Anna Tsing Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet Book Review

By Karen Bauer

We are in the Anthropocene

There is something quite embarrassing about reading a book in public that appears to be upside down. The collaborative slice of work known as Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet is separated into two parts: "Monsters and the Fine art of Living" and "Ghosts on a Damaged Planet." The reader must physically turn the book upside down to become from one role to the other. On each cover's bottom right corner, a hint of the other side's encompass is present, helping the reader realize that the two parts are closely connected.

After completing this book, however, the feeling of embarrassment seems to make sense. Each part is composed of essays from scholars in an array of different fields, such as anthropology, environmental, fine art, and literature. While each scholar comes from a different discipline, they are all dealing with the same consequence in these books: human damage. Humans are what have fabricated and what continue to make the planet damaged. Living in the Anthropocene epoch, the editors brainstorm both parts of the book illustrating some of the reverberating consequences that our actions have on the world and those who inhabit it. Industrial pollution, for example, has had negative impacts on the Globe'southward geology and ecosystems, pushing us further and farther into the belly of the beast: climate change.

Humans should feel embarrassed when reading this book and must face up the damages that we have made to the planet earlier it is besides late. Both the "Monsters" and "Ghosts" sections of this volume face up the issue of man-induced damage. In "Monsters," the authors testify only how interconnected our lives are with nonhuman species and the problematic ways that our actions disrupt their lives. With "Ghosts," the authors illustrate the effects that the humans of today accept on the humans and species of the past, the ghosts beingness forever present in our landscapes as a form of remembrance. Although separated into two parts, every author is ultimately wrestling with similar bug pertaining to the question of life.

How are human and nonhuman species to live on, protect, and create life on a damaged planet?

Monsters: Nosotros have never been individuals

The greatest lesson that "Monsters" teaches united states of america is about our entanglements with other species.

With modernity, humans are taught the importance of individualism. Instead of working as a commonage to move forrard, the individual works alone for progress. With this mindset, the connections that humans have with nonhuman species are often ignored and forgotten.

"Our society'south ecological amnesia is profound, and information technology limits us from agreement our current and past impacts on the species and ecosystems around the states." (Ingrid Parker, "Monsters," p. 161)

The authors in this book all work to debunk the myth of individualism. Instead, they illustrate both the nonhuman multispecies assemblages that take been around since the kickoff of time, and the problems that can ascend from not recognizing or ignoring the importance of these entanglements.

Have jellyfish, for example. They may seem innocent, merely many have the power to exist monstrous. Not only can their stings send beachgoers to the infirmary, just the comb jellyfish of the Black Ocean swallow large amounts of small fish, emptying the sea of other species. Jellyfish were not born monstrous, though. Due to human overfishing, shipping, pollution, and global warming, jellyfish take been forced to defend their life confronting humans and other species any fashion possible. Humans have created a monster out of jellyfish, entangled in their lives whether they like it or not.

Scyphozoan or King of beasts's mane jellyfish, Cyanea capillata. Image courtesy of Alexander Semenov.

Ghosts: Enmeshment in Landscape

The authors of "Ghosts" illustrate the multiple spatial and temporal layers that both the living and dead possess, and the influence that these layers have in shaping our landscapes.

Ghosts, similar monsters, create entanglements. They inhabit the same spaces as the living. Their presence can exist felt and seen indirectly, haunting humans and nonhumans in order for them to brainstorm to understand the effects they cause on the nowadays and the future.

"…'nosotros' is not homogenous: some have been considered more than disposable than others." (Anna Tsing et al. "Ghosts," p. iv)

One of the most important features of ghosts is their ability to demonstrate the unequal relations amid species that continue to occur and crusade negative effects.

Ingrid M. Parker's piece entitled "Remembering in our Amnesia, Seeing in our Blindness," discusses the Great Meadow on the campus of the Academy of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). While this natural mural is well-protected from campus development and is praised for its biodiversity, it has a surprising history that many people practise non know almost. The Slap-up Meadow as it stands today is a mural haunted by the ghosts of homo and nonhuman species of the past. But 16 per centum of the species plant in the meadow are "native plants." The rest of the plants were brought by Spanish colonists in the eighteenth century. Ecologists and historians say that the original California "grasslands" were really fields of wildflowers. The history of these wildflowers in the Neat Meadow, along with that of the Amah Mutsun tribe who were the get-go man inhabitants of the meadow, are often not mentioned.

"The idea that disaster will come is not new to indigenous peoples; genocidal disaster has already come, decades and centuries ago, and has not stopped, and the people take non ceased ongoing worlding either." (Ursula K. Le Guin, "Monsters," p. 44)

While there is such a long and active history of erasure on the part of humans, especially when information technology comes to humans inflicting violence on others, ghosts do not permit this happen. They serve as reminders of what lives were destroyed in the path towards and so-called "progress."

They as well remind us that it is still possible to alive through the damage. Despite the removal of many of their native plants and people, the Amah Mutsun in Santa Cruz, for case, go on to prosper in this world. Having most 600 enrolled members, this tribal band works hard to brand room for themselves in the present and future, while simultaneously remembering the by. Their Relearning Program for example, aims for members to relearn traditional ecological noesis (TEK) as a fashion to more effectively assistance with gimmicky environmental problems. Thus, the ghosts of the Great Meadow remain crucial in the fight to restore the damaged planet.

An explosion of rare California poppies in the Great Meadow on the UC Santa Cruz campus. Lensman Gregory Gilbert.

"We should worry but not despair." (Dorion Sagan, "Monsters," p. 174)

There is no denying that nonhuman and human species are bound upward with i another. This entanglement is what allows life to continue. Not recognizing or ignoring this entanglement, notwithstanding, is what destroys life and what damages the planet.

Equally an anthropologist trained in considering different ontologies, reading this book made me realize that I had no idea about the full extent that I had with other species and their worlds. While it is very easy and okay to feel overwhelmed after reading this volume, information technology but begins to become a problem if the reader does not do something to change this feeling.

Each author of Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet shows the fragile country that our planet is currently in due to man-induced environmental changes. While this volume serves as a alert, it also inspires a call to action with some authors offering solutions to begin fixing the problem.

Perhaps the nearly common strategy provided is the expansion of knowledge practices and conversations. I strongly believe getting others to recognize these extensive entanglements is the kickoff step in producing change, especially those whose ancestors have a very explicit history of devastation. Reading this book has inspired me to engage in more critical conversations regarding climate modify with other academics and non-academics. These conversations will brainstorm by foregrounding humans' past actions equally a consequence of current problems, inevitably bringing about the ghosts of the by while doing this. They will also pull from dissimilar branches of knowledge, not relying on a specific one to discuss such an expansive issue. Moreover, it is imperative that more than interdisciplinary dialogue, piece of work, and activeness take place for creative solutions to arise.

Nosotros cannot gear up the planet by ourselves, though. We must rely on the help of the living, the dead, human being, and nonhuman entities to bring nearly modify.

Recommended Commendation

Bauer, Karen. 2018. "Review of Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene."Open up Rivers: Rethinking Water, Identify & Customs, no. 10. https://editions.lib.umn.edu/openrivers/article/review-of-arts-of-living/.

DOI: https://doi.org/x.24926/2471190X.4003

Download PDF of Review ofArts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene past Karen Bauer.

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Source: https://editions.lib.umn.edu/openrivers/article/review-of-arts-of-living/

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