“I hope they really evolve into a different species from us”: Human-Nature Disconnection, Eeriness, and Social Class in Han Song’s “Submarines”

Abstract

Human-nature disconnection is commonly seen as one of the major problems caused by modernization with many in the industrialized world advocating for people, and especially children, to spend more time in contact with nature. In this paper, I argue that the 2014 short story “Submarines” by the Chinese SF writer Han Song (b. 1965) challenges this widespread idea of a “return to nature” while calling attention to the links between environmental problems and class politics. I further argue that the story accomplishes this via the “eeriness” that Li Guangyi sees as the most apparent feature of Han Song’s literary style as well as by invoking the critical realism of Lu Xun (1881–1936), making the story an example of the “generic hybridity” of SF that Cara Healey has previously examined. As such, I contend that “Submarines” does not present the reader with ready-made answers, but instead offers a way to think about how ecological crises intersect with inequality.

Keywords

• chinese science fiction
• eeriness
• han song
• lu xun
• nature-deficit disorder
• social class