Climate Change and Broader Implications of Human Choices and Actions in Alexandra Kleeman’s Something New under the Sun

Abstract

In the “Preface” to her science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin views that “Science fiction is not predictive, it is descriptive.” (Le Guin, 1969) Alexandra Kleeman’s second novel, Something New Under the Sun evidences Le Guin’s thought with its profound unsettling end. The fictional narrative of Kleeman demonstrates that the current reality, human experience and psychological truths and explains how the ways and forms of life on earth are destroyed by human appetites. The wild torrents of climate crisis are negotiated in the novel, by describing the negative outcomes on the human and the nonhuman worlds.

Alexandra Kleeman is a contemporary American writer, who has carved a niche for herself through her unique approach to writing. In Something New Under the Sun, she makes a wonderful blend of the surreal and the speculative elements. She uses her sharp tongue to address the pressing social issues as well as explore the human psyche and its endless contradictions. The story is set in the near futureon California, which is completely uninhabitable due to climate change. The present study explores the way Kleeman includes climate change in her novel and represents its local and global impacts.