2017/01/01 by Melody Jue · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Physics and Astronomy · #Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction #Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life #Space exploration and regulation
paper · doi:10.1353/wsq.2017.0022
openalex publication_date 2017/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
This article presents a reading of Nnedi Okorafor's science fiction novel/petrofiction <i>Lagoon</i> (2016) in order to develop a theory of "intimate objectivity" in which marine biology calmly confronts the fantastic. Drawing on traditions in feminist science studies, postcolonial theory, Afrofuturism, and the ocean humanities, I show how <i>Lagoon</i>'s intimate objectivity derives from its dual characterization of visiting aliens as coral reefs and Mami Wata deities. This double signification places <i>Lagoon</i>'s aliens as mediators of both indigenous cosmologies and technological evolution, a necessary catalyst for imagining alternative futures distinct from the destructive elements of petroculture.