ABSTRACT
The conclusion traces the discourse surrounding bees from the eighteenth century into contemporary culture. In particular, it considers the significant influence of Bernard Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees, published in England and also read by many of the “founding fathers” during the formation of the American government and financial systems. To what extent did self-interest and exploitation of nature drive the economies and cultures of England and America? Given the destructive impulses of transatlantic colonization and nation-building, the uses and abuses of the beehive help to demonstrate disparities between different creaturely and human societies. The conclusion also includes a coda that confronts the pressing question: What would happen to a world without bees? This section explores the intersections of bees, drones, technology, and surveillance within contemporary transatlantic science fiction. The coda examines the role of robotic spy bees in Margaret Atwood’s Maddaddam Trilogy (2003–13) and the British anthology television series Black Mirror’s episode, “Hated in the Nation” (2016). The conclusion of the book explores how the conditions of a twenty-first century resistant beehive offer an opportunity to redress human and animal inequalities and to proffer a model of peaceful and communally beneficial coexistence between them.
