Paper short abstract:

The gap between knowledge and action is one of the most acute dangers for the life on Earth. In my paper the topic is discussed on the base of the movie “Don’t look up!” (2021), an example of visionary literature, apocalyptic story about the end of the world.

Paper long abstract:

The movie “Don’t look up!” (2021) tells a media critical story about two scientists, whose message about an approaching gigantic comet (a “killer asteroid” of the size of one killing the dinosaurs 66 billion years ago) does not reach wider audience before it is too late. Though a bit naïve as a scenario the movie has been interpreted as a metaphor for a less quick but as dramatic climate change and loss of species. With plenty of scientific knowledge we still do too little to stop the change.

As an example of an apocalyptic topic the film gives us nothing new. The genres of apocalyptic literature and movie range from the visions of H.G. Wells to The 100. What is new is the “epistemological” approach to the catastrophe: due to our narrow preferences we are not able to turn the knowledge into action.

Visionary literature shows the two-fold relationship between story and action: action before telling and telling before action (stories warning about or spurring for action). In “Don’t look up!” I will be looking at the different variables behind not acting when knowing about the future catastrophe. As examples of these variables are the facts (denied or contested), the news value of the stories (interesting stories about celebs and not so interesting ones about facts), the positions of the messengers (young/old, female/male) and the political conjectures. Especially interesting is the three-fold relationship between facts, stories, and action. In which ways narrativity mediates the connection between knowledge and action?