'Cli-Fi' Hymns

 

Peter Makwanya, a PhD candidate writing in South Africa who was born in the Midlands region of Zimbabwe, writing in NewsDay in Zimbabwe today, opines that writers need to write more cli-fi novels and that   "Hymns, songs and choruses can be fused within the stories to give the audiences time to reflect on how they relate and interact with their environments."    For those not familiar with the genre, Cli-Fi has a website here with over 100+ news links worldwide:   Cli-fi.net   Dear Peter, Thanks for a very good cli-fi oped in Zimbabe's newspaper Newsday, sir. Cli-fi is the name we have given to the old boring term of "cliiiiiimaaaaaate fiiiiiicttttttttion" and cli-fi is alive and well and going viral worlwide now, so it's great to see a Zimbabwean PhdD candidate in climate communications from the Midlands region of your country speaking up about the cli-fi genre for novels and movies, many of which will be coming from the continent of Africa in the future, too. We run a database of cli-fi news links and other cli-fi info at The Cli Fi Report at http://cli-fi.net.co​m. Welcome Zimbabwe clifi readers and writers and PhD candidates to join our 500+ member chat group discussing cli-fi books and films at Paul Collins' very good Facebook ''Cli-Fi Central'' group page, open to all, at www.facebook.com   From Peter's Cli-Fi Oped: https://www.newsday.co.zw/2015/09/07/writers-need-to-try-climate-fiction/   Another genre, which is sustainable and eco-conscious and is also related to linguistics but can be utilised in literature is eco-linguistics. It is the study of the environment in relation to language use. It is the study of how discourses about the natural environment potentially influence our perceptions of the environment and our interactions with it. In this view, linguists and literary experts can use climate fiction to challenge discourses that encourage language habits that have contributed to our present environmental crisis. According to research in social ecology, humans will not stop dominating nature and treating it as a resource until we stop dominating each other as well as treating each other as resources. It is the duty of literary experts to come up with stories (fiction) that do not encourage repeating of the same errors of the past and consider humans as part of the natural world rather than conquerors of it. Research in climate fiction should also be encouraged to look at the power of language in the context of environmental consciousness in order to identify gaps in the few existing research so as to suggest new solutions and mapping the way forward. Finally, environmental consciousness of society is informed by environmental consciousness of individuals since human beings, in their own right, are influenced by their surroundings, mother tongue and ethno-social groups they belong to. For, it is only in God that we always trust but in human beings we always need to check or remind each other. ●Peter Makwanya is a climate change communicator from Zimbabwe. He writes in his own capacity and can be contacted on: petrovmoyt@gmail.com and on twitter at @petrovmoyt            https://www.newsday.co.zw/2015/09/07/writers-need-to-try-climate-fiction/   PETER writes to this blog today after we contacted him by Twitter and Email:   ''Dear Dan, Thanks for the encouragement, sir. It is good to note where the term Cli Fi term came from. I look forward to interact with you and Paul Collins' Facebook group in order to bolster my understanding of this genre.''   Sincerely, -- Peter Makanya