The Irradiated

This chapter discusses American fiction produced during the period after WW2 to the present and reveals how it registers and rationalizes the enormous, but also notably inexpensive, violence and death that nuclear weapons made possible. The release of this violence during and after the warWar produced stories set in futures where the climate of the planet has clearly broken down as an effect of militarized capitalismCapitalism and where the capitalist world-systemWorld-system is crumbling. In some of these stories, a planet damaged by nuclear violence and lingering radiation takes the form of a gigantic, monstrous, and uncontrollable security threat that demands the attention of the militaryMilitary. By telling such stories, the chapter argues, these narratives must be considered as the proper beginning of the American Climate Emergency NarrativeAmerican Climate Emergency Narrative.