The New Weird: Anthropocene Monsters
Brave New Weird: Anthropocene Monsters in Jeff VanderMeer's The Southern Reach
by Gry Ulstein
ABSTRACT: This paper investigates and compares language and imagery used by
contemporary ecocritics in order to argue that the Anthropocene discourse
contains significant parallels to cosmic horror discourse and (new) weird
literature. While monsters from the traditional, Lovecraftian weird lend
themselves well to Anthropocene allegory due to the coinciding fear affect in
both discourses, the new weird genre experiments with ways to move beyond
cosmic fear, thereby reimagining the human position in the context of the
Anthropocene. Jeff VanderMeer’s trilogy The Southern Reach (2014) presents
an alien system of assimilation and ecological mutation into which the characters
are launched. It does this in a manner that brings into question human hierarchical
coexistence with nonhumans while also exposing the ineffectiveness of current
existential norms. This paper argues that new weird stories such as VanderMeer’s
are able to rework and dispel the fearful paralysis of cosmic horror found in
Lovecraft’s literature and of Anthropocene monsters in ecocritical debate. The
Southern Reach and the new weird welcome the monstrous as kin rather than
enemy.
CITATION: Ultstein, Gry (2017) "Brave New Weird: Anthropocene Monsters in Jeff VanderMeer's The Southern Reach", Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies. 43(1), pp. 71-95
References
Asma, Stephen T. On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears. Oxford:
Oxford UP, 2009.
Bonneuil, Christophe, and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz. The Shock of the Anthropocene:
The Earth, History and Us. Trans. David Fernbach. London: Verso, 2016.
Braidotti, Rosi. “Signs of Wonder, Traces of Doubt.” Feminist Theory and the Body:
A Reader. Ed. Janet Price and Margrit Shildrick. New York: Routledge, 1999,
291-301.
Carrington, Damian. “The Anthropocene Epoch: Scientists Declare Dawn of Human-
Influenced Age.” The Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 29 Aug. 2016. 26 Feb. 2017. <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/declare-
anthropocene-epoch-experts-urge-geological-congress-human-impact-earth>.
Carroll, Siobhan. “The Ecological Uncanny: On the ‘Southern Reach’ Trilogy.” Rev.
of Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer. Los Angeles Review of Books 5 Oct. 2015. 26 Feb. 2017. <https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-ecological-uncanny-on-
the-southern-reach-trilogy/>.
Clark, Timothy. Ecocriticism on the Edge: The Anthropocene as a Threshold
Concept. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. “Monster Culture (Seven Theses).” Monster Theory: Reading
Culture. Ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1996. 3-25.
Colebrook, Claire. Death of the PostHuman: Essays on Extinction. Vol. 1. London:
Open Humanities P, 2014.
Derrida, Jacques. Positions. Trans. Alan Bass. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1981.
Haraway, Donna. “Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene:
Staying with the Trouble.” Anthropocene: Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet.
University of California, Santa Cruz. 9 May 2014. Lecture.
—. “The Promises of Monsters.” The Haraway Reader. New York: Routledge, 2004. 63-124.
Johnson, Brian. “Prehistories of Posthumanism: Cosmic Indifferentism, Alien
Genesis, and Ecology from H. P. Lovecraft to Ridley Scott.” Age of Lovecraft.
Ed. Carl H. Sederholm and Jeffery A. Weinstock. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota
P, 2016, 97-116.
Latour, Bruno. “Agency at the Time of the Anthropocene.” New Literary History
45.1 (2014): 1-18.
—. “Love Your Monsters.” Love Your Monsters: Postenvironmentalism and the
Anthropocene. Ed. Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus. Oakland: The
Breakthrough Institute, 2011, 21-44.
Levina, Marina, and Diem-My T. Bui. Monster Culture in the 21st Century: A Reader.
London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
Levine, Daniel. “Strangling Fruit.” Rev. of Acceptance, by Jeff VanderMeer. The
Brooklyn Rail 3 Oct. 2014. 25 Feb. 2017.
<http://brooklynrail.org/2014/10/books/the-strangling-fruit>.
Lovecraft, H. P. “Supernatural Horror in Literature.” 1927. H. P. Lovecraft: The
Complete Fiction. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2011, 1041-98.
Morton, Timothy. Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence. New York:
Columbia UP, 2016.
—. The Ecological Thought. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2010.
—. Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics. Cambridge:
Harvard UP, 2007.
—. Hyperobjects: Philosophy After the End of the World. Minneapolis: U of
Minnesota P, 2013.
Poole, Scott W. Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous
and the Haunting. Waco: Baylor UP, 2011.
Robbins, Paul, and Sarah A. Moore. “Ecological Anxiety Disorder: Diagnosing the
Politics of the Anthropocene.” cultural geographies 20.1 (2012): 3-19.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: Norton, 2012.
Shildrick, Margrit. Embodying the Monster: Encounters with the Vulnerable Self.
London: Sage, 2001.
Stableford, Brian. “The Cosmic Horror.” Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An
Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares. Vol 1. Ed. S. T. Joshi. Santa Barbara:
Greenwood, 2007. 65-96.
Trexler, Adam. Anthropocene Fictions: The Novel in a Time of Climate Change.
Charlottesville: U of Virginia P, 2015.
Trump, Donald (realDonaldTrump). “Record setting cold and snow, ice caps massive!
The only global warming we should fear is that caused by nuclear weapons –incompetent pols.” Tweet. 19 Feb. 2015, 1:33 p.m.,
<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/568387798924963840>
VanderMeer, Ann, and Jeff VanderMeer. “The Weird: An Introduction.” Rev. of The
Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, by Jeff VanderMeer and
Ann VanderMeer. Weird Fiction Review. Weird Fiction Review, 6 May 2012. 26 Feb. 2017. <http://weirdfictionreview.com/2012/05/the-weird-an-
introduction/>.
VanderMeer, Jeff. Acceptance. London: Fourth Estate, 2014.
—. Annihilation. London: Fourth Estate, 2014.
—. Authority. London: Fourth Estate, 2014.
—. “From Annihilation to Acceptance: A Writer’s Surreal Journey.” The Atlantic.
The Atlantic, 28 Jan. 2015. 26 Feb. 2017. <www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/01/from-annihilation-to-
acceptance-a-writers-surreal-journey/384884/>.
—. Introduction. The New Weird. By Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer. San
Francisco: Tachyon Publications, 2008, ix-xvii.
Wolfe, Nicky. “Republican Senate Environment Chief Uses Snowball as Prop in
Climate Rant.” The Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 26 Feb. 2015. 26 Feb. 2017. <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/26/senate-james-
inhofe-snowball-climate-change>.
by Gry Ulstein
ABSTRACT: This paper investigates and compares language and imagery used by
contemporary ecocritics in order to argue that the Anthropocene discourse
contains significant parallels to cosmic horror discourse and (new) weird
literature. While monsters from the traditional, Lovecraftian weird lend
themselves well to Anthropocene allegory due to the coinciding fear affect in
both discourses, the new weird genre experiments with ways to move beyond
cosmic fear, thereby reimagining the human position in the context of the
Anthropocene. Jeff VanderMeer’s trilogy The Southern Reach (2014) presents
an alien system of assimilation and ecological mutation into which the characters
are launched. It does this in a manner that brings into question human hierarchical
coexistence with nonhumans while also exposing the ineffectiveness of current
existential norms. This paper argues that new weird stories such as VanderMeer’s
are able to rework and dispel the fearful paralysis of cosmic horror found in
Lovecraft’s literature and of Anthropocene monsters in ecocritical debate. The
Southern Reach and the new weird welcome the monstrous as kin rather than
enemy.
CITATION: Ultstein, Gry (2017) "Brave New Weird: Anthropocene Monsters in Jeff VanderMeer's The Southern Reach", Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies. 43(1), pp. 71-95
References
Asma, Stephen T. On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears. Oxford:
Oxford UP, 2009.
Bonneuil, Christophe, and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz. The Shock of the Anthropocene:
The Earth, History and Us. Trans. David Fernbach. London: Verso, 2016.
Braidotti, Rosi. “Signs of Wonder, Traces of Doubt.” Feminist Theory and the Body:
A Reader. Ed. Janet Price and Margrit Shildrick. New York: Routledge, 1999,
291-301.
Carrington, Damian. “The Anthropocene Epoch: Scientists Declare Dawn of Human-
Influenced Age.” The Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 29 Aug. 2016. 26 Feb. 2017. <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/declare-
anthropocene-epoch-experts-urge-geological-congress-human-impact-earth>.
Carroll, Siobhan. “The Ecological Uncanny: On the ‘Southern Reach’ Trilogy.” Rev.
of Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer. Los Angeles Review of Books 5 Oct. 2015. 26 Feb. 2017. <https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-ecological-uncanny-on-
the-southern-reach-trilogy/>.
Clark, Timothy. Ecocriticism on the Edge: The Anthropocene as a Threshold
Concept. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. “Monster Culture (Seven Theses).” Monster Theory: Reading
Culture. Ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1996. 3-25.
Colebrook, Claire. Death of the PostHuman: Essays on Extinction. Vol. 1. London:
Open Humanities P, 2014.
Derrida, Jacques. Positions. Trans. Alan Bass. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1981.
Haraway, Donna. “Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene:
Staying with the Trouble.” Anthropocene: Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet.
University of California, Santa Cruz. 9 May 2014. Lecture.
—. “The Promises of Monsters.” The Haraway Reader. New York: Routledge, 2004. 63-124.
Johnson, Brian. “Prehistories of Posthumanism: Cosmic Indifferentism, Alien
Genesis, and Ecology from H. P. Lovecraft to Ridley Scott.” Age of Lovecraft.
Ed. Carl H. Sederholm and Jeffery A. Weinstock. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota
P, 2016, 97-116.
Latour, Bruno. “Agency at the Time of the Anthropocene.” New Literary History
45.1 (2014): 1-18.
—. “Love Your Monsters.” Love Your Monsters: Postenvironmentalism and the
Anthropocene. Ed. Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus. Oakland: The
Breakthrough Institute, 2011, 21-44.
Levina, Marina, and Diem-My T. Bui. Monster Culture in the 21st Century: A Reader.
London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
Levine, Daniel. “Strangling Fruit.” Rev. of Acceptance, by Jeff VanderMeer. The
Brooklyn Rail 3 Oct. 2014. 25 Feb. 2017.
<http://brooklynrail.org/2014/10/books/the-strangling-fruit>.
Lovecraft, H. P. “Supernatural Horror in Literature.” 1927. H. P. Lovecraft: The
Complete Fiction. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2011, 1041-98.
Morton, Timothy. Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence. New York:
Columbia UP, 2016.
—. The Ecological Thought. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2010.
—. Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics. Cambridge:
Harvard UP, 2007.
—. Hyperobjects: Philosophy After the End of the World. Minneapolis: U of
Minnesota P, 2013.
Poole, Scott W. Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous
and the Haunting. Waco: Baylor UP, 2011.
Robbins, Paul, and Sarah A. Moore. “Ecological Anxiety Disorder: Diagnosing the
Politics of the Anthropocene.” cultural geographies 20.1 (2012): 3-19.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: Norton, 2012.
Shildrick, Margrit. Embodying the Monster: Encounters with the Vulnerable Self.
London: Sage, 2001.
Stableford, Brian. “The Cosmic Horror.” Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An
Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares. Vol 1. Ed. S. T. Joshi. Santa Barbara:
Greenwood, 2007. 65-96.
Trexler, Adam. Anthropocene Fictions: The Novel in a Time of Climate Change.
Charlottesville: U of Virginia P, 2015.
Trump, Donald (realDonaldTrump). “Record setting cold and snow, ice caps massive!
The only global warming we should fear is that caused by nuclear weapons –incompetent pols.” Tweet. 19 Feb. 2015, 1:33 p.m.,
<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/568387798924963840>
VanderMeer, Ann, and Jeff VanderMeer. “The Weird: An Introduction.” Rev. of The
Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, by Jeff VanderMeer and
Ann VanderMeer. Weird Fiction Review. Weird Fiction Review, 6 May 2012. 26 Feb. 2017. <http://weirdfictionreview.com/2012/05/the-weird-an-
introduction/>.
VanderMeer, Jeff. Acceptance. London: Fourth Estate, 2014.
—. Annihilation. London: Fourth Estate, 2014.
—. Authority. London: Fourth Estate, 2014.
—. “From Annihilation to Acceptance: A Writer’s Surreal Journey.” The Atlantic.
The Atlantic, 28 Jan. 2015. 26 Feb. 2017. <www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/01/from-annihilation-to-
acceptance-a-writers-surreal-journey/384884/>.
—. Introduction. The New Weird. By Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer. San
Francisco: Tachyon Publications, 2008, ix-xvii.
Wolfe, Nicky. “Republican Senate Environment Chief Uses Snowball as Prop in
Climate Rant.” The Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 26 Feb. 2015. 26 Feb. 2017. <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/26/senate-james-
inhofe-snowball-climate-change>.
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