, 159-165. DOI:10.1215/2201191 9 -3615934
  • “Late-night use of gadgets can cause male infertility: Study” (2021). Etimes, Retrieved January 5, 2021, from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/parenting/get ting-pregnant/late-night-use-of-gadgets-can-cause-male-infertility-study/articleshow/80302210.cms#:~:text =According %20to%20a %20recent %20study,sperm%20 and%20fertility%20was%20studied.
  • MacLeod, Ken (2003). “Politics and Science Fiction.” The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (eds . Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn), CUP, 230-240.
  • Malinda, Raj Rajeshwar (2021). “When sperm can’t modify their proteins, their motors stop swimming.” Massive Science. Retrieved September 2, 2021, from https://massiv e sci.com/articles/sperm-fertility-infertility-flagella/
  • Marques, Eduardo Marks de (2013). “I Sing the Body Dystopic: Utopia and Posthuman Corporeality in PD James's The Children of Men.” Ilha do Desterro, 65, 29-48. DOI:10.5 007/2175-8026.2013n65p29
  • Max Liboiron (2013). “Plasticizers: A Twenty-first-century Miasma” Accumulation: The Material Politics of Plastic (eds. Jennifer Gabrys, Gay Hawkins, and Mike Michael), 134-149.
  • Piguet, Etienne (2008). “Climate Change and Forced Migration.” New Issues in Refugee Research, 1-13. Retrieved October 19, 2021, from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdo c download;jsessionid =00404F2B803FADDD1B8B1F27BDD5EA8C?doi=10.1.1.430.9162&rep=rep1&type=pdf
  • Sales, Kris, et al. (2018). “Experimental heatwaves compromise sperm function and cause transgenerational damage in a model insect.” Nature Communications 9, 1, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07273-z
  • Sanzo, Kameron (2018). “New Materialism (s)” Critical Posthumanism. Retrieved September 1, 2021, from https://criticalposthumanism.net/author/kameron-sanzo/
  • Sepetoğlu, Selen (2014). Women and Eco-disasters in Maggie Gee’s The Ice People and Sarah Hall’s The Carhullan Army: An Ecofeminist Approach. Unpublished MA Thesis. Ankara: Hacettepe Univesity.
  • Wolfe, Cary (2010). What is Posthumanism? Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Žižek, Slavoj (2010). Living in the End Times. London: Verso Books.
There are 31 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Creative Arts and Writing
Journal Section EDEBİYAT / ARAŞTIRMA MAKALELERİ
Authors

Niğmet Çetiner 0000-0003-0229-6338

Publication Date December 31, 2021
Submission Date October 20, 2021
Acceptance Date December 26, 2021
Published in Issue Year 2021 Volume: 6 Issue: 3

Cite

APA Çetiner, N. (2021). Dystopias of Reproductive Nightmares: The Ice People and The Children of Men. Söylem Filoloji Dergisi, 6(3), 645-657. https://doi.org/10.29110/soylemdergi.1012406