Louise Lyle
230
Towards Ecological Awareness
In La Mort de la Terre, the human protagonists find themselves engaged in a Darwinian struggle for existence against unrelentingly difficult environmental conditions, as we have already noted. In common
with the protagonists of Les Xipéhuz and Les Navigateurs de l’infini,
they must also engage in inter-species conflict with hostile beings who
seek to encroach on their territory and, in respect of the Zoomorphes
in Les Navigateurs at least, to feed upon all or parts of the human
body. For the predators of La Mort de la Terre, the “ferromagnétaux”,
are strange creatures composed entirely of malleable iron, moving
slowly in packs, and feeding on human haemoglobin, drawn magnetically through the surface of the skin until death ensues. Non-organic
in their constitution, they resemble the Xipéhuz in respect of the fact
that they are mineral in nature. More closely related, therefore, to the
terrestrial environment from which they have effectively been extracted than their human adversaries could ever be, they may also be
compared to the Zoomorphes, the predator species in Les Navigateurs
de l’infini, “[qui] semblent jaillir de la terre” (p. 84), and give the impression of remaining “attachés au sol” (p. 83).
The Lamarckian theme of a cause-and-effect relation between
milieu and organism thus finds its most explicit expression in Rosny’s
conceptualization of these exotic creatures as the very living embodiment of their native soil (Mars rather the Earth in the case of the Zoomorphes). Just as the seismic turmoil afflicting the Earth has, for
instance, opened vast fissures through which the water resources vital
to the survival to all organic species are being swallowed up, so the
ferromagnétaux literally consume the life-blood of their human adversaries, as Targ discovers in his first encounter with them, exclaiming:
“Les ferromagnétaux […] Ils boivent ma vie!” (author’s emphasis, p.
164). Their acute hostility towards mankind may even, in Bozzetto’s
view, be an indication of Rosny’s early intuition, “avant la percée de
la modernité écologique” of certain environmentalist perspectives on
contemporary humanity’s troubled relationship with the Earth.
21
___________________________
21 Bozzetto, “Wells et Rosny”, p. 10.
230
Towards Ecological Awareness
In La Mort de la Terre, the human protagonists find themselves engaged in a Darwinian struggle for existence against unrelentingly difficult environmental conditions, as we have already noted. In common
with the protagonists of Les Xipéhuz and Les Navigateurs de l’infini,
they must also engage in inter-species conflict with hostile beings who
seek to encroach on their territory and, in respect of the Zoomorphes
in Les Navigateurs at least, to feed upon all or parts of the human
body. For the predators of La Mort de la Terre, the “ferromagnétaux”,
are strange creatures composed entirely of malleable iron, moving
slowly in packs, and feeding on human haemoglobin, drawn magnetically through the surface of the skin until death ensues. Non-organic
in their constitution, they resemble the Xipéhuz in respect of the fact
that they are mineral in nature. More closely related, therefore, to the
terrestrial environment from which they have effectively been extracted than their human adversaries could ever be, they may also be
compared to the Zoomorphes, the predator species in Les Navigateurs
de l’infini, “[qui] semblent jaillir de la terre” (p. 84), and give the impression of remaining “attachés au sol” (p. 83).
The Lamarckian theme of a cause-and-effect relation between
milieu and organism thus finds its most explicit expression in Rosny’s
conceptualization of these exotic creatures as the very living embodiment of their native soil (Mars rather the Earth in the case of the Zoomorphes). Just as the seismic turmoil afflicting the Earth has, for
instance, opened vast fissures through which the water resources vital
to the survival to all organic species are being swallowed up, so the
ferromagnétaux literally consume the life-blood of their human adversaries, as Targ discovers in his first encounter with them, exclaiming:
“Les ferromagnétaux […] Ils boivent ma vie!” (author’s emphasis, p.
164). Their acute hostility towards mankind may even, in Bozzetto’s
view, be an indication of Rosny’s early intuition, “avant la percée de
la modernité écologique” of certain environmentalist perspectives on
contemporary humanity’s troubled relationship with the Earth.
21
___________________________
21 Bozzetto, “Wells et Rosny”, p. 10.