Postcolonial Speculative Fiction

Evolving over time: nature vs industry

Petrofiction is a segment of literature that focuses on oil-based cultures, and the effect that these cultures have on the world around them. Nnedi Okorafor’s novel Lagoon includes some commentary on the effects of oil-based cultures on the environment.

Act two begins with a chapter called “The Bone Collector” where the narrator details the life of a tarantula as it crosses a highway. The tarantula mentions how he lives a good life in the forest (121), but he chooses to cross the road to make it to a new patch of the forest. As the tarantula gets a little way into his path to cross the road a car comes to bring his inevitable death.

Readers can see the effect that cars and highways have on how creatures besides humans are able to live their lives. The spider’s death is directly connected to the importance of oil and transportation to society.

The spider’s previous encounter with a wasp did not bring his death, and it only left him with a missing leg, in which he was able to live another five years. Readers can consider the difference in the two situations to see why one would cause the spider’s death over the other.

Nature versus Nature

When the spider is battling the Pepsis wasp, they are both elements of nature. Therefore, the two are more evenly matched. Other than some slight genetic differences, one creature cannot be vastly dominate over the other. The battle between the two only resulted in one missing leg for the spider because the wasp couldn’t be superior. However, the tarantula is not evenly matched with the cars on the highway.

Nature versus Industry

The cars on the highway are man made and are not found in nature, but these petro-vehicles function off the natural oil that they exploit. The problem is that the spider is trying to function in a rapidly evolving world where the cars get faster, but his speed cannot get better, but only gets worse.

Over time, creatures in nature devolve while the creations in oil-based cultures, like cars, constantly evolve for the better. Although the spider has crossed the highway many times before, he was able to adapt to society’s progress. Nnedi Okorafor seems to take her point even further when the car continues to drive down the road without even knowing that the spider is dead.

The people functioning in society continue evolve their cars and build more highways without considering the effects on the environment. Towards the end, it is stated that the highway “mostly collects human bones, and the bones of human vehicles. But sometimes it likes the chitinous bones of spiders, too” (122). The highways don’t care about any being that is on the road, and humans can’t event control how the highways affect them. Therefore, smaller creatures are being affected without people even giving an afterthought.

Exploited Nature affecting the Environment

Petrofiction focuses on how industrialized, oil-based cultures impact the community around them, and Okorafor’s chapter “The Bone Collector” provides a unique view.  

Through the story, readers are exposed to see how oil, which is a natural occurrence, can be exploited by the industrialized world to become a cog in the industrial machine. What was once natural is exploited and used to power the machines negative affecting the environment.

 The spider and oil could both naturally occur in nature, however, the issue emerges when large oil companies want to make a profit on the untapped oil. The removing of the oil from the Earth transforms it from something natural into a force used to destroy nature when used by humans incorrectly.  The oil then is used in cars that can kill a poor spider without a second thought. Ultimately, petrofiction aims to show the effects of humans exploiting natural resources for the benefit of themselves and industrialization.



 

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  1. I like how you turned the petro-fueled-auto into an invasive species out competing the spider’s ability to cross the road. The narrative hints that the spider species may never be able to adapt to the auto’s speed or its growing numbers. I say why bother removing the auto from nature’s realm? Sure, that wasp does have some sort of predator keeping its population check, but could the auto have one too? In short, has the auto become to humans as kudzu to our landscapes? We thought kudzu was a good fast-growing forage for livestock, but the livestock could not eat it fast enough. We thought that every person owning their own car would bring greater opportunity, but now we are slaves to them just to survive. Cars are out breeding us.
  2. I think it's interesting that you point out how the driver of the car doesn't even notice the tarantula. It seems to me that is exactly how people generally are when it comes to the conveniences of modern society. We, the "royal" we, talk about wanting to conserve natural resources and care for the environment, but we are also the car driver. We don't notice the majority of the damage we do. It's not malicious, it's unawareness. We, as a species, are unwilling to acknowledge the small things we do every day that have a profound effect on other life. Same thing with the oil, when I fill my car up, I don't ever think about where the crude oil came from. I don't think about the lives that were ended or altered because of it. I just want to get where I'm going. Developed and industrialized societies are the driver, the people of developing oil-producing countries are the tarantula.

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