“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


Saturday, September 1, 2012

Splendid Trip

Well I'm not quite sure how that could have gone better. Really lovely trip, incredibly generous people. Thanks to Doug, Jill, Tom, Linda, Kate and Tom. You made my ten days fantastic. We have plans to return in various ways, which is great: my third trip to Australia.

Australia is a very creative place, in terms of scholarship and art (and I don't doubt in other respects too). I think that it's because it's remote both from the old British empire and from the new American one. I also think it's because there is just so much space, and so few people, relatively. So many nonhumans. And the traditional inhabitants of the land have clearly blessed in some sense.

Each conference began with an invocation by an Aborigine elder. It set the tone, this invocation, and was very sincere in a beautiful way. It put people's egos in check, at least to some extent.

No comments: