Louise Lyle
226
ment, but rather as an endless succession in which the mantle of
dominance passes naturally from one organic order to another.
Rosny’s conscious rejection of anthropocentric evolutionary perspectives is developed most explicitly in La Mort de la Terre of 1908, in
which mankind’s final destiny is recounted.
La Mort de la Terre is set several hundred centuries in the future, and depicts the decline and final disappearance of the human race
after many thousands of years of intense seismic activity, during
which most of the world’s water resources have drained into inaccessible subterranean regions. The earth’s retention of water has led to a
shift in the balance of power, for, as the author explains, “les secousses sismiques […] avaient brisé la puissance humaine”,
17 through
a chain of consequences beginning with drought and the ensuing dehydration to which humans and their livestock are subject, compounded by the inevitable failure of agriculture. Darwin explains that
the struggle for existence, which is the basis of his theory of natural
selection, need not assume the form of open conflict between living
organisms: “Two canine animals in a time of dearth, may be truly said
to struggle with each other which get food and live. But a plant on the
edge of a desert is said to struggle for life against the drought, though
more properly it should be said to be dependent on the moisture.”
18 In
similar fashion, Rosny’s embattled humans find themselves locked in
a struggle for existence against the constantly worsening drought,
which has already led to the progressive reduction of the human population over the course of some five hundred centuries from around
twenty-three billion to just a few thousand at the start of the text.
Demographic concerns are explored in some detail, when,
adding a measure of somewhat incongruous romantic interest to the
piece, Rosny creates a strong attraction between his hero, Targ, and an
attractive blonde earthquake-survivor from a neighbouring tribe,
named Erê. It is only by distinguishing himself as one of the community’s fittest members by locating an underground water source that
Targ earns the right to marry Erê and have two children, “le mariage
[étant] un privilège réservé aux plus aptes” (p. 126). Yet while the restriction and / or prohibition of marriage and procreation is a draco___________________________
17 J.-H. Rosny Aîné, La Mort de la Terre (Paris: Denoël, 1983), p. 123. Subsequent
page references to this text will be given in brackets after the relevant quotation.
18 Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 2
nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1996), p. 53.
226
ment, but rather as an endless succession in which the mantle of
dominance passes naturally from one organic order to another.
Rosny’s conscious rejection of anthropocentric evolutionary perspectives is developed most explicitly in La Mort de la Terre of 1908, in
which mankind’s final destiny is recounted.
La Mort de la Terre is set several hundred centuries in the future, and depicts the decline and final disappearance of the human race
after many thousands of years of intense seismic activity, during
which most of the world’s water resources have drained into inaccessible subterranean regions. The earth’s retention of water has led to a
shift in the balance of power, for, as the author explains, “les secousses sismiques […] avaient brisé la puissance humaine”,
17 through
a chain of consequences beginning with drought and the ensuing dehydration to which humans and their livestock are subject, compounded by the inevitable failure of agriculture. Darwin explains that
the struggle for existence, which is the basis of his theory of natural
selection, need not assume the form of open conflict between living
organisms: “Two canine animals in a time of dearth, may be truly said
to struggle with each other which get food and live. But a plant on the
edge of a desert is said to struggle for life against the drought, though
more properly it should be said to be dependent on the moisture.”
18 In
similar fashion, Rosny’s embattled humans find themselves locked in
a struggle for existence against the constantly worsening drought,
which has already led to the progressive reduction of the human population over the course of some five hundred centuries from around
twenty-three billion to just a few thousand at the start of the text.
Demographic concerns are explored in some detail, when,
adding a measure of somewhat incongruous romantic interest to the
piece, Rosny creates a strong attraction between his hero, Targ, and an
attractive blonde earthquake-survivor from a neighbouring tribe,
named Erê. It is only by distinguishing himself as one of the community’s fittest members by locating an underground water source that
Targ earns the right to marry Erê and have two children, “le mariage
[étant] un privilège réservé aux plus aptes” (p. 126). Yet while the restriction and / or prohibition of marriage and procreation is a draco___________________________
17 J.-H. Rosny Aîné, La Mort de la Terre (Paris: Denoël, 1983), p. 123. Subsequent
page references to this text will be given in brackets after the relevant quotation.
18 Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 2
nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1996), p. 53.