The End of the Anthropocene: Ecocriticism, the Universal Ecosystem, and the Astropocene by Michael J. Gormley (review)

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:

• The End of the Anthropocene: Ecocriticism, the Universal Ecosystem, and the Astropocene by Michael J. Gormley
• Ian Hill (bio)

Michael J. Gormley, The End of the Anthropocene: Ecocriticism, the Universal Ecosystem, and the Astropocene. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2021, 206 pp., ISBN: 1498594050.

In The End of the Anthropocene: Ecocriticism, the Universal Ecosystem, and the Astropocene, Michael J. Gormley sheds the limitations of strictly earthbound ecocriticism and looks forward to an era of interplanetary colonization, which he terms “the Astropocene.” Through a series of close readings, Gormley theorizes about how humans might and should interact with novel environments—the moon, Mars, the vacuum of space—and employs ecocriticism in novel ways to interrogate the ethical ramifications of cosmic expansion. The End of the Anthropocene does an admirable job of jarring ecocriticism loose from terrestrial confines and showing its universal value and applicability. In so doing, Gormley carves out new space in ecological discourse, though his efforts are slightly dampened by an overly optimistic view of the near future, an underemphasis on the history and implications of colonization, and a limited archive.

Gormley’s book follows the same path humanity has and (he predicts) will, beginning with wilderness before moving to the climate apocalypse in which we currently find ourselves, to near-space colonization, to outer-space colonization, all the while gathering theoretical and speculative momentum. The first chapter, “Ecocriticism and the Universal Ecosystem,” deals with grounded, terrestrial, and familiar subjects that both ecocritics and nonspecialized readers will readily grasp. The book begins with the wolf—a primally familiar figure—and returns to it throughout, just as it does to the dirty, hands-on practice of tracking. Though The End of the Astropocene promises a scientific and perhaps even sci-fi reading experience with its title and lunar cover (and mostly delivers on these promises), it rarely loses sight of the immediate world around us. Gormley takes pains not to alienate the reader. After all, since “the true scope of this book is to prepare humanity for its fast-approaching integration with extraplanetary ecosystems,” it makes sense that he would want to welcome as many readers as possible (14). He even bakes this broad human inclusivity into the word [End Page 323] “Astropocene,” preferring it over the more etymologically sound “Astrocene” to retain the human connection.

The second chapter, “The Biotic World,” concerns animals (human and otherwise) and how they interface with other creatures and their environment, all of which falls under the umbrella of “biotic identity.” Gormley locates in Cormac McCarthy’s The Crossing and Blood Meridian lessons we can learn and directions we can take to exist “ecoethically” and to “speak as nature”—two goals he deems crucial if we are to move beyond the Anthropocene. Here we see Gormley push against the traditional bounds of ecocriticism with self-awareness and tact. He resists ecocritical pioneer Lawrence Buell’s injunction against trying to speak on behalf of nature and in opposition to “human dominationism” (19), identifies that “ecocriticism needs a novel technique for assessing the biotic human body in forthcoming environs” (72), and accepts the burden of a sort of guide preparing humanity for interplanetary colonization. It is as if the exigency of the incoming Astropocene has overthrown some of the restrictions normally associated with ecocritical writing.

In the third chapter, “A Body in the Universal Ecosystem,” we find ourselves in space at last, moving from the history of the International Space Station through readings of what Gormley calls “science fact fiction”—sci-fi texts that prove instructive, via ecocriticism, for humanity’s expansion into space (76). Here the brightest exemplar is Ridley Scott’s film The Martian, which Gormley reads as a “nature narrative” reflecting our future and present (77). He uses this film to imagine what life might be like for the explorers who first colonize and begin to terraform Mars. Terraforming becomes the focus of chapter 4, “The Astropocene,” as it represents the absolute closure of the Anthropocene. Gormley figures terraforming as a flashpoint that “human technology funnels toward” (106), the zenith of environmental efforts, a singularity. He balances his interest in and passion for terraforming with a repeated call for a coherent ecoethic...