Canavan, Gerry. “Hope, But Not for Us: Ecological Science Fiction and the End of the World in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood*.” Marquette University English Faculty Publications,
https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1191&context=english_fac

– I think a decent chunk of this is irrelevant but there are a few sections relating to religion. Maybe I can use the “hope” part for how some people use religion to cope with things or find a way forward.

DiMarco, Danette. Paradice Lost, Paradice Found.
eng529.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/78915551/paradice%20lost,%20paradice%20found.pdf.

– Not very relevant to religion I don’t think. It mostly focuses on humanity and society. I don’t know how much of this I’ll be able to use.

Dunning, Stephen. Terror of the Therapeutic.
eng529.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/78925703/terror%20of%20the%20theraputic.pdf.

– This might be my main source. There’s a lot of things about religion and ethics in here that I can use.

James, Sonia, Siby James, and Sophia James. “A Critical Analysis of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake as ‘Ustopia’.” ShodhKosh: Journal of Visual and Performing Arts, vol. 5, no. 6, June 2024, pp. 2002–2007.

– Has very little to do with religion. It does say how Jimmy’s influence won over the Crakers in the end, therefore having something to do with religion.

Trauvitch, Rhona. Plant 1.08.
www.rhonatrauvitch.net/uploads/3/2/1/4/32144301/plant_1_08_-_rhona_trauvitch.pdf

– Directly references biblical stories, so this might be another main source too.

Research Question: How does Atwood use scientific authority to create religious authority?

Works Cited:

Canavan, Gerry. “Hope, But Not for Us: Ecological Science Fiction and the End of the World in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood*.” Marquette University English Faculty Publications,
epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1191&context=english_fac.

DiMarco, Danette. Paradice Lost, Paradice Found.
eng529.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/78915551/paradice%20lost,%20paradice%20found.pdf.

Dunning, Stephen. Terror of the Therapeutic.
eng529.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/78925703/terror%20of%20the%20theraputic.pdf.

James, Sonia, Siby James, and Sophia James. “A Critical Analysis of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake as ‘Ustopia’.” ShodhKosh: Journal of Visual and Performing Arts, vol. 5, no. 6, June 2024, pp. 2002–2007.

Trauvitch, Rhona. Plant 1.08.
www.rhonatrauvitch.net/uploads/3/2/1/4/32144301/plant_1_08_-_rhona_trauvitch.pdf

I mostly just used Google and Google Scholar. Everything else was too inconvenient. Some key search terms I used were “Oryx and Crake”, “Religion”, “Worship”, “Science”. This probably isn’t the best place to put this but honestly I’m depressed as shit and it was super difficult to even come up with a research question that I feel like I can do, much less look through sources to make sure they weren’t crappy quality. I might still change my research question after this depending on whether or not I can actually find something that I want to write about.

In Jenny Offill’s Weather, I feel like I can relate to Lizzie in some ways. Lizzie is overwhelmed because she must juggle both personal emotional labor and global awareness of politics and climate change. As a normal citizen, you’d find some benefit in at least being somewhat involved with the current news, so that you’ll know what to do to plan ahead. Lizzie, on top of her own problems, puts a lot of emotional burden on herself by essentially acting as a safety net for emotions for other people in her life. Then, on the other hand, are the troubles of politics and climate change which sit in the back of her mind, but she’s her mind is a bit too scattered to focus on one particular thing.

The burden Lizzie faces makes the decisions overwhelming. She could ignore the politics and climate change in exchange for having more time to deal with the problems of her clients and friends and families, but then comes the lack of knowledge of what to do when those politics become an issue. On page 46, it states “My main bad decision is spending too much time traveling or being a fake shrink while ignoring the people I live with.” Even dealing with just one side of the emotional problems doesn’t make the other problems go away. This guilt is an emotional burden placed on herself, but is understandable because she wishes that she could be on top of her own issues. Everything is an investment, including time. Time for other people, time for emotions, and time for political awareness. She stretches herself too thinly across all of the things going on in her life, which I feel like is something that a lot of people struggle with today.

People can get stretched out too easily. I think a lot of people in my generation also feel that way. We all have our own emotional bouts and personal problems of course, but then also comes the idea of politics in the back of our heads. What’s going to happen to us while we’re attending school? What will happen to the country while we’re studying? Will it be good for us? Bad for us? Having to think of all of these things while also having your emotions stacked on top of it can be overwhelming. I think everyone is weathered down to some degree, but different generations experience it differently than others.

How does Atwood use Sharon (Jimmy’s mom) to represent how rebellion against the Anthropocene is constrained by the upper class / government?

One of the main themes explored in Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide is class and wealth. Kanai constantly criticizes Moyna for being married to Fokir despite their difference in experience, maintaining his lofty attitude until he gets humbled by the threat of death in the waters. Chances are, if Kanai never went through that experience, he likely would have been condescending towards all of the other characters for the rest of the book.

Kanai comments on how people in the upper class generally don’t seem to care about the locals. They are forgotten by the government, and nobody wants to assist them. They’re forced to fend for themselves in this everchanging environment, knowing that at one point they’ll be uprooted from their settlements once again when the weather gets bad enough. It makes it excruciatingly difficult to escape from these circumstances because of the uncertainty of longevity and the natural hardships they endure.

Because Kanai is a wealthy businessman, he can simply have other people run his business for him while he has enough time to come visit Lusibari to pick up his uncle’s journal. His generational wealth allows him to still make money while on free time, and if he ever decided to have any children of his own, they can simply inherit his properties. The poor people on the other hand, like Fokir, have next to nothing to their names. When Fokir died, he only left a memento to Moyna and Tutul, but not much else. It was Piya who was able to start a fundraiser so that his legacy can still live on after his death. While it is a significant boost, it shows that if not for Piya, it would be unlikely that Fokir’s family would have had anything else to inherit. They would still be in the same location, enduring the same conditions, but now missing someone else to contribute what measly income Fokir had before he passed.

This enormous contrast in wealth and poverty only emphasizes how different the rich and the poor live their lives. Once you reach enough wealth, your wealth continues growing. When you become poor enough, you get punished and marginalized. Because of how society is structured, the wealthy are more recognizable and seen as having more status and power than the poor. Therefore, they are the ones in control of both the economy and even some parts of the government. This is especially shown in Kanai’s response to Sir Daniel, disagreeing about how his communist policies could have possibly helped the people in this area. Now that he’s rich, he would have even less reason to agree with him. It’s this cycle that perpetuates the suffering of the poor and embellishing the rich.