Invasion Blowback and Other Tales of the Anthropocene: An Afterword

How shall we tell stories of the nonhuman living beings that join us humans in making the Anthropocene? Such beings are not just tools of human manipulation; they make their own histories. In this discussion of the articles of this Special Issue, Recalling Species Invasion, the features that make good Anthropocene storytelling come into view. The protagonists are humble, inconspicuous being, but each is reachable through vernacular human observation. They each get caught up in modernist projects of landscape transformation - but, rather than being pawns, they change the world in unexpected ways. They are exemplary subjects for parables of the more-than-human condition.