Abstract

This chapter focuses on the relations between the spacefaring animal and the human, which have a potential to challenge the traditional Western paradigm of subjugation of the nonhuman world by humans. The spaceflight in the body of the spacefaring animal breeds a deep intimacy between the human and the animal and dramatizes the dependence of the human on the nonhuman world. Through spaceflight, the human is exposed to the multiple intra-actions of the conglomerate of species comprising the spacefaring animal’s body and becomes a subject to their material and agential impact. The agency of the spacefaring animal questions the patterns of exploitation and extraction, and the vision of the nonhuman animal as a pliable, objectifiable source of labor, service, and genetic material, opening a way of rethinking the human–animal relations from the point of view of cooperation and co-evolution. The theoretical perspective of the chapter mainly relies on posthumanism and new materialism. The scope of examples includes two literary series: Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee Sequence and Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti series; “Boojum,” a short story by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette; and two TV series, Farscape and Lexx, attempting to provide a diverse range of representation and media.