Microbial Life and Posthuman Ethics from The Children Star to The Highest Frontier

Abstract

Sherryl Vint focuses on the representation of microbial life in three Slonczewski novels. Issues of cohabitation across different species culminate in The Highest Frontier with a vision of the possibility of political relations with Ultraphytes, an invasive extraterrestrial species of macro-sized microbial cultures. Drawing on Anna Tsing’s The Mushroom at the End of the World, which considers prospects for cohabitation and collaborative survival in the ruins wrought by capitalist modernity, Vint explores political shifts needed to create a more sustainable culture in the face of species extinctions and global warming. She analyzes how Slonczewski’s depictions of symbioses among possible life forms offer new models for theorizing posthuman subjectivity and sustainable futures.