ABSTRACT
The title of this essay may seem contradictory. How can sustainabilitynormally defi ned as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”—be risky? To bequeath the planet as we found it to our children-this is the very least we ought to do. Sustainability, captured in the fi gure of the innocent child, is unassailable regardless of one’s political position in the way that Lee Edelman speaks of the absolutely compelling logic of what he terms “reproductive futurity”: “How could one take the other ‘side,’ when taking any side at all necessarily constrains one to take the side of, by virtue of taking a side within, a political order that returns to the Child as the image of the future it intends?” (Edelman 3; emphases in original). Order can be closely aligned with narrative, and in this essay I will call on three foundational narratives-The Odyssey, The Aeneid, and The Divine Comedy-to see how the intrusion of risk may or may not undo meaning. As a starting point, then, to do good or act well within the order of sustainability-that is, without rupturing productivity or impeding progress, and in a vaguely pleasant and ethical manner-makes perfect sense.
