The first research objective aimed to determine how each ecocritical theme, i.e., Pollution, Wilderness, Apocalypse, Dwelling, Animals, and The Earth is portrayed in the anthologies Age of Blight and The Drone Outside and the novels Naermyth and Wounded Little Gods. 

The Anthropocene in The Age of Blight

The word “blight” means decay, and the title of Ong-Muslim’s collection of short fiction is only appropriate to capture the pestilence present within the collection; it does not only contain narratives about humans living in a dystopic, post-future setting but also of non-humans who have encountered humankind. The 103-page anthology contains 15 short pieces of fiction which are grouped into four subthemes: Animals, Children, Instead of Human, and The Age of Blight. In its preface, the author notes that specific places reappear in stories within the book and in her other compilations.

In Age of Blight, 66 excerpts were coded under various ecocritical themes/tropes. The subcategory “Globalization” of the trope “The Earth” had the highest count at 13, making it the prevalent theme. Additionally, the subcategories “Anthropomorphism and Theriomorphism of Animals”, and “Numinous, Terrorizing, and Commodified Wilderness” each had 11 excerpts. All themes were recognized in this anthology, indicating manifestation through intrinsic literary elements. Among significant literary tools, most were excerpts associated with Characters and Symbols. A total of 70 excerpts were labeled as accounts of Literary-Critical tools sustaining the tropes.

The inflection of Globalization under the trope The Earth is preeminent among the six ecocritical themes in seven out of the 15 stories. The planet Earth is described as a place for human constructs like knowledge, entertainment, technology, order, business, finance, etc. in this inflection. Ranked second are the inflections “Numinous, Terrorizing, Commodified” under the trope “Wilderness and Anthropomorphism and Theriomorphism of Animals”. 

Interestingly, the seven stories with tagged excerpts all share multiple codes. Their connection prompts the realization that human constructs or activities often lead to the commodification of non-human beings. Furthermore, the extent of the human desire to take control and acquire more often leads to abuse and loss, not only of the physical but also of higher and more spiritual attributes that make man human.

In the first three stories about animals, the forenamed subcategories were all demonstrated through the characters’ actions and motives. In Leviathan, an explorer who captured the legendary sea beast yearns to become known in the world of man, and he does this by mercilessly trapping Leviathan and showcasing its preserved specimen to the audience. The beast was anthropomorphized, i.e., given human attributes, while the explorer was theriomorphized- made beast-like; the juxtaposition of a heartless man and a beast who longs for companionship is evident in the lines “…you gloated, ‘I told you I was going to get the sucker” (Muslim, 2016, p. 1) and “’ It is lonely and will soon find us. It will recognize its song and will follow us home’, you once declared with glee” (p.2).

Meanwhile, the commodification of the non-human and the idea of globalization are present in the story through lines like “…the cameraman captured the triumphant moment when you presented the creature long believed to have been extinct during the Silurian Period” and “Like a magician doing his rounds on the carnival, you intone…and everyone...takes that as a cue for applause”  (p. 2).

The first story is akin to 3 other stories like The Wire Mother which is about a wire-doll mother used in an experiment involving baby monkeys. She narrates the nightmarish ordeals that the animals had to go through throughout the experiments conducted on them by a real-life scientist Harry F. Harlow; The Ghost of Laika Encounters a Satellite where the real-life dog named Laika who was the first living creature sent to space by Russia recounts her experiences with humans; and Pet– a post-apocalyptic story about humans living with alien-like pets who behave more benevolent or humane than them. 

Although the non-human characters in these narratives are commodified and stripped of agency, they are portrayed as more capable of sympathy and kindness than their human counterparts. This contrast is evident in the words of the inanimate wire mother: “I have limits: I cannot stomach torture…I cannot stop seeing the triumphant glee in Harry’s eyes when he discovered the monkeys mutilating their young…I feel dread constrict my nonexistent stomach”  (Muslim, 2016, pp. 7-8); or Laika’s observation of humans in the line “All you do is watch, hide, watch, hide…most people are compelled, for purpose of survival, to ignore….I think I see you….Look at me (p. 14); and the owner’s observation of his alien Pet “…it was a creature to quench our appetite to maim people…I hated its lack of will to fight, its unending devotion to the people who could never love it back” (p. 63) but when the two exchanged roles, as in the human turned into the pet and his “animal” into a human, the anthropomorphized minion “did not do anything to hurt [him]” (pp. 64-65).

Meanwhile, the human concept of being separate from the rest of creation that leads to the annihilation of other kinds- an idea under the inflection Concept of Interconnectedness of the trope Wilderness- is also evident in stories like No Little Bobos, a reference to the Albert Bandura’s Bobo experiment in 1961, where a girl named Chelsea Benderfield is being trained to become “truly aggressive” who expressed her vigor to destroy and indifference towards their enemies in her statement, “Anyone who does not look and talk like us is the enemy…I promise I will hurt them as best as I can,…so they won’t come back” (p. 23); the story Jude and the Moonman about a boy who despised and eventually killed a non-human creature for the reason that it “wasn’t human” and it “corrupted my sense of order…how the world worked…the taut demarcation line that separated predator from prey” (pp. 40-43); and Quarantine Tank which is a story related to Chelsea’s story because they are both set in the same timeframe. Here, while Chelsea is being trained in a laboratory, the characters in Quarantine Tank are living in the only remaining farmland in the state where vegetation still grows. Despite the presence of an odd vessel with a chemical plant as front across the persona’s farm which seems to keep people from accessing it and the stories from their elders about how the vessel is a quarantine tank for other people, the persona tells the elders “Not to worry” (p. 94)…and there is nothing to fear. It is better to act as if we do not know the truth yet…. Maybe there is a bigger secret, a bigger lie [although] they squandered resources….It does not really matter at this point. I don’t care. We have our lavender fields, and they are beautiful and pristine.  Nothing matters after that” (pp. 94-96).

Moreso, apart from the titles above that substantiate Globalization, the piece The Day of the Builders mirrors the upgrades generated by human interference in the natural world. The story is reminiscent of the time of Western Capitalism when powerful nations conquered other lands and started to “build a hospital and a school, and highways [to] reach civilization…factories, to make more things faster…pumps to siphon underground water…dams…a chemical plant in front the fields of lavender….(p. 84). The builders “decimated the area of the tropical forest [the natives] called home...blast razed the trees” and although “some [people] died, those that flourished…entered the cities and mingled with those…who covet ever so strongly what others have [and] always take more than what was needed” (p. 90).

The dominant themes were communicated through the characters, settings, and situations in these stories which are reminiscent of real-life people, places, and events in the Anthropocene. The ancient beast in Leviathan is an apparent representation of all the animals that are now nonexistent because of human meddling like the Tasmanian tigers that were declared extinct in 1936 (Prowse et al., 2013). The Builders although depicted as an alien species are no other than mankind who “destroys forests and valleys” in the name of progress. The story is suggestive of, for example, the struggles of the indigenous people in Kalinga and the Mountain province of the Philippines to stop the construction of hydropower dams on the Chico River they call the “River of Life” (Lapniten, 2021). Meanwhile, the theriomorphized humans in stories that involve non-human animals, and the apathetic human characters from Quarantine Tank symbolize all humankind and their “lowlier” spiritual attributes that disconnect them from reality and the rest of creation; the notion of indifference takes form in the actions of these humans while the anthropomorphized non-human animals function as subtle physical manifestations of loyalty, care, and kindness.

Doom Discerned by The Drone Outside

The second data set is the anthology The Drone Outside by the same author, Kristine Ong-Muslim. There are only 9 stories in this 49-page collection, and certain stories relate to the pieces from the first collection Age of Blight; this network maintains not only the evoked depressing feelings but also the themes.

In The Drone Outside, 16 excerpts were coded under various ecocritical tropes. The majority were categorized under the Apocalypse trope followed by the subcategory Extinction of the theme Animals. Only one theme, Dwelling, was not identified among the six ecocritical themes. Nonetheless, the results indicate the presence of ecocritical tropes in the stories, sustained through literary elements. Of the 16 coded excerpts, 5 were identified as Symbols, and 4 were associated with the Setting. 

The pieces of short fiction in this collection, although not explicitly stated as related, all share and evoke the same feeling of hopelessness and doom. Moreover, the accounts of the characters living in a post-apocalyptic setting in this anthology seem to be observed and recounted by a ubiquitous drone, hence, the title. 

The first 6 stories are set in an environment that is desolate as it is described repeatedly as hot, dry, and arid. It is apparent in the sentence “With the heatwave underway, the short walk to our vehicle was blistering agony. There was a patch of green growing between the cracks on the pavement. It could be the beginnings of the organic vegetation that we had long been hoping for” from Kilroy Was Here (Muslim, 2017, p. 7); the lines “A familiar routine unfolds in and around the museum in the desert” (p. 12) and “Outside the museum and out there in the world: the perpetual heatwave” (p. 14) from Anno Domini; the narrations from Eventide, “ Even as people avoid the streets and the great outdoors, where the heatwave stockpiles its projected daily death toll” and “Green, as in the verdant green fields that have long ceased to exist in this world” (pp. 16-17); and also in Demolition through the lines “The centralized air conditioning’s balm of salvation against the heatwave outside” (p. 21) “Everywhere, the heatwave” and “ There were no windows left in this world. It was just the heatwave…” (pp. 24-25). In addition, the setting is painted as a “stupid, miserable wasteland” (p. 10) in The Outsiders and a “wasteland [with] sweltering heat” in Anno Domini (p. 15). In these stories, the setting not only reinforces the tropes but also symbolizes a conceivable bleak future for both humanity and the planet if the Anthropocene continues. Additionally, it frames the world as an adversary to mankind, foreshadowing extinction.

The inflection Extinction under the theme of Animals does not only apply to the extermination of non-human species but of mankind as well. This is very evident in the stories The Neighbors and Boltzmann Brain; the former is about a man named Suarez who tries to withdraw from loneliness caused by being alone through playing recorded sounds of people, animals, and daily Earth activities; he does this every day though “there was nobody out there to produce such a racket” (p. 36) and as he mutters his mantra “not alone, not alone, not alone” (p. 38).

The Neighbors also concludes with Suarez’s realization that “[mankind] grossly miscalculated its goals for immortality” (p. 38). The ending is a fitting prologue for the last story in the anthology, Boltzmann Brain, which is a reference to the theory of the same name by physicist Ludwig Boltzmann. He hypothesized self-aware brains that may have been formed through the convergence of random particles in a chaotic, infinite, and old system or void. He theorized that a simpler organism, like a brain with memories, is easier to form than an entire universe, so it poses the idea that nothing in the universe exists and that what is perceived now as true are just figments or memories of disembodied consciousness. Here, the character- the brain- seems to live in a time long after the events in the previous stories, and just like Suarez, it is alone yet hopeful to see another of its kind (pp. 47-49). The piece chronicles historical instances of species extinction caused by human misconduct, as conveyed in the lines:

On this day 70 years ago, the planet’s last polar bear Arturo died, his body freed at last after 22 years of slowly going insane from the sweltering heat and unremitting stress captivity in a concrete pit at Argentina’s Mendoza Zoological Park. On this day 85 years ago, collared, chained, drugged, and used as a mascot for the torch ceremony of the second to the last Olympic Games, one of the last remaining jaguars in the world was gunned down when it attempted to escape from the clutches of people wanting to take selfies with it. On this day 92 years ago, the last remaining species of Ceratotherium simum cottoni, the magnificent northern white rhinoceros, was killed by a poacher who bribed one of the guards in a nature preserve in Sudan (p.  49). 

Likewise, along the lines:

On this day 102 years ago, it was discovered too late that all the plastic waste dumped in what was formerly known as the United Kingdom were being washed into the Arctic region within two years. Autopsy results showed that all the marine animals collected in that region for the next one hundred years had plastic inside them. And on this day 98 years ago, the melting of the permafrost in Siberia was finally kicked off by years and years of massive deforestation. Subterranean craters were revealed once the trees that had insulated the frozen ground for millions of years were removed. With these craters came the release of methane into the atmosphere, effectively accelerating global warming…the eventual mega slump, the precession of the Earth’s axis from the melting of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, the dominos that mark all possible paths to extinction quietly falling in place (p. 45). 

The cataclysmic events that led to the Earth’s doom in this piece suggest why the Machin family in The Longest Night- the story that preceded Boltzmann Brain- lives on a planet that is “blanketed in darkness for nineteen months and three days every 42 years” (p. 40).

The Anthropocene is evident in the stories, seemingly retelling real events like the extinction of the northern white rhino in 2018. If treated as reality, the narrative suggests a forewarning of the planet's demise in 2110. The settings in the mentioned titles hint at a potential future, especially if events in "Boltzmann Brain" occur. They not only support tropes but also serve as symbols of a possible bleak future for both humanity and the planet.

Naermyth Turn the Table

Karen Francisco's debut novel, Naermyth, captivated readers due to its relatable nature. Despite the dystopian setting, the scenarios are easily imaginable as they unfold in familiar local places like Parañaque, Pangasinan, Mt. Makiling in Los Baños, and others. In addition, the narrative is enriched by the inclusion of well-known and thrilling Philippine folklore characters like the aswang, kapre, and duwende, providing a distinctly local context.

A total of 65 excerpts were categorized under various ecocritical tropes, with the subcategory Modern Concept of Interconnectedness of the theme Wilderness as the prevalent theme. Additionally, all six tropes were recognized in this dataset, suggesting that the novel communicates ecocritical themes through its intrinsic literary elements. Among the excerpts, most were associated with the tool Symbol. 

Throughout the novel, the protagonist Athena, or Aegis (alias), constantly battles herself because of inner conflict; she was trained (and is very good) in killing Naermyth. In her mind as a Shepherd, a trained fighter who finds and gathers survivors, it was the only way to survive. However, she laments in front of a mirror how “her eyes are not [hers but are] of a killer.” And although she has been called many names like a hero or warrior, she perceives the labels as inaccurate for “to shed blood that was not your own was to kill, and no legal, social, or customary description could paint over the truth” (Francisco, 2010, p. 14). Her internal conflict intensifies upon rescuing and learning more about Dorian, revealed as a Wing Wight—a Nephilim or an angel. Athena's beliefs and commitment to fighting Naermyth are repeatedly challenged due to her evolving bond with Dorian.

The struggle not between forces of light and darkness but within a character is explained in the inflection Sectarian View of the trope Apocalypse. The comic framing of the world as a friend despite being faced with apocalyptic possibilities entails acceptance, and this often leads to struggle because of confronted principles. This is evident in many statements in the novel such as when Athena tries to convince Dorian to allow her to help him find out the truth about his nature. Dorian asks why she is hesitant to kill him to which she responds:

There are two sides to a coin, and I’ve just flipped the coin over…I have always thought the Naermyth were one thing and the humans another. After five years of killing them, you can’t help but think that way; it just makes everything easier. Then there’s you…. I was comfortable with these compartments, but that didn’t make them healthy. Compassion is your undying trait even when you are not yourself…maybe I can learn compassion from you. (pp. 69-70)

Later, she finds out that she is Dorian’s sister which explains her instant liking of him and why they cannot touch; she blacks out when their skins come in contact. Athena is a female Wing Wight. The revelation shatters her to the point that she wants to just disappear because the idea of being a Naermyth repulsed her (p. 158), but when she is surrounded by Naermyth at one point in the story, although their image makes her “cringe”, she “realizes that they were just like [her]” (p. 278).

The character of Athena is a symbol of a person who constantly struggles because of his perceptions of reality. This person sees the predicament and is hinted at a possible but challenging solution but finds himself adamant about change. He then experiences cognitive dissonance because his values do not match his actions. In this time of the Anthropocene, numerous individuals embody the archetype of Athena – they are confronted with the stark realities of our planet's condition but have become desensitized to its implications; they struggle to accept the truth that calls for adjustments. Consequently, they act in willful ignorance. These people are comparable to the human characters in the story of the dog Laika in Age of Blight who only “watch, hide, watch, hide… compelled for purpose of survival to ignore” (Muslim, 2016, p. 14). However, some are also like Athena who embrace the discomfort of facing prejudices to welcome change to benefit the self and others. This other side of Athena realized her Interconnectedness or oneness with the others- the Naermyth. 

The inflection of Interconnectedness is very evident in the novel because, first of all, the Naermyth characters interact with nature as if they are one with it. Often, it is recounted in the book how they are “attached to nature” (Francisco, 2010, p. 99) and they “have their native lands where they grow and evolve according to the environment, topography, geography, climate, and more” (p. 112). The aswang, for example, “can smell the boggy fumes in the air from the swamp that used to cover Makati, and it rejuvenates them” (p. 110) “the undin and sirena ruled the water” (p. 9) and how most of the Naermyth dislike cities and pollution because they prefer places with “trees and freshwater” like “Capiz, the cesspool for the Philippine monsters even at the height of urban civilization” (p. 99). In the novel, the Naermyth are physical embodiments of natural elements—wilderness that humanity seeks to control or, in this case, eliminate. The novel portrays a bleak state where the wilderness has seized control, leaving mankind no longer the dominant species. However, wilderness is not completely framed as terrorizing throughout the novel because of instances when, for example, the mountainous terrains of Mt. Arayat and Mt. Makiling which are described as engkanto territories served as the Shepherds’ refuge when they were trying to escape and hide from their enemies. And because the diwata are a powerful kind of Naermyth, assumed to rank next to Wing Wights, lower mythological creatures and even humans observe their rules, like the prohibition of looting, fights, and bloodshed on their territories (pp. 115-116). The diwata kingdoms, serving as the setting, symbolize sacred wild places akin to ancient forests where hermits went for solace and pilgrims to avoid persecution.

Furthermore, the Concept of Interconnectedness is also communicated through the plot, specifically the conflict. The lines associated with the plot also demonstrate the inflections of “Numinous, Terrorizing, Commodified Wilderness, and Globalization of The Earth”. In the novel, the planet remains a platform for the human construct of politics. Despite the worldwide cataclysmic events, the “politicking [did not] die with the government, but like any pest, it survived”; the remaining humans formed the National Bureau of Conflict and Transport or NaBuCAT that oversees the Shepherd operations (p. 42) while the family of Dr. Valencio A. Rao Jr. or Valarao, the main antagonist- a Dvergar or duwende- ruled like the Naermyth’s president in Capiz (p. 284). The plot thickens when Athena finally confronts Valarao. In their encounter, she learns that he is keeping her hostage because he needs her Naermyth abilities and the clues from her Emerald pendant to figure out the missing ingredient in a recipe, the Elixir of Life, that he has been trying to perfect, not for the Naermyth but for the humans. He explains to Athena that “unlike humans, Naermyth have the ability to produce aether, and with aether, they can regenerate…. Hunting humans has become impractical with their dwindling number, and there aren’t enough to feed [his] people and without regulation, the [human] species would become extinct.” Valarao presents a proposal “to ensure the survival of [mankind] and [to meet the] clamoring of [his] carnivorous citizens. The hunting will cease, allowing humans to live in peace while [their] food supply will be harvested from an unlimited source” (pp. 286-287). 

How the tables have turned! Now, mankind is commodified and “reduced to cattle for slaughter”. Upon hearing Valarao’s offer, Athena once again struggles. Ultimately, she refuses to give her aether and says that “Love and Loyalty” should prevail, and since “Humans and Naermyth are cousins after all, there should be other ways to make pacts and compromises” because she thinks humans “deserve better” (pp. 288-289). The plot is an effective allusion to an Anthropocentric issue which is animal agriculture and its effects on the environment.

The novel's conflict relies on meat-eating Naermyth. In the Anthropocene, addressing environmental issues can involve transitioning to a plant-based or vegan lifestyle. Veganism excludes animal products for ethical, environmental, and health reasons, avoiding meat, dairy, eggs, and products involving animal harm like leather and fur. This lifestyle is linked to environmental health, addressing issues like increased greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation-driven biodiversity loss, and pollution associated with livestock farming (Eisen & Brown, 2022). Greg Gararrd began the chapter on Animals with an explication of the term speciesism which is a prejudice that assumes mankind’s superiority over other species that leads to the exploitation of non-human animals. Although he claims that the animal liberation principles conflict with environmentalism in terms of theory and practice, he agrees that livestock farming causes environmental degradation thus making it “an important ally of ecocriticism if not strictly a branch of it” (Garrard, 2004).

In the novel, the world's imbalance results from Naermyth's appearance and the carnivorous ones needing human meat. To meet the demand without impacting human population, the Naermyth leader plans to experiment on humans, enabling body part regeneration for harvesting. This hints at a solution to the ecocritical issue akin to lab-grown meat. Studies highlight livestock farming as a major contributor to over half of greenhouse gas emissions, fueling climate change, global warming, pollution, and biodiversity loss (Eisen & Brown, 2022; Milman, 2021; Rosenzweig et al., 2020; Searchinger et al., 2018; Xu et al., 2021). To tackle concerns about animal farming, welfare, and climate change, companies explore lab-grown meat to eliminate reliance on factory-farmed animals and reduce carbon emissions and pollution. Despite potential emissions and resource challenges, further testing and investments, including renewable energy use, are required for refinement (Crownhart, 2023; Sinke et al., 2023; Tuomisto et al. 2022). 

The ecocritical themes in this novel are effectively conveyed through the characters, events, and intrinsic literary tools. These elements can stimulate discussions on contemporary ecocritical issues including animal exploitation and its impact on the planet's health.

Wanting and Wounded Little Gods

In Eliza Victoria's riveting novel, the protagonist Regina unravels her hometown's mysterious secrets, revealing its horrifying past and encountering tangible nature spirits in her quest for the truth.

Sixty-two excerpts were coded under various ecocritical themes/tropes in the novel Wounded Little Gods. Two subcategories outranked the other themes with each scoring 12; one is under “Wilderness”, i.e., Numinous, Terrorizing, Commodified, and the other under “Animals”, i.e., Speciesism. Subsequently, two other subcategories, Anthropomorphism and Theriomorphism under Animals and Globalization of The Earth, scored equally. All tropes were also identified in the novel, and this hints that the themes were sustained through the literary tools with the majority being deemed related to the plot.

Regina grew up in the far-fetched town of Heridos, and she has a brother named Luciano. When Luciano was younger, his parents signed an agreement with a group of researchers who claimed to help Luciano–who was a problem child– to “change”. True enough, Luciano returned as a “different” child–smart, well-behaved, and quiet (Victoria, 2016)– and grew up peacefully with his family. One day, Regina called her brother about a person named Diana de Leon, who turned out to be an alias for a character named Doreen. Doreen, posing as Regina's co-worker, discussed human experimentation while revealing a familiar image of a house in a rice field in Heridos. Regina, unnerved, left without understanding Diana's motive. Days after, Regina discovered Diana missing, and a cryptic note was left for her to solve. At present in Heridos, Regina tries to unravel the mystery and soon uncovers that her brother Luciano, Doreen (Diana), and three others are harvest spirits in Heridos.

Once a year, these spirits receive human bodies from Dumangan, the God of Good Harvest, to experience life. Discontent with temporary possession, one of them accidentally killed Dumangan when he refused to let them keep their human forms. Facing the suspecting Hukluban, the Goddess of Death, they offered the bodies of deceased children from Maximillian Fortes Center for Hereditary and Genetics. Mid-ritual, they exchanged bodies with 5 dead children to alleviate guilt about keeping the forms gifted to them by the murdered god. The spirits, now Luciano, Doreen, Florina, Lorretta, and Emil, vowed to honor the children's lives. However, Doreen grew weary and left, leading Regina to discover their secret.

Speciesism, akin to racism and slavery, involves discriminatory hierarchical orders based on arbitrary traits. Discrimination in speciesism, distinguishing between humans and other animals, mirrors racial discrimination. This logic, leading to objectification and commodification, is evident in historical events like the Holocaust. In this narrative, the Animals trope, along with Numinous, Terrorizing, and Commodified tropes of Wilderness, and the Globalization trope of The Earth, is sustained through human experimentation, a construct tied to Globalization, playing a significant role in the plot. For example, the “subpar” children like Luciano were commodified as experiment subjects– infected with a disease through a “syringe plunged into a vein, followed by another syringe containing the supposed cure. A new drug is administered at 10 AM and again at 5:30 PM, every day for fourteen days and…. bright flashing lights [were also installed] to ensure sleep deprivation” (p. 173) since they were deemed “subpar…[and are better off] sterilized or donated to science…as they will be able to help the rest of the population” (p. 92).

Furthermore, the novel's plot contains statements on animal commodification juxtaposed with lines addressing the issue of human experimentation. For example, the characterization of Clara– the experiment subject who escaped– is juxtaposed on p.153 alongside the picture of her parents “at the wet market, butchering pigs for sale”. She is further described as a “failure for not having the willpower to butcher meat” (p. 154); on p.11, it is described that the occupation of people of Heridos changed from being farmers to storeowners and “full-time hog and poultry farmers, raising pigs and chickens in backyard kennels and selling them as butchered meat in the wet market”; on p.177 where a man was recounted as “unable to get up from bed for three straight months, unable to eat rice, grain, or any animal that was fed grain, like chicken or pig, or cow”; on p. 192 while one spirit was depicted to be “cutting a chunk of meat from the chicken’s breast and serving on [Dumangan’s] plate”; and as soon as p. 1 where it is recounted that “Regina was used to seeing adults making animal sacrifices and offerings to bless a new house, to ask for the end of an illness, or to pray for a bountiful harvest….[These] sounded beautiful to Regina, but not, as she was fond of saying, something that would sway her vegetarian friends” (p. 9). Interestingly, beginning the novel with this imagery seems to be a way to acquaint the readers with a conflict that they will constantly encounter within the narrative- a conflict raised by questions like “If using non-human animals as food and experiment subjects is already normalized and acceptable because it helps people, is it not pragmatic to use inferior humans, at least, as test subjects? Is it not sensible to treat them as commodities like nonhuman animals since they are only a burden to others?” 

Objectification and exploitation of beings and nature stem from the perception of otherness. When humans consider themselves superior, they may exploit others without considering the consequences. Applied to humanity's relationship with the planet, this mindset can lead to environmental degradation. The failure to recognize dependence on healthy ecosystems hinders environmental efforts. In the novel, Luciano and Regina's parents, along with Fortes doctors, symbolize this disconnection and a desire to dominate creation. Dr. Dorothea Fortes' statements in a debate with Regina highlight this disconnect and a desire for knowledge of the natural world; she said, “If you can successfully experiment on an animal, just use an animal…but you can’t always use animals. Sooner or later, you’d need to use a human subject… It’s pragmatic…The best thing parents could do with their subpar children if they choose not to sterilize them is to donate them to science. At least, in that way, they will be able to help the rest of the population” (pp. 89-92); also in the narration of the inner struggle that the parents experienced when they surrendered Luciano to the Center as expressed in the lines “During those days, it was not uncommon to hear stories of children locked in cages and being hit with sticks. [Parents] turn their children over to Dr. Fortes and the Center with gratitude, with relief, because, for once, they are allowed to believe that they are kind…even if [they] don’t exactly know what it they do inside the Center…[the parents] are hopeful that their children will be fixed…Maybe then, [they] can love [their children] with the full vastness of their heart” (p. 174); and in the statements of Florina, one of the spirits, while she was in her human form and arguing with Dumangan about existence: ”I am not upset just trying to understand the true order of things” (p. 192). 

Meanwhile, the spirits of the harvest of Heridos who possessed the human bodies of the dead children represent the selfish state of mankind that disconnects them (and mankind) from their “higher” spiritual states. One of the spirits recounted how she felt when she was “clothed with a [human] body. The first thing that hits is longing, and it is not just one longing. It is a chain of it, one after the other. [They] wanted so much, and [they] were frightened and impressed by how selfish the bodies made [them]” (pp. 178-179). The image of little gods who became selfish when embodied poses significant philosophical questions like “What does it mean to be human?” and the answers to this inquiry may also lead to an awareness of how we ought to treat non-human beings as it is implied in the statement on Regina in the closing of the novel “[For these] subpar children…consider that maybe all they need is compassion” (p. 229). Truly, it is by cultivating mankind’s higher spiritual attributes that they can remedy their indifference and their perceived separation from the rest of creation. 

Texts Teeming with Tropes

The second research objective is to identify patterns connecting the speculative narratives. Using the co-occurrence filtering function of Dedoose, the researcher examined themes and literary tools tagged frequently in the data sets.

Across all four sets of data, excerpts were consistently linked with the intrinsic literary elements of plot, character, and symbol while the subcategories of the ecocritical trope Wilderness, i.e.., Numinous, Terrorizing, and Commodified, and the Concept of Interconnectedness, along with The Earth (Globalization), and Animals (Anthropomorphism and Theriomorphism; Speciesism) were the sustained themes.

Almost all ecocritical tropes received textual evidence, except for the subcategories Pastoral under Pollution and Gaia under Earth. This suggests that the selected speculative novels and anthologies are rich in ecocritical tropes.