“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


Thursday, September 8, 2016

Sorry Donna, It's Not the Cthulhucene

Cthulhu is a being that doesn’t link shit in its tentacles. Cthulhu means shit doesn’t matter at all.

I'm sticking with Anthropocene.

What's interesting is the disturbance people feel with this word, such that they want to change it to fit their concept.

I like being irritating.

***

PS: Donna Haraway is a mutual friend of me and Cary Wolfe.

10 comments:

EM said...

I thought that was the point of philosophy. To feel 'disturbance' at an idea and allow that disturbance to fuel thought. I don't see how she had been so leaden as to reject something because it doesn't fit her concept. She has generated concepts to house her disturbance.

kale kale dinosaur said...

I believe Donna's actual word of choice is "Chthulucene", which as I understand is rooted in Greek "khthon" meaning "earth"
not so much the fantastic tentacles of Cthulu, but more Standard Garden Variety Tentacles (Octopodesocene/Cuttlefishocene/Squidocene?)

Unknown said...

Exactly - I also like being irritating, but not less so I like being irritated! "Anthropocene" is not without problems - which is irritating. But that may also be the beauty of it.

cgerrish said...

Everybody's trying to make the 'cene'

D. E.M. said...

Yes, I got that Cthulhu idea -- & I'm stickies with Anthropocene too

Timothy Morton said...

Then she should have said Cthonocene--which is also incorrect.

Timothy Morton said...

And in any case, cthonos is spelt with a kappa.

Unknown said...

Heh. I concur. I mean, if we must have a -cene term for "multispecies assemblages that include people," can we not do better than Cthulu (+/- 'h')? Perhaps ailurocene (following your "cats happen"). Psilocybicene? :)

On the subject, thanks for the link to the Zalasiewicz interview a few posts ago!

Enaie Maire Azambuja said...

I recently finished Haraway's article "Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene,
Chthulucene: Making Kin", and I must admit I found her suggestion of the term Plantationocene very similar to your critique of agrilogistics. Now, while the first part of her slogan "make kin" is agreeable, I cannot help but find that "not babies" is evidently oppressive. After all, it could be argued that she is writing within - and maybe for - a highly privileged academic community, within a privileged Western background... Anyway, I think the problem is not overpopulation itself but people living in ways that cannot be sustained for much longer... What do you make of it?

Matt said...

"Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthuluncene, these stories always threaten to become too big, and as soon as they become too big, they act like they take over everything. And if you are going to change the story, you can't do that." Donna Haraway.