Crossing into the Ecotone to Write Meaningful Eco-Fiction

 “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”—George Bernard Shaw

At Calgary’s When Words Collide this past August, I moderated a panel on Eco-Fiction with publisher/writer Hayden Trenholm, and writers Michael J. Martineck, Sarah Kades, and Susan Forest. The panel was well attended; panelists and audience discussed and argued what eco-fiction was, its role in literature and storytelling generally, and even some of the risks of identifying a work as eco-fiction.

Someone in the audience brought up the notion that “awareness-guided perception” may suggest an increase of ecological awareness in literature when it is more that readers are just noticing what was always there. Authors agreed and pointed out that environmental fiction has been written for years and it is only now—partly with the genesis of the term eco-fiction—that the “character” and significance of environment is being acknowledged beyond its metaphor; for its actual value. It may also be that the metaphoric symbols of environment in certain classics are being “retooled” through our current awareness much in the same way that Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World or George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four are being re-interpreted—and newly appreciated— in today’s world of pervasive surveillance and bio-engineering.

I would submit that if we are noticing it more, we are also writing it more. Artists are cultural leaders and reporters, after all. I shared my own experience in the science fiction classes I teach at UofT and George Brown College, in which I have noted a trend of increasing “eco-fiction” in the works in progress that students are bringing in to workshop in class. Students were not aware that they were writing eco-fiction, but they were indeed writing it.

I started branding my writing as eco-fiction a few years ago. Prior to that—even though my stories were strongly driven by an ecological premise and strong environmental setting—I described them as science fiction and many as technological thrillers. Environment’s role remained subtle and—at times—insidious. Climate change. Water shortage. Environmental disease. A city’s collapse. War. I’ve used these as backdrops to explore relationships, values (such as honour and loyalty), philosophies, moralities, ethics, and agencies of action. The stuff of storytelling.

Environment, and ecological characteristics were less “theme” than “character,” with which the protagonist and major characters related in important ways.

Just as Bong Joon-Ho’s 2014 science fiction movie Snowpiercer wasn’t so much about climate change as it was about exploring class struggle, the capitalist decadence of entitlement, disrespect and prejudice through the premise of climate catastrophe. Though, one could argue that these form a closed loop of cause and effect (and responsibility).

The self-contained closed ecosystem of the Snowpiercer train is maintained by an ordered social system, imposed by a stony militia. Those at the front of the train enjoy privileges and luxurious living conditions, though most drown in a debauched drug stupor; those at the back live on next to nothing and must resort to savage means to survive. Revolution brews from the back, lead by Curtis Everett (Chris Evans), a man whose two intact arms suggest he hasn’t done his part to serve the community yet.

Minister Mason (Tilda Swinton), an imperious yet simpering figure who serves the ruling class without quite being part of it, reminds the lower class that: 

“We must all of us on this train of life remain in our allotted station. We must each of us occupy our preordained particular position. Would you wear a shoe on your head? Of course you wouldn’t wear a shoe on your head. A shoe doesn’t belong on your head. A shoe belongs on your foot. A hat belongs on your head. I am a hat. You are a shoe. I belong on the head. You belong on the foot. Yes? So it is.  In the beginning, order was prescribed by your ticket: First Class, Economy, and freeloaders like you…Now, as in the beginning, I belong to the front. You belong to the tail. When the foot seeks the place of the head, the sacred line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.”

Ecotones are places where “lines are crossed,” where barriers are breached, where “words collide” and new opportunities arise. Sometimes from calamity. Sometimes from tragedy. Sometimes from serendipity.

When environment shapes a story as archetype—hero, victim, trickster, shadow or shape shifter—we get strong eco-fiction. Good eco-fiction, like any good story, explores the choices we make and the consequences of those choices. Good eco-fiction ventures into the ecotone of overlap, collision, exchange and ultimate change.

In my latest book Water Is… I define an ecotone as the transition zone between two overlapping systems. It is essentially where two communities exchange information and integrate. Ecotones typically support varied and rich communities, representing a boiling pot of two colliding worlds. An estuary—where fresh water meets salt water. The edge of a forest with a meadow. The shoreline of a lake or pond.

For me, this is a fitting metaphor for life, given that the big choices we must face usually involve a collision of ideas, beliefs, lifestyles or worldviews: these often prove to enrich our lives the most for having gone through them. Evolution (any significant change) doesn’t happen within a stable system; adaptation and growth occur only when stable systems come together, disturb the equilibrium, and create opportunity. Good social examples include a close friendship or a marriage in which the process of “I” and “you” becomes a dynamic “we” (the ecotone) through exchange and reciprocation. Another version of Bernard Shaw’s quote, above, by the Missouri Pacific Agriculture Development Bulletin reads: “You have an idea. I have an idea. We swap. Now, you have two ideas and so do I. Both are richer. What you gave you have. What you got I did not lose. This is cooperation.” This is ecotone.

I think we are seeing more eco-fiction out there because ecosystems, ecology and environment are becoming more integral to story: as characters in their own right. I think we are seeing more eco-fiction out there because we are ready to see it. Just as quantum physics emerged when it did and not sooner, an idea—a thought—crystalizes when we are ready for it.

Don’t stay a shoe … go find an ecotone. Then write about it.


Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of award-nominated speculative novels, short stories and non-fiction. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s recent book is the bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” (Mincione Edizioni, Rome). Her latest “Water Is…” is currently an Amazon Bestseller and NY Times ‘year in reading’ choice of Margaret Atwood.

Choices and Quantum Physics

Have you ever stopped your car at a 4-way stop, along with several other cars, and all found yourselves in a protracted hesitation? No one remembers who got there first—we all sort of drifted to the stop as if in a dream and entered a kind of twilight zone. Invariably, everyone decides to move forward at the same time, only to halt in mild panic. Then one feisty individual finally forges ahead and establishes a pattern that all can follow. Everyone breathes a collective sigh and life moves on.
Life’s full of choices. In fact, the quantum physicists would tell you that life is really a series of non-stop choices—from that big stretch before you haul yourself out of bed in the morning to the decision to bake salmon burgers for supper that evening—resulting in an infinite number of realizable worlds. The Everett many-worlds interpretation (MWI), formulated in 1956 by Hugh Everett, holds that all the possibilities described by quantum theory simultaneously occur in a "multiverse" composed of mostly independent parallel universes. This represents an alternative to the Copenhagen interpretation originally formulated by Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg around 1927. The state of the entire multiverse is related to the states of the constituent universes by quantum superposition, and is described by a single universal wavefunction. This is related to Richard Feynman's multiple histories interpretation and H. Dieter Zeh's many-minds interpretation.

Another theory, the string landscape theory, asserts that a different universe exists for each of the very large ensemble of solutions generated when ten dimensional string theory is reduced to the four-dimensional low-energy world we see.

A multiverse (or meta-universe) is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes (including our universe) that together comprise all of physical reality. The different universes within a multiverse are sometimes called parallel universes. The structure of the multiverse, the nature of each universe within it and the relationship between the various constituent universes, depend on the specific multiverse hypothesis considered. According to Max Tegmark the existence of other universes is a direct implication of cosmological observations. Tegmark describes the set of related concepts which share the notion that there are universes beyond the familiar observable one, and goes on to provide a taxonomy of parallel universes organized by levels. To clarify terminology, George Ellis, U. Kirchner and W.R. Stoeger recommend using the term “the Universe” for the theoretical model of the whole of space-time in which we live; “universe domain” for the observable universe or a similar part of the same space-time, “universe” for a general space-time—either our own “Universe” or another one disconnected from our own; “multiverse” for a set of disconnected space-times; and “multi-domain universe” for the model of the whole of a single connected space-time using chaotic inflation models.
Various versions of the multiverse thoery include:


1) open multiverse (spatially unbounded universe);


2) bubble theory (an infinite number of open multiverses, each with different physical constants); and


3) big bounce (After the big bang, the universe expands for a while before the gravitational attraction of matter causes it to collapse back in and undergo a Big bounce. Although the model was abandoned for a time, the theory was revived in brane cosmology as the cyclic model.).

Often the alternate worlds theme in science fiction is framed by postulating that every historical event spawns a new universe for every possible outcome, resulting in a number of alternate histories. Fantasy has long borrowed the idea of "another world" from myth, legend and religion. Heaven, Hell, Olympus, Valhalla are all “alternate universes” different from the familiar material realm. Modern fantasy often presents the concept as a series of planes of existence where the laws of nature differ, allowing magical phenomena of some sort on some planes. Wikipedia discusses some examples of these: “The popular MYST computer game franchise uses concepts of describing a world and then linking to that world, which is part of a multiverse of infinite possible and concurrently existing universes, matching the descriptions. Also, the computer game Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and its sequels feature two distinct parallel universes. The protagonist, Raziel, is capable of existing in both the Material Realm, or normal reality, and the Spectral Realm, a dark and distorted version of the former with its own physics and properties. The Michael Crichton novel Timeline featured a method for what appeared to be time travel by traveling to parallel universes that are identical except for the moment of their birth, thus rendering off-set yet parallel time. The DC Universe, famous home of Batman and Superman, uses the multiverse as the basis for their universe. This is in part to help deal with their 67 year history. In the 1980s DC published the ever popular Crisis on Infinite Earths which detailed a breakdown of the Multiverse at the hands of the Anti-Monitor. The television series Star Trek has many times gone into parallel "Mirror" universes, and Stargate SG-1 has postulated parallel universes.”

But, back to that 4-way stop and choices. Most of our many choices over a day are mundane ones, choices related to things we do subconsciously within the natural rhythm of our daily lives. Then there are those significant choices that we must make, which often grind our little rote existence to a halt. You know the ones: Should I move? Talk or keep silent? Confront or run away? Accept or deny? Fall in love...or not? These choices will change our lives and the lives of several others in some significant way. The possibilities aren’t as easily defined; they are often diverse with complicated and varied consequences. You have entered a different zone, another plain or existence from your “ordinary” world of mundane choices. Ecologists have a word for this in both spatial and temporal terms. The word is Ecotone. According to limnologist George K. Reid an ecotone “constitutes a ‘buffer’ zone, between two communities.” An example would be an estuary, which exists between the freshwater ecosystem of a river and the saltwater ecosystem of the open ocean. Ecotones are typically the most varied and rich community, representing a boiling pot of two colliding worlds. For me, this is a fitting metaphor, given that the big choices we must face in life are the ones that prove to enrich our lives the most for having gone through them.

Recommended Reading:
Tegmark, Max (May 2003). "Parallel Universes". Scientific American.

Ellis, George F.R., U. Kirchner, W.R. Stoeger (2004). "
Multiverses and physical cosmology". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 347: 921-936.
Lewis, David (1986). On the Plurality of Worlds. Basil Blackwell.


Deutsch, David (45841 1985). in Splash: Quantum theory, the Church-Turing principle and the universal quantum computer, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 400, mos craciun, 97-117.
iulianveza12@yahoo.com.

David Deutsch, extracts from Chapter 14: "The Ends of the Universe" of The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes—and Its Implications (London: Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1997), ISBN 0713990619; with additional comments by Frank J. Tipler.

Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.