For the philosopher Pablo Cabana (Florence, 1939), science fiction is the “experimental myth” of our time. We go to it in search of transcendence, for stories that justify our actions and give them meaning, we read and look at them to learn about the good and evil in their stories.

CCCB will be, from today until Sunday, the temple of these new legends. The Kosmopolis Festival begins with a special interest in genre. A mutant genre has been revamped and re-emerged in recent years, with clear trends such as climate fantasy, the new space race, the evolution of artificial intelligence, respect for non-human intelligence and of course a dystopia that reflects the fears of the present. In the words of its co-director—along with Elisabeth Gula—Juan Insa, the “Literature that Comes” priest, everything goes through a triple theme: “the climate emergency, the life-centric inflection, and the beginning of a potentially multi-planetary civilization.”

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“Space Race Marks Beginning of a Multiplanetary Civilization”

Among the guests, the headline – who will speak to Zoom on Friday at 7 p.m. – is American Ted Chiang, author of exhalation (Sexto Piso / Mai Més), who, according to Insúa, “knows artificial intelligence well but also oriental narratives, in which I have discovered a deep bourgeois tendency, which is to regard theology and metaphysics as two branches of fantastic literature.”

Department climate fiction It is one of the most prominent on the international scene, with examples such as forest noise by American Richard Powers (Evanston, 1957). Kosmopolis takes it one step further and adds non-fiction, With guests like British traveler Robert MacFarlane, author of Underground (Seix Barral/Angle) — who will be speaking with Gabi Martínez on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. — An underground adventure that, Insúa notes, “has to do with Anthropocene themes, which seem like something new to me, like Stefano Mancuso’s speech (plant nation, Gutenberg Galaxy) on non-human intelligences.” Puts in the same bag octopus spirit , about the intelligence of an animal evokes Jules Verne, “who, incidentally, was also asked whether or not his thing was science fiction, it depends on each theorist, for John Clout says that even Divine Comedy It could be considered science fiction.”

Dystopia is on the rise more than ever due to global crises and the rush of TV series, with The Handmaid’s Tale (HBO), based on the novel by Margaret Atwood, as Banner. The Canadian has just been re-released Oryx y Crake The first installment of the MaddAddam trilogy, the story of the last inhabitant of planet Earth, after the apocalypse. American Kim Stanley Robinson (Waukegan, 1952) argues that dystopia does occur and that we “live inside a science fiction novel.” For him, Ins hima explains, “We lack the mental structure to tolerate, everything we go through is too much for our nervous system.”

Feminism permeates sexuality, as noted by American historian Donna Haraway (Denver, 1944), with Renaissance Pioneers such as the Americans Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) or Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006). From the first, it was only published this year Four ways to forgive s the story (in the Minotaur), The name of the world is a forest s Tehano (in Green Ray). from butler, like a sower s puberty rituals (My Mays). Notable current authors are also Britons Laline Poole and Claire North, Canadian Emily St. John Mandel, Americans Audrey Niveniger, Christina Dalcher, Becky Chambers, Martha Wells, Catherine Addison, Carrie Vu, or Malaysian Cassandra Khao, all with translated works. . into Spanish or Catalan.

Kosmopolis has been dealing with the genre since its first edition in 2002, which was attended by William Gibson and Brian Aldis. “It is strange to see the disdain of so many authors high literature They tackled science fiction during the twentieth century, with exceptions such as those of Borges and Polano, Ensa points out. But the literary genre is expanding and has become realism in our time, perhaps the most relevant genre. ”

In case anyone doubts his current standing, Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel by Nobel, Clara and the sun (Anagram), narrated by a robot. And a literary label like Seix Barral publishes the point Written by Namwali Sirpil of Zambia (Lusaka, 1980), a multicultural family epic that fuses African myths with the country’s history, in a manner close to magical realism.

Among the outstanding developments Legend Forest s Lavondis (Gigamesh), the first two titles of the Mitago course by Briton Robert Holdstock (1948-2019), which focuses on all the mythical worlds in that forest. Other notable titles are Satan and the dark sea D Stewart Turton You: the one a Ringing screaming (our song) (Obscura / Mai Més) by P.Djèlí Clark.

Thus, the following literature will have something of all this.