Gnomes, Gnature, and the “Gnifty Gnomobile”: Elemental Spirits, Deforestation and Energy Systems in Transition in Upton Sinclair’s The Gnomobile

Abstract

AbstractUpton Sinclair’s only children’s book, The Gnomobile: A Gnice Gnew Gnarrative with Gnonsense, but Gnothing Gnaughty (1936), follows the adventures of a 12-year-old girl, Elizabeth, her young uncle Rodney, and their encounter with the last two Gnomes (Bobo, and his grandfather Glogo) of the Californian redwoods. The Gnomes and their kin are victims of the lumber business and deforestation which, ironically, is the source of the wealth of Rodney and Elizabeth’s family. The four set off in Rodney’s car, now dubbed the “Gnomobile”, in a quest to locate any other surviving Gnome communities in remaining forests across the entire country. This fast-paced novel brings together elements of “little people” folklore, children’s environmental writing, and Sinclair’s signature critique of capitalism and celebrity culture. But at the same time, the story revels in the pleasures of technological progress, relies on the affordances of speed and efficiency of the automobile, and seems to portray the desirability (as well as inevitability) of the exuberance of technological “progress”, not only in human culture, but in Gnomish social evolution too. This article approaches The Gnomobile from the perspectives of energy humanities and environmental studies, while also suggesting thematic parallels between The Gnomobile and Sinclair’s much better-known realist novel Oil! (1927).