The Irresistible Fantasy of Sex under Glass: T. Coraghessan Boyle, The Terranauts

Since the original Biosphere 2 experiment was designed to last for a hundred years (fifty two-year closures) and made it only six months into the second closure before it was abandoned, it seemed irresistible to imagine a second and third fictional closure of this astonishing glassed-in greenhouse of 3.15 acres that housed four men and four women and a suite of 3,800 species of plants and animals. I had the factual material from Biosphere 2 (including a host of press articles, as well as accounts by the Biospherians themselves) for authenticity; all I had to do was create fictional characters and set the wheels in motion for Closure II in order to see what might happen. The biggest problem for the Terranauts/Biospherians? Growing enough food to keep from starving while at the same time balancing out the oxygen/carbon dioxide levels. The second biggest? Getting along with one another. (Qtd. in Brady 2016) I’ve written book after book now, not really consciously, but I can see how they’re all allied, about our place on this planet and what it means in terms of the environment. So this is a natural for me. Nature is dying, and so we try to insulate ourselves from it. I write a book like this without any ax to grind or even a point to make. That is all discovered as I go along. It’s like their experiment, to put people, plants and animals under glass and see what happens. (Qtd. in Swedlund 2016)