#petrofiction

[beforeliteracytherewasdeez]

Hey, does anyone know about oil and oil derivates as a literary trope? As in, imagery, symbolism, etc?

Working on a fellowship proposal while recovering from a mental breakdown, so I'm trying my best to not be anxious

[jacolan]

Oil, Ella Hickson - A petro-fictive play

This play presents a semi-realistic world where, whilst geography, politics, and events remain the same, we witness 162 years - the conception, rise, and fall of the oil industry - through the lives of two women whose ages at the start and end of the play suggest only around 50 years have passed. This manipulation of time is a meaningful literary device used to convey Hickson's concern toward anthropogenic actions surrounding the oil empire.

This impossible timespan perhaps encourages audiences to 'zoom out' - in presenting a single human lifespan over the lifetime of the oil industry, we can more clearly see the impacts that the resource has on society. Whilst it is one thing to read about projected impacts of non-renewable energy on the climate and ecosystem that will not impact this generation, to see these impacts on stage affecting someone we can relate to perhaps encourages a more visceral recognition of the environmentally problematic nature of the oil industry, something emphasised by the characterisation of Amy as representing climate activists of today. In the same vein, witnessing the mistreatment of the non-Western world as a result of (post-) colonialist power appeals to more peoples empathy than just reading about the fact that it happens – it is harder to truly imagine something when it is presented to you simply through fact.

The illogical passage of time in the play may also be to emphasise the comparatively tiny amount of time it has taken for humans to deplete something that takes an immeasurably long time to form - whilst >150 years feels like a long time to us, seeing it as if it were a human lifespan puts into perspective how minute an era it really is in comparison to the millions of years petroleum takes to form.

Moreover, the cyclical nature of the play serves to reflect that in the same way the oil industry was doomed to collapse, so will the upcoming nuclear energy industry. This is seen in the similarities between the first and last scene - in the same way oil was seen as a revolutionary, infinite resource with no negative impacts, the newly extracted nuclear energy will turn out to be finite, and have an impact on the planet - yet humans, as always, will be blind to it until it is too late.