Marco Malvestio's 'Raccontare la fine del mondo' explores sci-fi as a tool to understand the Anthropocene

Marco Malvestio's essay 'Raccontare la fine del mondo' (Nottetempo, 2021) argues that science fiction offers a unique lens to comprehend the Anthropocene and the ongoing planetary crisis. The book examines how catastrophic imaginaries—from submerged Venice to nuclear energy—shape contemporary perceptions. Malvestio cites Samuel Delany's idea that sci-fi uses the future as a narrative convention to represent significant distortions of the present. He critiques the cultural premises behind technological solutions, asking whether we can avert catastrophe without changing those premises. The essay also explores Afrofuturism as a way to imagine inclusive futures beyond colonial biases. Malvestio concludes that reflecting on the Anthropocene through sci-fi means imagining how the world ends—and how to change it. The book is part of Nottetempo's Terra series and was reviewed in Artribune Magazine #65/66.