New Materialism and Dystopian Environments
What is New Materialism? Thinking about our reality through the lens of a new materialist allows us (as readers) to see humans as equal to everything else in nature. Hence, the new materialist sees humans as not superior animals. This concept is important to understand because it assumes that both organic (living) and inorganic (nonliving) beings or objects hold some sort of power within our society (Bennett, 2010). And, this idea of giving all objects power is called thing-power. According to Deleuzean theory, thing-power is when objects have the power to change outcomes as a result of their being and place in society (DeLanda, 2006). And, all of these objects that have thing-power combine into an assemblage together that hold enough power to modify reality (DeLanda, 2006; Bennett, 2010). These aspects of new materialism allow for dystopian environments to form. New Materialism in Dystopian Environments Many dystopian environments ...