Nature is not natural and can never be naturalized — Graham Harman

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Former Slave's Letter to Former Master

A masterpiece of controlled rage and understated mordant sarcasm. The closer:

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,
Jourdon Anderson.

Aww Shucks Greg

Greg Garrard has a useful timeline in his Teaching Ecocriticism and Green Cultural Studies, which arrived today. The end of said timeline:

2008   Wall•E (dir. Andrew Stanton).
2009   United Nations Climate Change Conference
           (COP-15 Summit) collapses.
2010   Timothy Morton, The Ecological Thought. 
           United Nations Convention on Biological
           Diversity agreed in Nagoya, Japan.
2011   Global human population exceeds 7 billion.

More Talk News

Keynote in London in 2013. SUNY Buffalo in September.

"How to Read' MP3 Is Back Up

Thanks to Ruth Solomon, who noticed it was missing. Sometimes recently the embed code in the service I'm using has been problematic.

Australia Again

Another trip is in the works for August. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

History of Criticism Class 7: Maimonides (MP3)



A class on Maimonides and De Vinsauf. Allegory and filigree silver apples.

Evental Aesthetics Essay Online Now

It's about Hegel and ecology, and art. Happily my Ph.D student Angie is also in it.



How to Read Any Poem Anywhere, Class 7: Rhyme (MP3)



I reckon this was the best class on rhyme I ever taught.

Slow Reading Slow Gaming

Ian Bogost just sent me this. On the phone to my editor Lindsay Waters in early 2006 I said we really need to make a push for “slow reading”—a phrase that he really liked and developed into a number of essays and conference panels.

Apropos of the post itself, and its proposal that we read the first word of A Tale of Two Cities: I always teach the first word of The Picture of Dorian Gray, “the.”

Humans, Sincerity, Nonhumans



What Graham Harman says about sincerity applies beautifully to Kristen Bell's reaction to this lemur. Watch—it's better than reading most philosophy! HT Ian Bogost.

Graham:  “By coming to terms with an increasing range of objects, human beings do not become nihilistic princes of darkness, but actually the most sincere creatures the earth has ever seen.”

Nietzsche Versus Nurture

Which is worse?

Being fed by your fascist little sister while you sit incapacitated and dying?


Or having food placed regularly on your head and uploaded to Tumblr? HT Ian Bogost.

Sarah Ray Talk at UC Davis

Environments & Societies: History, Literature, and Justice
UC Davis Mellon Research Initiative
2012 Colloquium Series

The Ecological Other: Bodies, Nature, and Exclusion
Sarah Jaquette Ray, University of Alaska, Southeast

Wednesday, February 8
4pm - 6pm
126 Voorhies Hall

Sarah Jaquette Ray is Assistant Professor of English and Coordinator of the Geography and Environmental Studies BA Program at University of Alaska Southeast. Her work combines environmental justice literature and theory, human geography, and cultural studies, and she is currently working on a book manuscript, under contract with University of Arizona Press, titled The Ecological Other: Bodies, Nature, and Exclusion. She received a doctorate in Environmental Sciences, Studies, and Policy from the University of Oregon in 2009, a MA in American Studies from University of Texas at Austin, and a BA in Religious Studies and Women’s Studies from Swarthmore College. She teaches courses in environmental literature, ecocriticism, environmental justice, cultural studies, composition, and human geography.

For more information about the colloquium series, please visit: http://environmentsandsocieties.ucdavis.edu/.

The Ecological Thought on Kindle

There is a cheap ten buck version for Kindle--I had no idea until this morning.



Another Chance to Hear Me on KPFA

Just got this:

Wanted to let you know that, as I was going through the interviews I
conducted last year on KPFA's Against the Grain, the one I did with
you stood out as among the best and most memorable.

We'll highlight portions of that conversation on today's (Tuesday's)
Against the Grain program, which begins at noon.

Against the Grain on Pacifica Radio airs on KPFA 94.1 FM in the San
Francisco Bay Area and beyond, and on KFCF 88.1 FM in California's
Central Valley. It also broadcasts worldwide, via kpfa.org.

The audio will be archived afterward, in on-demand and downloadable
forms, at againstthegrain.org.