A TURTLE WHICH EXPLORER CAPTAIN COOK GAVE TO THE KING OF TONGA IN 1777 DIED YESTERDAY. IT WAS NEARLY 200 YEARS OLD. THE ANIMAL, CALLED TU'IMALILA, DIED AT THE ROYAL PALACE GROUND IN THE TONGAN CAPITAL OF NUKU, ALOFA. THE PEOPLE OF TONGA REGARDED THE ANIMAL AS A CHIEF AND SPECIAL KEEPERS WERE APPOINTED TO LOOK AFTER IT. IT WAS BLINDED IN A BUSH FIRE A FEW YEARS AGO. TONGA RADIO SAID TU'IMALILA'S CARCASS WOULD BE SENT TO THE AUCKLAND MUSEUM IN NEW ZEALAND.

アンドロイドは電気羊の夢を見るか? : Do androids dream of electric sheep?

“The shadow of the end”: the appeal of apocalypse in literary science fiction

Human development is characterized by discarding items after the end of their useful lifetime rather than recycling them which stresses the finite resources of our planet. A growing avalanche of single-use plastic articles accumulates in the landscape and in the oceans. Hazardous chemical wastes are pumped by pipeline into the sea, carried by ships and dumped into the ocean or are incinerated off-shore. Pharmaceuticals, drugs and household wastes are washed into coastal ecosystems stressing the biota. In addition to household and industrial waste, soil and rubble from building activities are disposed of at sea. Especially after wars, weapons and ammunition including chemical, bacteriological and nuclear warfare agents are dumped into the oceans. Eventually, hazardous chemicals leak out of the containers threatening marine life. Radioactive waste from nuclear fission reactors and nuclear weapon production constitutes a major problem because of the long half life of the radionuclides generated during production. Therefore, many countries have resorted to dumping these at sea. In addition, catastrophic accidents on nuclear powered vessels and submarines as well as nuclear reactors release radioactive material to the environment which can reach the sea. After the conquest of the space around our planet, the number of objects orbiting the Earth has increased exponentially. Decommissioned spacecraft and damaged objects amount to more than 500,000 pieces, which fall out of orbit in a controlled or uncontrolled manner. Larger objects such as space stations and rockets are steered to the Southern Pacific Ocean where a “spacecraft cemetery” holds the remains of numerous spacecraft.

Dumping of Toxic Waste into the Oceans

The aim of this paper is to examine how the memories of the 1945 nuclear attack on Hiroshima has been reposed and performed in modern fiction. Although Jacques Derrida termed nuclear war a ‘non-event’, I argue that the memory of Hiroshima and the wealth of nuclear science fiction made the ‘non-event’ familiar. This article offers a fresh interpretation of nuclear history with reference to how nuclear concerns have significantly influenced literature and presented an understanding of the ‘non-event.’

Knowledge of the 1945 atomic bombing was the only exposure many members of the public had to the nuclear threat and the ramifications of nuclear technology; consequently authors relied on historical and emotive facts from Hiroshima to inform their war stories. Science fiction seeks to represent the ‘non-event’ and craft a reality out of it. The genre partly exists to offer preparatory texts to help ensure the ‘non-event’ remains ‘fabulously textual’ and the literary apocalypse does not become a reality (Derrida 1984, p.23). If part of the memory of Hiroshima acts as a warning ‘Never again’ and ‘No More Hiroshimas’ then fictional texts representing nuclear war, nuclear apocalypse and nuclear extinction expose the fear of ‘more Hiroshimas.’

Textual nuclear war based on the memory of Hiroshima

This book forges links between the Three Mile Island partial meltdown event in 1979 and wider social contexts of nuclear development through navigation of primary sources, responses in popular culture, and critical scholarly work in the field. The focus of this book lingers not in the control room, but on the state of Pennsylvania, America, and the wider world. Chiefly, this book examines how the public found meaning in the Atomic Age and how this in turn influenced public perception of events such as Three Mile Island, and shaped cultural responses to them.

Three Mile Island: The Meltdown Crisis and Nuclear Power in American Popular Culture

Is biology and knowing biological ancestral information essential to the construction of identity? Bioethicist James David Velleman believes this is the case and argues that donor gamete conception is immoral because a portion of genetic heritage will be unknown. Velleman is critical of sperm donation and the absence of a biological father in donor-assisted families. His bioethical work, specifically the 2005 article ‘Family History’, is oft-cited in articles debating the ethics surrounding gamete donations and diverse family formations. However, I wonder to what extent Velleman’s ethical stance is exhibited in contemporary culture? Velleman suggests that innate knowledge of bio-superiority helps readers and audiences appreciate the importance of biological family structures in literature and film; he says, ‘When people deny the importance of biological ties, I wonder how they can read world literature with any comprehension’ (2005, 369). Velleman understands the stories of Oedipus, Moses, Telemachus and Luke Skywalker as demonstrating a universal cultural comprehension that genetics are essential to identity construction. I adopt Velleman’s list of stories and ask if they really can support an antidonation sentiment and suggest that most of the stories actually support diverse family structures. By exploring the significance of story-telling in cultural understandings of family and identity, it is possible to identify the ways in which story-telling can impact how society negotiates complex issues such as assisted reproduction, donor conception and donor industry regulation. 

https://mh.bmj.com/content/medhum/48/4/e18.full.pdf

Grace Halden

Papers

Textual nuclear war based on the memory of Hiroshima

Three Mile Island: The Meltdown Crisis and Nuclear Power in American Popular Culture

Fatherlessness, sperm donors and ‘so what?’ parentage: arguing against the immorality of donor conception through ‘world literature’

British Science Fiction 1990–2017: Technology‐Themed Fiction in the Light of the New Millennium and Speculative ‘Singularity’