The slides for today offer an overview of climate and environmental SF, and the changed consciousness of the central characters in “The People of Sand and Slag.” In the Calorie Man,” US agribusiness companies have reshaped the world from India to the Mississippi valley, largely by engineering and releasing crop diseases that only their genetically modified products can survive. How has this changed world altered the consciousness of Lalji or another character in the story? At what particular point do you see a character comprehending the environment and their place in a striking way?
7 thoughts on “Bacigalupi and Environmental Consciousness–Group 3”
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In “The Calorie Man” the corporations hold all the power and have a monopoly on the world’s food and energy sources. They have nobody to oversee them and hold them accountable and have no rules or regulations to follow. Lalji, like other characters, has to accept the way life is as people who oppose these corporations can get killed for dissenting. Lalji does want to put an end to the tyranny of the food corporations but as the story progresses he seems to lose hope and thinks that it is unattainable. However, Lalji does understand what the world used to be like and Bowman helps keep him motivated to make change by giving him tools. In addition, when Lalji and Tazi are attacked, they are the only two to survive which again puts a damper on his hopes for the future. Although it is unlikely that Lalji can win in the endgame, Tazi inspires him some more by giving him seeds, demonstrating that people do believe in the cause. I think that his aspirations for the future change a lot through out the story, but at the end he is once again determined to fight for change. Eventually, Lalji hopes to be powerful enough to take down the evil corporations.
Lalji’s consciousness is altered in this new environment that he lives in and is shown through multiple moments within the story, especially when Lalji gets flashbacks and previous thoughts that arise in his memory. An example of this was when Creo found a Conoco sign, which was then sold to an AgriGen executive. When the executive mentioned that the company was “global”, and that, “… the company pulled energy from the remotest parts of the planet and sold it far way within weeks of extraction”, “… he felt a sudden sadness at how very diminished humanity had become” (p. 13). Through this memory of Lalji, it is clear like others have said, the world Lalji lives in is dismal and there is a sense of powerlessness as a central theme. Powerful corporations, where change rarely comes by, controls nearly everything and there is almost no hope in getting around it. Furthermore, another example of consciousness shown to be altered is on page 17, when Creo takes a bite of the tomato. When doing so, he, “… made a face of disgust” and said, “I’ll stick with SoyPRO” (p. 17). This shows that even though Creo is offered food that is not made by a big agri-corporation, he refuses to do so and only decides to stick with the gmo although eating the food would mean more calorie intake for him. This shows how one’s consciousness is altered in the new world that these characters live in where those like Creo never will realize, “… what food used to be” (p. 17).
Like many people I was struck by the powerlessness of the chracters. Not only are they not able to grow food from the seeds but they were powerless to stop the genetically engineered diseases. I also was taken aback by how realistic the story is. There are instances are already instances of company’s creating patents on seeds such as Round Up Soybeans, which are resistant to their weed killer RoundUp. I could easily see a world where food becomes scarce due to diease wiping out mono cultures and companies that control seed production take over.
I accidently didn’t finish my post.
I was struck by Creo’s reaction to the tomato and his lack of interest in the farmed produce. It really show how distanced he is from food that is not supplied by the agricorps. I would think as a society obbessed by caloires he would eat the tomato and wouldn’t care about the taste. I would also think he wouldn’t reject the idea of more food coming along. As he is disgusted by the thought of eating any of the non soy vegatbles. Another instance of how humans have been removed from the farming process is when Lalji wasn’t aware that the crops Bowman brought on the boat were seeds. He had the understand of what seeds are, in terms of food is grown from them, but has no knowledge of where they came from. Which is striking for me and made me wonder if there are people who are that distanced from the food system as Creo anf Lalji. It made the hope that Lalji had when he realized he has viable seeds even more impactful as we see the change of understand of the world and himself.
At the beginning we encounter Lalji faced with a beggar child and we come to understand that he views the world as “this is just the way it is.” Throughout the story we see him change, we are told a story in which Lalji and his father try to plant infertile plants. This story represents a loss of hope early in Lalji’s life and informs him of the fact that big agricorp could never be challenged. However, after the death of Bowman and Creo he finds himself in a similar position that he did when he found the plants infertile. However, as Tazi declares these are seeds that have the possibility to disrupt agricorps greed. The ending leaves us optimistic and I agree with Eli on this point, I think we are meant to be left optimistic here. This story is in huge contrast to “The People of Slag and Sand” in that this cli-fi story helps us imagine of ways we can reclaim our connection to nature. This is why the mention of Johnny Appleseeds is so important because Johnny Appleseed was a person who helped westward expansion in early American history who provided apple seeds to people or something like that. The point being this was a man at the beginning of early America who was helping spread ideas of environmental conservation. Consequently, I see this cli-fi story accomplish similar things. I am also wondering if this is a critique on huge agriculture companies like Monsanto and a bigger critique on GMOs.
To me, the most powerful moment of Lalji realizing his powerlessness in the story is, I suppose, the most obvious one: when he and his father try to plant the seeds in the desert. The innocence and hope of Lalji, not knowing that the seeds are infertile, praying his heart out to all of the Hindu gods, desperately trying to grow calories to survive, is heartbreaking. As he had his “first true taste of PurCal,” he must have had a profound realization of how there was no hope for growing more food. Despite his and his father’s most honest efforts, he was forced by the power of AgriCo to scarf up rotten seeds, alone in the night. I believe that at this moment, he was finally conscious that he would be dependent on AgriCo for basic survival for his entire life.
I did appreciate the juxtaposition of the hopelessness of this scene with the “Johnny Appleseeds” scene at the end. As Lalji holds the key and the power to restore the fields by guerilla tactics in his hands, he pictures the very fields where he awakened to profound powerlessness as a younger man. Bacigalupi chooses to leave us with some hope at the end, perhaps less as a sign of resistance to climate change, as discussed in the slides, but as a sign that perhaps no matter what happens there is always some possibility of destroying powerful corporations that may take over the world, just as in Parable. His smile at the end holding the seeds did make me feel much more satisfied at the end of the story!
Bowman shows me how even the people fighting Agrico are forced to accept the reality of food shortages. When Lalji asks Charles if he wants to bring his computer, Charles responds, “Everything in that machine came from me. My fat burned into knowledge. My calories pedaled into data analysis…Sometimes I look at that computer and all I see is myself whittled away. I was a fat man once.” The fact that Bowman sees his research first and foremost as a consumption of calories surprised me as I would’ve used time as the main input into work, but of course that shows my thoughts based in abundance of food and how I see lifespan as the limiting factor. Anyways, this contrast of him imagining a fat Bowman in the past to the lanky one in the present reveals the calorie obsession/mentality in a character who I thought would be think differently.