Ecofeminist Replicants and Aliens: Future Elysiums through an Ethics of Care

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Notes

¹ Since these novels have now been translated into English, I will use the translations in the rest of the article to facilitate comprehension: Tears in Rain (2012) and Weight of the Heart (2016), respectively. The title of the first is a clear homage to the film, Blade Runner. A third novel has been announced, but has yet to be published.

² Note: the first smartwatch by Apple was launched in 2014, whereas the first novel was published in 2011.

³ The topic of health care as discriminatory is important in the novel, and also in Spain. Up until 2012 all Spaniards and residents of Spain had universal coverage under the National Health System. For many Spaniards, health care and education are non-negotiable rights. Given the financial crisis, some saw a reduction of that coverage, the result of government spending cuts. The wording of the law changed, determining that one had to be a beneficiary of the system to enjoy rights to the National Health System. This change, together with attempts to semi-privatize health services, have raised numerous protests. In the electoral year of 2015 the government, forced by a number of unilateral decisions by different autonomous communities, back-tracked slightly to cover undocumented immigrants with primary care and emergency care. Moreover, the Constitutional Court declared void some of the government’s privatization strategies. Although numerous political parties expressed their intention to return to universal coverage, since the conservative Popular Party remains in power, this has not happened. But the issue remains a sensitive one for a Spanish readership.

⁴ There is a minor discrepancy in the novels. In Tears in Rain, Bruna has “mediocre health insurance” (TR 287) while in Weight of the Heart the novel states that “her insurance was top of the line” (WH 32).

⁵ Here Sharers are somewhat speciesist since they limit this “compassion” to animals, and deny it to other biotic beings such as stones, which they consider “dead matter.” This conflicts with Warren’s example of rock climbing (26–27).

⁶ In this society, Melba has effectively replaced the current symbol of Madrid, the strawberry tree and the bear.

⁷ How these relationships will evolve in the third novel of the series remains to be seen, but Bruna’s evolution as a caring person seems irreversible.

Additional information

Funding

The research for this article has been funded by the projects: “Environmental Humanities. Strategies for Ecological Empathy and the Transition towards Sustainable Societies; Subproject 2: “Stories for Change.” Ref: HAR2015-67472-C2-2-R (MINECO/FEDER) and “Research Activities in Cultural Mythcriticism.” Ref: S2015/HUM-3362 (CAM/FSE).