“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Wednesday, December 18, 2024

All-New American Edition of Being Ecological Coming Soon

 Watch this space for launch event announcements! 

Isn't the new cover just great? I mean, really great? 


That's Julian of Norwich's hazelnut. I got fed up of the Blue Marble and Earthrise. In fact I spoke to NASA on the subject with Pharrell Williams in 2016. If you ask me, that Blue Marble (and furthermore that Pale Blue Dot) are sadistic images, conjuring an evil gaze from the viewpoint of a total vacuum, indifferent to or oblivious of or contemptuous of terrestrial affairs. The point is the "universe of harmony" (Shelley), a common trope in the literature of the radical Enlightenment that boosted the white supremacist concept "Man." 

Much better is Julian's vision, in which God placed in her hand a hazelnut, telling her it was everything that ever was, is or could be. Has a sense of humor for a kickoff. Just look at this lovely new cover. It's much more multidimensional than that Blue Marble. And there's a necessary spiritual or even mystical element in there. 

The book contains all new material for us poor Americans. It was supposed to be for us, but I got so busy when the book came out, mostly with two hyperobjects exhibitions, I didn't have time to promote it right. So I'm incredibly grateful to Beth Clevenger and the MIT team for redoing it with me. 

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