“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


Friday, September 22, 2023

Fan Letter

 I don't know whether I've ever told you this, but it's actually very touching and moving to get letters about my work, in particular from high school and undergraduate students. 

In Cumbria in 2019, at Wordsworth's house (Dove Cottage), I was giving a lecture and during the Q&A a mother and her daughter told me that they had flown over from Ireland to thank me for my work. 

At Northwestern in 2014, about 100 high school students crashed a lecture--they swarmed in after the dialogue part, held in a crowded library on the top floor...there weren't enough seats and  they sat on the floor. Twenty of them surrounded me at the end of the lecture and told me they were fans of my work. 

It happens a lot actually. The Lexile score for Hyperobjects puts it at a reading level suitable for an eleven-year-old. That's part of it. But Claire Colebrook once said that one of the reasons high school and undergrad students like me is, I actually give them ideas to think about that can help them... 

Anyway, here is part this letter I received yesterday: 

Hello! My name is *****  I am a current sophomore undergraduate student at ***** one of the locations of the *****, and am currently pursuing a B.A in both Political Science and English.  

Over the past year, I have grown to be extremely fond of your works, specifically your books on Dark Ecology, Hyperobjects, and Humankind. I have an immense passion in the fields of critical theory, philosophy, ecology, and literature. Your accomplishments in these areas have been tremendously enlightening and have greatly enriched my academic and personal journey.

I was so touched I thought I would share it with you. 

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