Vegetarianism and Science Fiction

“This is an important book on an important topic. From Mary Shelley through to Octavia Butler, Anglophone science fiction has repeatedly speculated about vegetarian variants of utopian and dystopian futures. Yet, the topic is only rarely and often very inadequately addressed in the relevant secondary literature. Bulleid’s Vegetarianism and Science Fiction: A History of Utopian Animal Ethics more than fills the gap. It will be a must for all serious scholars of the genre.”—Andrew Milner, co-author of Science Fiction and Climate Change: A Sociological Approach.
“To imagine alternative worlds allows a fiction writer to re-imagine our relationships with the other animals. Numerous novels envision an end to our tawdry and selfish human-centered attitudes. How marvelous that Joshua Bulleid examines, with care and alertness, this creative refashioning of ethical commitments.”—Carol J. Adams, author of The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory.
Vegetarianism and Science Fiction: A History of Utopian Animal Ethics examines how vegetarian ideals promoted within science fiction and utopian literature have had a real-world impact on the awareness and spread of vegetarianism and animal advocacy. Author Joshua Bulleid explores how the genres’ engagementshave been altered to reflect changes in ethical and environmental philosophy from the early-nineteenth century to the present day, through an examination of the works of major science fiction authors, including Mary Shelley, H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ernest Callenbach, Marge Piercy, Octavia E. Butler, Kim Stanley Robinson and Margaret Atwood within their evolving social contexts.
Joshua Bulleid is an independent early career researcher from Melbourne, Australia. His articles on vegetarianism and animal ethics have appeared in Science Fiction Studies and Foundation, as well as the Palgrave Macmillan collection Ethical Futures and Global Science Fiction (2020) and The EdinburghCompanion to Vegan Literary Studies (2022). He also hosts the Terry Pratchett podcast Unseen Academicals.