THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: ANIMAL VALUE(S) WITHIN AND BEYOND NECROPOLITICS IN THE ONLY HARMLESS GREAT THING

This essay investigates the conflictual and oppressive relationship between humans and animals in the context of late capitalism in Western/ized societies and how speculative fiction can imagine and inspire alternative ways for interspecies coexistence. It focuses especially on the representation of animal labor, i.e., the way animals are involved in the contemporary production system. The essay analyzes Brooke Bolander’s 2018 novella The Only Harmless Great Thing through the lens of Achille Mbembe’s necropolitics, arguing that the author provides an attempt at ‘necropolitical and post-necropolitical imagination’ that, despite not always being successful, envisions an alternative future without straying too far from the present.