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Chapter 3 - What If

Planet Earth as an Actor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2022

Mathias Thaler
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
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Summary

Chapter 3 moves on to our first constellation, the utopian vision of Planet Earth as an actor in its own right. Rather than conceiving of humans as endowed with a special status that sets them apart from both non-human animals and the planetary ecosphere, proponents of this idea sketch a hypothetical scenario that destabilizes entrenched ways of reflecting on our species’ place in the world. I approach this proposal, framed by a What-If plot line, via two stages: first, by unpacking the Gaia hypothesis as recently revisited by Bruno Latour. I posit that Gaia should be deciphered as a framework that seeks to estrange us for, rather than from, the world. In a second step, the chapter directs attention to N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, proposing that this fantasy text can further tease out the elusive Gaia figure. Even if the champions of the Gaia hypothesis as well as the author of the Broken Earth trilogy assess several options, their utopianism primarily consists in the speculative opening up of novel possibilities for being and living otherwise. A fault line running through the What-If plot line is therefore its characteristic reluctance to forge concrete ways forward.

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Chapter
Information
No Other Planet
Utopian Visions for a Climate-Changed World
, pp. 97 - 145
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • What If
  • Mathias Thaler, University of Edinburgh
  • Book: No Other Planet
  • Online publication: 07 October 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009030250.003
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  • What If
  • Mathias Thaler, University of Edinburgh
  • Book: No Other Planet
  • Online publication: 07 October 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009030250.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • What If
  • Mathias Thaler, University of Edinburgh
  • Book: No Other Planet
  • Online publication: 07 October 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009030250.003
Available formats
×