| Summary: | Since the 1990s the number of dystopian fi lms projecting apocalyptic visions of global catastrophe and dramatizing
an ecological agenda has radically increased. Much of this trend is inspired by anxieties about the
future repercussions of today’s actions and the collective responsibility for the future of our planet. One fi lm
that aptly represents this category is Christopher Nolan’s futuristic dystopia Interstellar (2014). Blending generic
conventions of space-travel, science-fi ction and moral fable, the fi lm, with its bleak vision of ecological
disaster, social unrest, and economic decline, clearly evokes the dystopian paradigm in which the projected
reality is perceived as signifi cantly worse than the here and now (sensu Sargent 1994:5). However, contrary to
many dystopias offering nihilistic or anti-utopian denouements, Christopher Nolan’s apocalyptic vision clearly
posits a progressive and defi nite possibility of utopian impulse, which is encapsulated by the fi nal resolution
of the global catastrophe. The core of the argument is that the neutralization of the dystopian impulse and the
resulting projection of the utopian vision are facilitated by the imposition of an interstitial space constructed
in the vein of postmodern poetics: an ambiguous fi fth dimensional library, in which books perform a two-fold
function. While intratextually, they serve as a catalyst between the tangibly dystopian present and the possibly
utopian future, extratextually, they function as a universal mode of communication transcending the constraints
of time and space.
|
|---|
