New Carseri
As Sol rose over the mirrored buildings, twisting around one another to form impossible shapes, a dazzling display of artificial refracted light exposed the streets below. Pirouz turned sharply into a winding back alley, avoiding the glare and cutting her travel time by half. She knew the city and its hidden veins well, having grown up surrounded by the lights and noise accompanying the maze of the Sky Breachers. Wrought of metal and glass, they rose beyond sight. She had often wondered what it must be like to see New Carceri from up there, at the top of the world. Though, it was unlikely she would ever be afforded the opportunity. Sky Breachers were reserved for the wealthy elite and those who could afford the exorbitant visitor's pass. Father had often promised that they would buy a pass when she finished her education, and together they would see the city as they had always dreamed. It pained Pirouz to think of Father, so she pushed the intrusive thoughts down and instead turned her attention to the street around her. An array of screens sang out as she passed, displaying all new gadgets for easy living — Worry no more! With this handy new pocket-sized rebreather, you'll take fresh air wherever you go! The usual array of fast fashion and entertainment ads took up most of the remaining screens, while some displayed morning weather announcement — Clear and sunny with a midday shower set to last 45 minutes. Pirouz didn't understand how people got on before artificial weather, going about each day without knowing what to expect. Locating the umbrella in her bag, she gave it a reassured pat.
The streets were bustling; children ran up and down the narrow stairwells that lead to the upper and lower levels, almost knocking down the bleary-eyed commuters on their way to work. Pirouz joined the gentle flow of foot traffic for a short while before turning down a narrow access road, up a spiralling ramp and across a bridge, spitting her out in front of the offices of Lucid Architectural — making dreams a reality. She wiped the sleep from her eyes and stepped across the threshold into the sterile building, quickly descending to the third floor and sliding unnoticed into her spacious workstation. She set aside her belongings and picked up the visor sitting where she had left it on her desk. Sliding the device over her eyes and flicking a switch on the frame, she was met with the familiar grid of her holo-canvas. She glanced at the jobs allocated for the day before opening her most recent project, a simulated playroom meant for toddlers. She kneeled to better inspect the hard-light arrays that made up the dancing toys and flashing lights she had created the previous day. Raising her fingers to a singing stuffed bear, she made a halting motion, causing it to freeze in place. With a parting of her fingers, the holo-canvas zoomed in until each tuft of fur could be tugged and tweezed into place.
Pirouz? When did you get in? Came a raspy voice from across the room.
Without looking up from her work Pirouz called back in response. Hiya Marie. Not long ago, Mum had a rough night.
Well, don't let Paul see you slacking; he's not in a good mood after last week.
Yeah.
Drinks after work?
Yeah… Yeah. If I can get this damn fur to look real.
Don't be so dramatic. It looks perfect.
A beat passed as Pirouz assessed her progress. Not yet. She muttered.
Right… Good luck, then.
—
She emerges from her cocoon! Shouted Marie, from the bar stool she gracefully occupied.
Do you even know what that means? Pirouz said derisively as she took her seat and accepted a tall glass of white liquor.
No… but it sounds pretty, doesn't it? Marie had a contemplative look, clearly already a few drinks in. As she swivelled to face Pirouz, her expression turned sympathetic; How is your Mother doing?
No better, no worse.
I'm sorry. I wish there were something I could do.
Unless you have a crapload of credits stashed somewhere, there's little either of us can do.
Marie's eyes widened suddenly. I do! Well, I sorta do... I have a way that you can make a crapload of credits!
"You do? What is it?"
A friend told me about this old guy who was looking for some private holo work, she thought I might be interested, but it's way beyond me. I'm betting you could do it, though!
Pirouz considered the proposal. The private holo market was infamous for its unregulated chaos. Marie insisted the opportunity was legitimate, claiming a friend worked for the old man's company. Emboldened by the liquor and satisfied with her friend's testimony, Pirouz placed the now empty glass back on the bar;
I guess I could check it out. What's the harm, right?
—
The Sky Breacher loomed overhead, sending a shiver down Pirouz's spine as she craned her neck to see its top — Pointless. It had to be one of the tallest in the city, extending vertically in a crooked mass of sculpted metal. Swallowing hard, she entered the magnificent building through an enormous set of clouded glass doors and was immediately taken aback at its emptiness. Apart from herself, all that stood in the room was an elegant desk against the far wall, with a lone receptionist behind it, busily tapping away on a remote device. The receptionist looked up expectantly when she heard the door close and stood. Pirouz gingerly approached.
Pirouz? Chirped the receptionist, a practised smile on her face. We've been expecting your arrival. Please, head straight up.
The receptionist pushed a button on the desk, and a set of double doors appeared as if from nowhere, revealing a spacious glass elevator.
Up? Pirouz murmured.
Mr Wynne is expecting you in the penthouse.
Pirouz hesitated; everything in her life had led her to this moment. After all this time, she would see the top of the world, just as she had always wanted. She stepped into the maw of the elevator and heard the doors shut swiftly behind her. Closing her eyes, she readied herself as the crystal elevator began its long ascent.
Pirouz could feel the elevator shifting as she readied herself. Thinking of how happy Father would have been if he knew what she was doing, she opened her eyes and gasped in astonishment. As far off as the horizon, the city below spread like a labyrinth of diverging paths, breaking off from one another into countless fractured deviations. The mid-morning illumination from Sol bathed the buildings in a glittering spectacle of dancing lights, whilst the interconnected bridges that joined together the buildings of New Carceri shaded entire city blocks.
She analysed every minute detail, desperate to store the image in her mind, when a sudden rolling darkness overtook her vision. She jumped back and fell to the floor in surprise, only then realising that her face had been pushed against the glass wall. She picked herself up and returned to the glass, confused and frustrated by the intrusion of the black mass surrounding the elevator. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, it suddenly vanished from sight, and a blinding light took its place. Pirouz raised her hands to cover her eyes, but as she did, the glass tinted to a darker shade, and the light dissipated.
Baffled by the strange occurrences, Pirouz took a wary step towards the glass to ensure she could still see New Carceri below. She placed a hand on the glass to steady herself as she gasped in shock. Where once there had been a sprawling cityscape, now there was only a bank of enormous black clouds, rolling into one another like plumes of smoke. The cloud bank seemed to go on infinitely, only broken by the occasional Sky Breacher, poking through the swirling mass in the distance. Distracted by the black clouds, it took Pirouz a moment to realise that even the Sky Breachers that towered over the city now looked tiny by comparison, and she wondered just how high she was.
With a ding, the elevator stopped, and a bewildered Pirouz stepped out. The penthouse was an impressive sight. A large entrance gave way to a heavily windowed viewing area; The connecting hallway led down to what looked to be a bed and office space. Pirouz cautiously entered the room, expecting to see a sign of her client. The walls were decorated with hanging frames with pictures of things Pirouz had never seen. Entranced, she stepped gingerly around the room, inspecting each one. She stopped at a frame hanging away from the others. It depicted a strange twisted object jutting from the ground and separating into countless smaller, fragmenting points.
What are you? She murmured.
That is a tree.
Snapping back to reality, Pirouz turned quickly to face the elderly man she now saw standing patiently in the hall as though he had been there for some time. It's beautiful.
It's dead.
Suddenly feeling a flush of embarrassment, Pirouz remembered she was standing in someone else's home. I'm sorry to intrude. My name is Pir-
Pirouz. I know. Thank you for coming. Please feel free to enjoy the rest of the gallery.
The elderly man's gentle nature calmed Pirouz as he approached a collection of frames depicting vistas of harsh rockface and shades of green beyond anything she had ever seen. For a moment, the man seemed lost in thought before turning and waving to Pirouz, inviting her to join him.
What are these photographs of exactly?
Our world.
I've never seen anything like them before.
No… You should be glad. It's a painful memory.
I'm sorry.
No… I'm sorry. I asked you here for a purpose.
Yes? What is it?
I want you to bring them back.
—
Pirouz steadied her hand as she delicately traced the shape of a leaf against a thinning branch. For a moment, she admired her work. Never had she created something so foreign. All she had for reference were the images on the benefactor's walls. Still, there was something uncomfortably familiar about this project.
She had extracted quite a bit of information from her host, whom she confirmed was the wealthy Mr Wynn. He spoke of the world when he was a young man. Abundant grasslands, lush forests, and crystal waterways that carved their way down perilous mountains. He told her of a broken humanity, more concerned with progress than the present. He spoke of his mistakes, greedily feeding off the land that nurtured him. Turning beauty into profits until there was nothing left to profit on.
Pirouz had been working for some days now, each morning arriving at the looming tower and riding the elevator as far as it goes. With each trip up the tower, Pirouz looked across the city and try to picture it with rolling grass hills, abundant with greenery. She wasn't surprised by the cloud bank anymore. Mr Wynn told her that it was the atmospheric line where the artificial weather machines operate. She would enter the penthouse, greet the always present and charming Mr Wynn, and set to work. In thehours that followed, Mr Wynn would regale Pirouz with tales of the natural world. He had a bittersweet way of remembering, clearly feeling heavy emotion when he spoke.
You expect to finish today, Pirouz? Mr Wynn questioned, breaking Pirouz from her daydream.
Yes! Actually, I think I’m done. Would you like to see it?
Mr Wynn gace a sullen nod, and Pirouz took this as a sign of affirmation. She slid the visor from her head and switched the wall device to a hard light preview. With a flicker, the landscape filled the space in the centre of the room. A creek of gently flowing water bubbled in amongst a modest treeline; a gust of wind shook the leaves and caused the oaks to sway; and distant birdsong filled the air.
Pirouz stood back, doing her best not to look in the direction of Mr Wynn, uncertain how he would react to her interpretation of his photographs. Unable to control herself, she quickly glanced his way. Mr Wynn stepped towards the illuminated image, reaching out a hand as if to rest it against the closest tree, but as he reached the trunk his hand passed right through. He stared for a moment at his hand before looking up at Pirouz. She could see in the refracted hard light of the hologram as a single tear rolled down his cheek.
Exegesis
New Carceri is a theoretical post-anthropocentric text based upon the etchings of Italian printmaker Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Piranesi, Carceri D'Invenzione - Prisoners on a Projecting Platform 1761). The plot follows a young woman as she navigates a world irrevocably changed by unchecked human development and explores what humanity looks like when completely separated from our natural environment. In writing this piece, my initial goal was to explore the idea of the Anthropocene, blurring "the line that would distinguish an organism from what surrounds it" (Latour, After lockdown: A metamorphosis 2021) until all evidence of the line that once existed was beyond recognition. I contended that whilst critics will contend that "humans [are] separate from and superior to nature" (Boslaugh, Britannica 2016), the unconscious and perpetuating truth is that we are as much a part of nature as anything else. Therefore New Carceri is not necessarily a criticism of climate deniers or pro-human activists but rather a hypothetical future state of the natural world.
I avoided using words or phrases that alluded to anything natural throughout the text. As such, when it came time to describe images of landscapes, I struggled to find the right words. Perhaps irrationally, my first consideration for solving this problem was pastoral writing. I was particularly interested in how 'The pastoral can be a mode of political critique of present society' (Gifford, Pastoral 2019). Therefore, instead of writing in poetics about the land's natural beauty, I attempted the inverse. The result was a distinct lack of poetry in the text in contrast to classical pastoral prose that worked to critique the absence of nature in modern society.
During the writing process, I came across a series of articles touting modern solutions to climate change issues. I chose to weave elements of Serbia's 'Liquid Trees' — an 'innovative tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality' (Castim, A liquid tree? scientists in Serbia make incredible innovation 2022) and China's 'Artifical Sun' — 'a safer alternative to fission nuclear power' (Magazine, China's artificial sun just broke a record for longest sustained nuclear fusion 2022) into New Carceri. The basis of the novel — a world post-climate change — and the realities of these innovative clime change solutions speaks to the idea of 'separate[ing] our human bodies from climate' (Neimanis & Walker, Weathering: Climate change and the "Thick Time" of Transcorporeality 2014) and as such, becoming disconnected from the natural world.
New Carceri is a contemplative, non-critical, post-anthropocentric, anti-pastoral, post-climate short story. In writing it, I hope to allow readers to explore the concepts presented without judgment or expectation. Whilst this piece may not inspire a generation of climate activists, this type of climate fiction is essential in exploring the futurity of humanity and realising how impactful today's decisions will be in the world of tomorrow.
Citations
Boslaugh, S.G. (2016) anthropocentrism [Preprint]. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/anthropocentrism (Accessed: 08 June 2023).
Castim, D. (2022) A liquid tree? scientists in Serbia make incredible innovation, World Bio Market Insights. Available at: https://worldbiomarketinsights.com/a-liquid-tree-scientists-in-serbia-make-incredible-innovation/ (Accessed: 08 June 2023).
Gifford, T. (2019) Pastoral. Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge.
Latour , B. (2021) After lockdown: A metamorphosis. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Magazine, S. (2022) China’s artificial sun just broke a record for longest sustained nuclear fusion, Smithsonian.com. Available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/chinas-artificial-sun-reactor-broke-record-for-nuclear-fusion-180979336/ (Accessed: 08 June 2023).
Neimanis, A. and Walker, R.L. (2014) ‘Weathering: Climate change and the “Thick Time” of Transcorporeality’, Hypatia, 29(3), pp. 558–575. doi:10.1111/hypa.12064.
Piranesi, G.B. (1761) Carceri D’Invenzione - Prisoners on a Projecting Platform, Princeton University Art Museum. Available at: https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/object-package/giovanni-battista-piranesi-imaginary-prisons/3640 (Accessed: 08 June 2023).