A review by dinguini
The Anthropocene Unconscious: Climate Catastrophe in Contemporary Culture by Mark Bould

reflective fast-paced

3.5

The thesis, though articulated in a roundabout way, is that art/literature produced by people living through a climate crisis will be inevitably imbued with the experience of that crisis, regardless of intention, because the ever-unfolding consequences of that crisis constitute the reality of anyone's experiences, perceptions, understandings, impressions today. It therefore clambers through various forms and genres to seek those references to the crisis that its thesis implores must be there. I think the most important conceptual takeaways from the introduction that the reader should take with them into the rest of the book are the recognition of climate change as a hyperobject, and the mechanics of Queer film theory. Though only mentioned briefly, these conceptual tools enableBould (and the reader) to take alternate readings of various books/films through a recognition of climate change as a system made up of many different parts (including capitalism, inequality, petroculture, environmental collapse etc) that are incomprehensible at once, but whose influence can be acknowledged respectively, and therefore can be attributed to some level of climate anxiety where they appear in the works cited.