Consuming Monsters 189 Studies in American Fiction 50.1–2 (2023): 189–207 © 2024 by Johns Hopkins University Press Consuming Monsters: Borderlands Ecogothic Science Fiction in Tears of the Trufflepig Ana María Mutis1 Trinity University F rom its origins in the eighteenth century, gothic literature has deployed horror and the supernatural to manifest anxieties over a wide range of invisible threats, such as technological and scientific progress; past and present forms of colonialism ; and, more recently, environmental crisis. As Kelly Hurley explains, the gothic is “a cyclical genre that reemerges in times of cultural stress in order to negotiate anxieties for its readership by working through them in displaced (sometimes supernaturalized) form.”2 Monsters, specifically, are said to embody these fears, as they are designed, like their name suggests, to reveal and warn.3 Accordingly, monsters are “the ultimate incorporation of our anxieties—about history, about identity, about our very humanity.”4 Thus, as Jeffrey Jerome Cohen asserts, cultures and specific cultural moments can be read through the monsters they engender.5 Mexican and Chicanx writers and filmmakers have captured the anxieties around the militarized U.S.-Mexican border, along with the harmful social impact of neoliberalism and globalized capitalism in the borderlands, through what Micah K. Donohue has termed “borderlands gothic science fiction.”6 Films such as Sleep Dealer (2008), directed by Alex Rivera, and the novels Lunar Braceros 2125–2148 (2009) and Keep Me Posted: Logins from Tomorrow (2020), both jointly authored by Rosaura Sánchez and Beatriz Pita, are examples of this genre. In the intersection of borderlands science fiction and cybergothic literature and film, monsters emerge in the shape of robots, cyborgs, and digital phantoms to warn us of a dystopian future when migrant workers’ exploitation and dehumanization result from transnational capitalism. This essay aims to expand the work on borderlands gothic science fiction into what I have termed borderlands ecogothic science fiction. While scholarship on border- 190 Studies in American Fiction lands science fiction has prioritized how this genre depicts and problematizes human life and labor under transnational capitalism, my analytical framework is aimed at also exploring nonhuman beings and ecosystems as integral to the concerns addressed by this form of fiction. Drawing from critical studies on ecocriticism and gothic literature, specifically the “alimentary gothic” genre, I propose an examination of the environmental aspects of the novel Tears of the Trufflepig (2019) by Fernando A. Flores, and argue that through the alimentary gothic elements in this novel—and particularly through the figure of the zombie—Tears of the Trufflepig exposes anxieties around environmental degradation, neocolonialism, and human and nonhuman exploitation in the service of unbridled capitalism.7 The novel is set in the near future in southern Texas and northern Mexico. Drugs have been legalized, and the U.S. government is erecting a third border wall, heavily guarded by Border Protectors. In response to a world food shortage, scientists have found a new method to artificially grow animals and vegetables through a technology called “filtering.” Now that narcotics are legal, cartel syndicates traffic “filtered” extinct and mythical animals to be eaten at underground lavish dinners attended by the very wealthy. In addition to supplying the culinary black market, cartel syndicates also smuggle the shrunken heads of the fictionalAranaña Indians, which have become valuable collector’s items, and stolen Olmec heads, both signaling the fetishization of ancient Indigenous cultures in this new era. In the border town of MacArthur lives Esteban Bellacosa, the lonely protagonist, whose brother, Oswaldo, was kidnapped by the head-shrinking smugglers but managed to escape before his transformation was complete. When Paco Herbert, a journalist writing a story on the illicit dinners, invites Bellacosa to attend one of these underground feasts, he comes face to face with the titular Trufflepig, a deity of the Aranaña tribe believed to be a “mirror reflecting who we are as people beyond time and space” (255). From then on, Bellacosa gets entangled with the filtering cartels and begins a dangerous journey that will end with him crossing the Balí dessert, carrying the Trufflepig, to enter the world of dreams. Critics have noted the novel’s critique of colonialism and imperialism,8 but the...

消费怪物 189 美国小说研究 50.1–2 (2023): 189–207 © 2024 约翰·霍普金斯大学出版社 消费怪物：松露猪之泪中的无主之地生态科幻小说 安娜·玛丽亚·穆蒂斯1 三一大学 起源于十八世纪，哥特式文学利用恐怖和超自然现象来表达对各种无形威胁的焦虑，例如技术和科学进步；过去和现在的殖民主义形式；以及最近的环境危机。正如凯利·赫尔利 (Kelly Hurley) 所解释的那样，哥特式是“一种在文化压力时期重新出现的周期性流派，目的是通过以流离失所的（有时是超自然的）形式来解决读者的焦虑。”2 特别是，据说怪物体现了这些恐惧，正如它们的名字所暗示的那样，是为了揭示和警告。3相应地，怪物是“我们对历史、身份、人性的焦虑的最终结合。”4因此，正如杰弗里·杰罗姆·科恩所断言的那样、文化和特定的文化时刻可以通过它们所产生的怪物来解读。5墨西哥和奇坎克斯的作家和电影制作人捕捉到了军事化的美墨边境周围的焦虑，以及新自由主义和全球化资本主义在边境地区造成的有害社会影响，通过米卡·K·多诺霍 (Micah K. Donohue) 称之为“无主之地哥特式科幻小说”。6 电影，如亚历克斯·里维拉 (Alex Rivera) 执导的《睡眠商人》(Sleep Dealer) (2008)，以及小说《月球护腕 2125–2148》(2009) 和《让我发布消息：明天登录》(2020) ），均由罗莎拉·桑切斯（Rosaura Sánchez）和比阿特丽斯·皮塔（Beatriz Pita）共同创作，就是这种类型的例子。在边疆科幻小说与赛博哥特文学和电影的交汇中，怪物以机器人、赛博格和数字幻影的形式出现，警告我们跨国资本主义导致移民工人遭受剥削和非人化，这是一个反乌托邦的未来。本文旨在将《无主之地》哥特式科幻小说的工作扩展到我所说的《无主之地生态哥特式科幻小说》。虽然关于边界的学术研究 190 美国小说领域的科幻小说优先考虑了这种类型如何描绘跨国资本主义下的人类生活和劳动并提出问题，但我的分析框架也旨在探索非人类和生态系统，作为这种形式所解决的问题的组成部分小说的。借鉴对生态批评和哥特式文学（特别是“消化哥特式”流派）的批判性研究，我建议对费尔南多·A·弗洛雷斯（Fernando A. Flores）的小说《松露猪的眼泪》（Tears of the Trufflepig，2019）的环境方面进行审查，并认为通过消化哥特式元素在这部小说中，尤其是通过僵尸的形象，《松露猪的眼泪》揭露了人们对环境退化、新殖民主义以及为无节制的资本主义服务的人类和非人类剥削的焦虑。7 小说以不久的将来的德克萨斯州南部和墨西哥北部为背景。毒品已经合法化，美国政府正在修建第三道边境墙，由边境保护者重兵把守。为了应对世界粮食短缺，科学家找到了一种通过“过滤”技术人工种植动物和蔬菜的新方法。既然毒品合法化，卡特尔集团就会贩卖“过滤”的灭绝动物和神秘动物，供富人参加的地下奢华晚宴上食用。除了供应烹饪黑市外，卡特尔集团还走私虚构的阿拉纳尼亚印第安人的干瘪头颅（这些头颅已成为宝贵的收藏品），以及偷来的奥尔梅克头颅，这两者都标志着这个新时代对古代土著文化的迷恋。在麦克阿瑟的边境小镇上，住着孤独的主人公埃斯特班·贝拉科萨，他的兄弟奥斯瓦尔多被胆小鬼走私犯绑架，但在他的转变完成之前设法逃脱。当记者帕科·赫伯特（Paco Herbert）撰写有关非法晚餐的报道时，邀请贝拉科萨参加其中一场地下盛宴，他面对面遇到了名义上的松露猪，这是阿拉纳尼亚部落的神灵，被认为是一面“反映我们是谁的镜子”作为超越时间和空间的人”（255）。从此，贝拉科萨与过滤卡特尔纠缠在一起，开始了一段危险的旅程，最终他带着松露猪穿越巴厘岛沙漠，进入了梦想的世界。评论家注意到了小说对殖民主义和帝国主义的批评，8但是……贝拉科萨与过滤卡特尔纠缠在一起，开始了一段危险的旅程，最终他带着松露猪穿越巴厘岛沙漠，进入了梦想的世界。评论家注意到了小说对殖民主义和帝国主义的批评，8但是……贝拉科萨与过滤卡特尔纠缠在一起，开始了一段危险的旅程，最终他带着松露猪穿越巴厘岛沙漠，进入了梦想的世界。评论家注意到了小说对殖民主义和帝国主义的批评，8但是……