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authorJoe Carstairs <me@joeac.net>2026-05-04 15:53:15 +0100
committerJoe Carstairs <me@joeac.net>2026-05-04 15:53:15 +0100
commitbcfe31c851fa1ecedef2dcd06e1263bfc6de35ab (patch)
tree1245f53295d3c1c4ae627a2d62b979155ecaa4af
parent8fb1b926915a7682253844189fea136845706133 (diff)
log: narrowing down the examples of green rhetoric using core
apocalyptic forms
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@@ -57,6 +57,117 @@ In short, my 'core apocalyptic forms' should:
- Eschatological dualism [@vielhauer-apocalypses]
- Ex eventu prophecy [@ultimate-things; @vielhauer-apocalypses]
+### Narrowing it down
+
+These all seem pretty irrelevant to contemporary literature:
+
+- Ex eventu prophecy
+- Visions/dreams
+- Angelic intermediaries
+- Pseudonymity
+- Theodicy
+
+Then there are a few symbols particularly associated with millenialist culture,
+but less relevant to green rhetoric:
+
+- Rapture
+- Decoding world events
+- Millenium
+
+There's a cluster of closely related symbols here, which are probably the most
+common in green rhetoric:
+
+- Catastrophe
+- Cataclysm
+- TEOTWAWKI
+- The end of 'a' world
+- Doomsday
+- End of the future
+- Decline or end of civilization
+
+There are a random mix of symbols which are common and significant in green
+rhetoric:
+
+- Nesting contexts
+- Alternative worlds, cosmic speculation
+- Moral dualism
+
+There are a cluster of eschatological symbols which occasionally appear on the
+fringes of green rhetoric:
+
+- The end times
+- Eschatological dualism
+- Miraculous ultimate deliverance
+- Judgement
+
+Then there's a random mix of symbols which appear from time to time:
+
+- Fatalism
+- Mythological symbolism
+- Exhortations to remain faithful
+- Minority/revealed knowledge
+
+### Examples of green rhetoric using core apocalyptic forms
+
+The goal here is to persuade the reader that green rhetoric often uses literary
+techniques which are distinctive of the genre, apocalypse.
+
+Examples of the doomsday cluster of symbols includes almost every example of
+green rhetoric I've read so far:
+
+- @{silent-spring}
+- @{heat}
+- @{inconvenient-truth}
+- @{xr-declaration}
+- @{xr-not-a-drill}
+- @{no-one-is-too-small}
+- @{greenpeace-report}
+- @{back-to-nature}
+- @{forget-me-not}
+- @{cry-of-the-wild}
+- @{greenhouse-effect}
+
+Green rhetoric almost always talks about the world system, so engages in cosmic
+speculation by default. Almost all green rhetoric also imagines alternative
+worlds, particularly alternative futures, whether utopic or dystopic. Pretty
+much anything in the above list would include those symbols.
+
+Examples of nesting contexts:
+
+- @{greenhouse-effect}
+- Chp 7, @{losing-eden}
+- @{inconvenient-truth}
+- @{xr-declaration}
+- @{wilding}
+- @{losing-eden}
+
+The best examples of moral dualism:
+
+- @{no-one-is-too-small}
+- @{silent-spring}
+- @{xr-declaration}
+- @{back-to-nature}
+
+The best examples of eschatological symbols:
+
+- @{cry-of-the-wild}
+- @{xr-not-a-drill}
+- @{back-to-nature}
+- @{inconvenient-truth}
+
+For fatalism, see: @{xr-not-a-drill}, @{american-apocalyptic}.
+
+For mythological symbolism, see: @{cry-of-the-wild}, @{xr-not-a-drill},
+@{inconvenient-truth} (Revelation itself used as a mythological symbol!).
+
+For exhortations to remain faithful, see: @{xr-not-a-drill}, @{cry-of-the-wild},
+@{back-to-nature}, @{xr-declaration}, @{forget-me-not}.
+
+For minority/revealed knowledge, see @{heat}, @{xr-not-a-drill},
+@{silent-spring}. But be aware that the vast majority of green rhetoric uses
+'majority' scientific knowledge as its rule, and often loudly celebrates this
+fact.
+
## 2026-05-01
I had a long think about the argument I want to make in my dissertation. I came