Science, Environment and the Possibility of Knowledge: Reading Science Fiction Politically

Every other Monday next on April 14, 5:00 pm US ET 

The Science and Visionary Fiction book group spring 2025 season takes up the theme of “Science, Environment and the Possibility of Knowledge.” We live in a time now with core scientific research under attack in the United States, especially research and action related to the climate crisis and public health. Many people at least for now may support some facets of this reversal.

In our April read, The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson continues his exploration of environmental justice and the possibilities of near future global collective action. 

In this novel and others, science fiction has long provided a way to poke holes in the unabridged faith in corporate-dominated science and authoritarian redefinitions of truth. At the same time science fiction also has aided reflection on what we do and can know about the world. In our reading and discussions this spring, we want to probe our own thinking on these issues and also enable us to better converse and reach others not so certain of these matters.

Our spring list:

• The Ministry for the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson (April)
• Prophet Song, by Paul Lynch (Man Booker Prize, 2023) (May)
• Solaris, Stanislaw Lem (March)

We select one book a month, meet for a first look while everyone continues to read, and then again two weeks later for a full and deep discussion. We additional short stories, essays, film based on interest, sometimes with additional sessions.

We read with an overall commitment, To build a better future, we have to envision it first (adapted from Walidah Imarisha). Reading science, speculative and visionary fiction, discussing it together, and reading it politically, offers one tool for envisioning a future worth building. This spring, we will continue our explorations of diverse points of view of social conflict and resolution, possible and imagined just worlds, here on Earth and perhaps afar.

Whether you have always read science fiction or never given it a second thought, consider spending a season with the MEP Science and Visionary Fiction book group.