Dystopias of Reproductive Nightmares: The Ice People and The Children of Men

Abstract

Maggie Gee’s The Ice People (1998) and Phyllis Dorothy James’s The Children of Men (1992) are two dystopian novels introducing societies afflicted with infertility because of scientific advancements that have spun out of control. In the novels, science gives way to countless innovations that provide help and comfort in daily life. However, it falls short of determining the exact reason and finding any solution for the problem of infertility. The root cause for this calamity is suggested to be the anthropogenic activities deteriorating nonhuman environments and causing reproductive health problems. Set in Britain in 2050, Gee’s The Ice People portrays a world at the onset of a new ice age. Picturing a world after the global warming during which fertility rates decline dramatically, the novel presents a new type of human, techfixes, the children born through artificial conception, owing to the developments in science and technology. P. D. James describes a world where people abruptly become infertile in1995, which she calls the Year Omega in the novel. Mass infertility which threatens the existence of the humankind results in cruelty against the remaining aging population inflicted by the tyrannical government that never faces resistance from people. In line with this, the aim of this study is to analyze The Ice People and The Children of Men as works of dystopian fiction describing the ramifications of the misuse of science and technology, and the anthropogenic imprint on the nonhuman environment, which comes out as reproductive inability in human beings.