Automobility Without Automobiles in Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140

Abstract

ABSTRACT:This essay argues that Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 understands something fundamental but far from obvious about automobility: it is an ideology that over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has grown so vast, complex, and multi-faceted that it encompasses much more than just materially existing cars. The novel provocatively (but menacingly) shows that automobility is so entangled with and bolstered by other ideologies such as capitalism and hegemonic masculinity that automobility can even survive the disappearance of cars due to catastrophic climate change. Further, this article addresses how some female characters in the novel use walking and airships to challenge the unpalatable capitalist and masculinist values that threaten to sponsor present and future modes of transportation.