"Touring the Cozy Apocalypse" IMS guest seminar with Laura op de Beke

About the seminar

In 1973, Brian Aldiss complained that much science fiction writing was tainted by the trope of the cozy catastrophe, whose essence “is that the hero should have a pretty good time (a girl, free suites at the Savoy, automobiles for the taking) while everyone else is dying off" (294). In the 2020s, the cozy catastrophe has resurfaced in popular culture. In these “dissonant” cozy fictions, the retreat or collapse of civilization has made room for new beings to thrive. In Sable, Caravan Sandwitch, and Season, white middleclass men have made way for androgynous protagonists and young (and in the case of Season, black) women. At the same time, remarkably, the emphasis on automobility remains the same.

Until recently cozy media have offered predominantly pastoral fantasies of place-based belonging, worthwhile reproductive labor, and environmental attunement. This new spate of cozy media is more interested in experiences of travel and leisure, and specifically in being on the move. Drawing on Jonas Larsen’s concept of the “travel glance” (2001), I argue that these works aestheticize postapocalyptic landscapes through the logic of transience; the world is not inhabited so much as passed through, observed fleetingly and often photographed or documented. How does this more nomadic configuration unstick discursive associations between coziness, femininity and place (Gedalof 2000)?

Author Bio

Laura op de Beke is Assistant Professor of Interactive Media, Screens, and Interfaces at Utrecht University. Her research focuses on games and cultures of play, specifically in the context of the climate crisis. In 2024 she published an edited volume called Ecogames: Playful Perspectives on the Climate Crisis. Currently, she is working on a book about Anthropocene temporalities in videogames, as well as a project that extends beyond games, which examines the generation of climate futures in algorithmic contexts.