Looking through the lens of New Materialism

         New materialism deals with the binaries surrounding man and nature. As we see in today's world, there is a divide between nature and man. Hence, we have buildings, technology and the likes. Being able to assimilate oneself completely into nature is seen as unusual and it is not something we do on a normal day. Jane Bennet introduce new materialism in her book Vital Matter.  She says the aim of her project which she is referring to as vital materialism is "to dissipate the onto-theological binaries of life/matter, human/animal, will/determination and organic/inorganic using arguments and other rhetoric means to induce in human bodies an aesthetic-effective openness to material vitality" (Bennet, pg X). Jane Bennet Vibrant Matter

How New Materialism is portrayed in dystopian fiction


              Some dystopian worlds have themes of new materialism running through them. We see this in parable of the sower and the road. In the road, humans take on these cannibalistic features which then makes them no different from animals. In a way, it is pointing out that this binary can be broken down if society is broken down. Also, we see another example in the hunger games where the binary between organic and inorganic is broken down. An example is the mutts, technology is used to create something organic. Thus the organic was birthed from the inorganic and it was used as a weapon  to attack Katniss and Peetah. Video of Mutts Attacking Katniss and Peetah  Other elements in the hunger games arena blur the lines between nature and technology. An example includes the fire downpour and the tracker jackers. Even when we look at president's Snow's roses, we can see that he has created nature out of something that had no business with nature, and that is technology.  In parable of the sower, we see how Lauren compares humans to seeds in her new religion earthseed. Having classified humans as seeds that are growing, she has broken down any barrier that is separating human from nature and placed them in the same category. 
                                                     

How nature is seen in Today's world


              How we view nature in today's world is that we see nature as a friend. As a covering and shelter. That's why we go camping and hiking. So we see nature as something to benefit from and to admire. However due to this preconceived notion that humans are on a pedestal and  are above nature, there is not much thought that goes into how our actions affect nature. Recently there has been increasing awareness on climate change particularly among young people. This however does not do much to stop using nature to our benefit. 

            When we take a look at the dystopian environments, it is usually due to the destruction of the environment that the whole world falls apart. We see this in Ready player one, Parable of the sower and The road. They tell us of how our nonchalance towards nature ends up affecting us. As it seems, the thing left to do is for humans to stop taking advantage of nature and then hopefully we do not end up with the same fate as the dystopian world.
      
Works Cited

Bennett, Jane, 1957-. Vibrant Matter : a Political Ecology of Things. Durham :Duke University Press, 2010.


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