Gothic Nature Journal: Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet

Review of Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet

Can humans and other species continue to inhabit the earth together?

Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet shows a commitment to interdisciplinarity through the inclusion of diverse fields and methodologies. Each essay challenges the reader to think beyond set fields or ways of viewing the environment and mimics the very entanglement about which the authors are writing. Using creative writings from Ursula K. Le Guin and Lesley Stern, the book articulates the importance of storytelling while simultaneously pushing against fixed notions of narrative. The editors emphasise the potential of storytelling in interdisciplinary work, writing that, ‘Unless we learn to listen broadly, we may miss the biggest story of life on earth: symbiogensis, the comaking of living things’ (p. M8). Rather than relying on academic fields and set forms, Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet embraces the co-making of all things to breakdown boundaries of field and form.

 

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