This paper compares some influential critiques of mass media and the mythic element they diagnose... more This paper compares some influential critiques of mass media and the mythic element they diagnose within it. Each theory is compared to the myth of the cave, described by Plato in his Republic, which suggests that whatever the format of our sociocultural communications systems, they falsely maintain a paradigm we assume equates with some kind of abiding truth or reality. This relatively ‘illusory’ quality must be qualified, however, by the transformative power and potential of mass media both as a paradigm and as a vehicle of cultural change. This tension is discussed in regards to Marshall McLuhan’s thesis that The Medium is the Message, the Frankfurt School analysis performed by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer in the ‘Culture Industry’ chapter of their Dialectic of Enlightenment, and in Karl Marx’s theory of the commodity fetish as revised by Jean Baudrillard (in For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign) and Slavoj Žižek (in The Sublime Object of Ideology). Close readings of these influential critical analyses of the cultural and symbolic elements in the proliferation of mass media and communications industries today reveal an age-old tension between ignorance and knowledge, illusion and truth that is far from settled. My conclusion considers the degree of agency we, as consumers of mass media in the early twenty-first century, might enjoy in terms of its dominant message. It assumes that a Marxist critique of the media and communications industries remains relevant in the twenty-first century.
What would we hear if place could speak?
What would we hear if we listened to our ance... more What would we hear if place could speak?
What would we hear if we listened to our ancestral stories for wisdom in navigating current circumstances, even while recognizing that we now inhabit entirely new circumstances requiring up-to-date science and inventiveness, as well as ancient insight into the human experience?
And then ... what would we do with such stories of place and cultural genealogy, if we put them together in service to the earth and its many peopled life forms, shorn of the strong anthropocentrism shown so unreflectively in the global marketplace?
This piece is an Introduction to the possibility of enacting mythopoeia - or using myth creatively to respond to contemporary circumstances - in the Australian Aboriginal context of Country, which is an enlivened spiritual cosmos of nourishing terrain (Rose). It is the General Introduction to Issue 13 of PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature.
Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Apr 2013
The symbol of light has commonly represented human desires for goodness, order, truth, perpetual ... more The symbol of light has commonly represented human desires for goodness, order, truth, perpetual abundance, and the transcendence of earthly limits. Modern practices of artificial light cultivation remain associated with a symbolic promise to banish darkness and its corollaries—lack, death, ignorance, disease, and chaos. In today’s global and increasingly urbanized world this association is most notably emblematized in the modern city, which is lit up at night in a technologically brilliant display that ironically also conveys the deepening ecological disaster of anthropogenic climate change. Responding to German philosopher Hans Blumenberg’s essay ‘Light as a Metaphor for Truth’, this article seeks to uncover the ways that technological figurations of light transform an ancient association with freedom into dangerous practices of fuel fetish and overconsumption. Increased awareness of such habits of overconsumption could help to decrease urban light pollution and the ecological danger that it signifies.
Eliot’s visionary poem The Waste Land gnaws at the bones of twentieth-cent... more Eliot’s visionary poem The Waste Land gnaws at the bones of twentieth-century Anglo-American society to reveal the alienation of the modern west from the non-human world, alongside a desperate but convoluted longing to re-commune with organic elements and forces. The poem’s arid world of shattered and scattered images conveys the fragmented state of the urbanized soul as well as its desacralized environment. Eliot’s wasteland succeeds in displaying modernity’s failure, existing both within the psyche and without it, in the world, illuminating the existential dilemma of twentieth century life as well as anticipating the ecological crisis looming from within the shadows of the very project of urban civilization itself.
Examiner's comments (abridged):
Professor Louise Westling, University of Oregon (author of The... more Examiner's comments (abridged):
Professor Louise Westling, University of Oregon (author of The Green Breast of the New World, and Sacred Groves and Ravaged Gardens):
“Berry’s “Under the Dominion of Light: An Ecocritical Mythography” is a substantial contribution to ecocriticism and ... an ambitious attempt to place myth theory in rigorous dialogue with European cultural theory of the past century in order to analyse the deep sources of the present ecological dilemma in the mythos of transcendent light… it succeeds admirably in making its case.
The project is certain to be influential in international ecocritical debates, because it provides a strong new perspective on mythic tendencies driving Western economic behaviour.”
Laurence Coupe, Manchester Metropolitan University (author of Myth in the New Critical Idiom series, and The Green Studies Reader):
“This thesis is ambitious, erudite, well-informed and articulate. It clearly demonstrates the candidate’s ability to synthesise a great deal of diffuse material and to focus on an original theme.”
The conversation between humanity and the natural world continues unabated, in dream symbols and ... more The conversation between humanity and the natural world continues unabated, in dream symbols and on the whispering breeze, for those who want to dedicate time and effort to maintaining deep connection. Follow the Pan pipes and listen to the rustling reeds for inspiration ... read on at http://panjournal.net/issues/15
If utopia has often been criticized as an unrealistic and unsustainable fantasy, then the most pr... more If utopia has often been criticized as an unrealistic and unsustainable fantasy, then the most prominent example of this imaginary today must be the vision provided by the endless growth and profit model of global capital. This utopian dreaming of perpetual abundance links technological progress with faith in human culture’s ability to master the rest of nature. Fredric Jameson followed Ernst Bloch’s recognition of this deep yearning for a land of milk and honey and I likewise return to the Principle of Hope, this time to trace the way Bloch treats light as a mythic symbol of abundance. Citing the famous NASA photomontage of the planet at night, this article shows how modern urban life relies on the unsustainable combustion of fossil fuels in an effort to banish the night from earthly life. It also cites a selection of advertisements that directly link light with magical yet ubiquitous powers of overcoming, and which ignore or conceal the dire ecological consequences of this Promethean dreaming. The article concludes with reference to the comparatively realistic visions of critical ecotopias and ecodystopias that remind us of our collective hopes for a better future in terms both social and ecological.
In 'PAN' 13 John Bradley responded to a rhetorical question put to him by Dinah Norman a-Marrngaw... more In 'PAN' 13 John Bradley responded to a rhetorical question put to him by Dinah Norman a-Marrngawi, a mentor of his in the Yanyuwa language and ways of North East Arnhem Land, which I have not been able to forget since: can her Country hear English? For a fully committed animist like myself, this gentle interrogation works away at the craw like a Zen koan: how can we live 'here' - wherever that is - as full ecological citizens, if we cannot do so in communication with the land and sea, forests and mountains and rivers? If this Country cannot hear English, it cannot receive my blessings, it can only sense my thanks mutely at best, and surely it cannot return any sort of grace when I speak my native language. My relationship with non-human kin is mute; or worse, marked by the violence, disdain and assumed mastery that comes with colonizing history.
How can we think about myth as a creative force in contemporary terms? What might be some of the ... more How can we think about myth as a creative force in contemporary terms? What might be some of the mechanics involved in transformation of deep patterns according to modern issues and themes?
The spread of light witnessed in the NASA image of the planet at night reveals the brilliance of ... more The spread of light witnessed in the NASA image of the planet at night reveals the brilliance of human technological innovation, the extent of global urban colonization, and the associated threat of ecological crisis. This article uses this image as a starting point for an interdisciplinary discussion about the development of lighting technologies and associated symbolic content, including both religious and secular ideals about light’s victory over darkness. A close analysis of the image puts comparative levels of technological development in the context of a widespread faith in the magic of electricity (which is clean, silent and immediate) to provide abundance. This dream transforms our ancient fascination with fire but also hides the ecological costs of the new form, which in many ways exacerbates dualistic relations between culture and nature. Finally the article discusses the costs of light pollution, urbanization, fossil fuel consumption and commodification.
Compares the 'War on Terror' rhetoric of the recent Bush administration with a Dead Sea Scroll, n... more Compares the 'War on Terror' rhetoric of the recent Bush administration with a Dead Sea Scroll, noting the perennial use of the idea that 'we' are on the side of light while the enemy are a force of darkness. Interestingly, the ancient War Scroll motivates its audience to war on behalf of a marginal minority sect, while the US example employs similar symbols and stories on behalf of the world's major superpower. Once again the incredible flexibility of mythic symbols such as light and darkness is proven.
White Fella Dreaming introduces various ways for modern people to experience embodied spiritual a... more White Fella Dreaming introduces various ways for modern people to experience embodied spiritual awareness. It draws from ancient wisdom traditions, including indigenous, western and eastern sources, and integrates or compares these with the findings of contemporary science, philosophy, cultural studies and psychology. It’s a fun ride, but it also deadly serious, because there was never a more important time to enact our own individual and collective spiritual breakthroughs than right now.
White Fella Dreaming can be found at: https://whitefelladreaming.wordpress.com
Environmental Philosophy: The Art of Life in a World of Limits. Volume 13 in the Advances in Sustainability and Environmental Justice series. Emerald Group Publishing Ltd, 2013
"• Purpose
This chapter considers the environmental damage related to Ireland’s recent ‘Ghost Es... more "• Purpose
This chapter considers the environmental damage related to Ireland’s recent ‘Ghost Estates,’ placing this disastrous waste of resources in the long historical context of ancient ruins that also dot the land.
• Methodology/approach
It considers ruins from an ecocritical perspective, as material artefacts attesting directly to a people’s relationship with their environment.
• Findings
From ancient megaliths and sacred sites to imposing castles, Ireland’s impressive ruins ignite romantic reflections in many. Yet, just like the modern ruins of Ghost Estates, they also tell of an often oppressive relationship between human cultures and the natural environment. Ironically perhaps, stone circles and tombs that seem to speak of a people living in much closer relation to nonhuman nature than we moderns do are also associated with one of the greatest environmental scourges known deforestation. Yet they at least stand testament to an ethic of timelessness and robust building, as well as resistance to a seemingly irresistible process of capitalistic modernisation; ethical commitments devoid in the more recent ruins. Given this, however, creative responses should also be noted to the Ghost Estates, including Cloughjordan’s Ecovillage and the NamaLab project.
• Practical and Social implications
Three sets of responses that all work more realistically with a recognition of the limits of sustainable development are considered in the conclusion: Transition Towns, an Ecovillage and architectural reutilisation of defunct buildings.
This paper compares some influential critiques of mass media and the mythic element they diagnose... more This paper compares some influential critiques of mass media and the mythic element they diagnose within it. Each theory is compared to the myth of the cave, described by Plato in his Republic, which suggests that whatever the format of our sociocultural communications systems, they falsely maintain a paradigm we assume equates with some kind of abiding truth or reality. This relatively ‘illusory’ quality must be qualified, however, by the transformative power and potential of mass media both as a paradigm and as a vehicle of cultural change. This tension is discussed in regards to Marshall McLuhan’s thesis that The Medium is the Message, the Frankfurt School analysis performed by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer in the ‘Culture Industry’ chapter of their Dialectic of Enlightenment, and in Karl Marx’s theory of the commodity fetish as revised by Jean Baudrillard (in For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign) and Slavoj Žižek (in The Sublime Object of Ideology). Close readings of these influential critical analyses of the cultural and symbolic elements in the proliferation of mass media and communications industries today reveal an age-old tension between ignorance and knowledge, illusion and truth that is far from settled. My conclusion considers the degree of agency we, as consumers of mass media in the early twenty-first century, might enjoy in terms of its dominant message. It assumes that a Marxist critique of the media and communications industries remains relevant in the twenty-first century.
What would we hear if place could speak?
What would we hear if we listened to our ance... more What would we hear if place could speak?
What would we hear if we listened to our ancestral stories for wisdom in navigating current circumstances, even while recognizing that we now inhabit entirely new circumstances requiring up-to-date science and inventiveness, as well as ancient insight into the human experience?
And then ... what would we do with such stories of place and cultural genealogy, if we put them together in service to the earth and its many peopled life forms, shorn of the strong anthropocentrism shown so unreflectively in the global marketplace?
This piece is an Introduction to the possibility of enacting mythopoeia - or using myth creatively to respond to contemporary circumstances - in the Australian Aboriginal context of Country, which is an enlivened spiritual cosmos of nourishing terrain (Rose). It is the General Introduction to Issue 13 of PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature.
Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Apr 2013
The symbol of light has commonly represented human desires for goodness, order, truth, perpetual ... more The symbol of light has commonly represented human desires for goodness, order, truth, perpetual abundance, and the transcendence of earthly limits. Modern practices of artificial light cultivation remain associated with a symbolic promise to banish darkness and its corollaries—lack, death, ignorance, disease, and chaos. In today’s global and increasingly urbanized world this association is most notably emblematized in the modern city, which is lit up at night in a technologically brilliant display that ironically also conveys the deepening ecological disaster of anthropogenic climate change. Responding to German philosopher Hans Blumenberg’s essay ‘Light as a Metaphor for Truth’, this article seeks to uncover the ways that technological figurations of light transform an ancient association with freedom into dangerous practices of fuel fetish and overconsumption. Increased awareness of such habits of overconsumption could help to decrease urban light pollution and the ecological danger that it signifies.
Eliot’s visionary poem The Waste Land gnaws at the bones of twentieth-cent... more Eliot’s visionary poem The Waste Land gnaws at the bones of twentieth-century Anglo-American society to reveal the alienation of the modern west from the non-human world, alongside a desperate but convoluted longing to re-commune with organic elements and forces. The poem’s arid world of shattered and scattered images conveys the fragmented state of the urbanized soul as well as its desacralized environment. Eliot’s wasteland succeeds in displaying modernity’s failure, existing both within the psyche and without it, in the world, illuminating the existential dilemma of twentieth century life as well as anticipating the ecological crisis looming from within the shadows of the very project of urban civilization itself.
Examiner's comments (abridged):
Professor Louise Westling, University of Oregon (author of The... more Examiner's comments (abridged):
Professor Louise Westling, University of Oregon (author of The Green Breast of the New World, and Sacred Groves and Ravaged Gardens):
“Berry’s “Under the Dominion of Light: An Ecocritical Mythography” is a substantial contribution to ecocriticism and ... an ambitious attempt to place myth theory in rigorous dialogue with European cultural theory of the past century in order to analyse the deep sources of the present ecological dilemma in the mythos of transcendent light… it succeeds admirably in making its case.
The project is certain to be influential in international ecocritical debates, because it provides a strong new perspective on mythic tendencies driving Western economic behaviour.”
Laurence Coupe, Manchester Metropolitan University (author of Myth in the New Critical Idiom series, and The Green Studies Reader):
“This thesis is ambitious, erudite, well-informed and articulate. It clearly demonstrates the candidate’s ability to synthesise a great deal of diffuse material and to focus on an original theme.”
The conversation between humanity and the natural world continues unabated, in dream symbols and ... more The conversation between humanity and the natural world continues unabated, in dream symbols and on the whispering breeze, for those who want to dedicate time and effort to maintaining deep connection. Follow the Pan pipes and listen to the rustling reeds for inspiration ... read on at http://panjournal.net/issues/15
If utopia has often been criticized as an unrealistic and unsustainable fantasy, then the most pr... more If utopia has often been criticized as an unrealistic and unsustainable fantasy, then the most prominent example of this imaginary today must be the vision provided by the endless growth and profit model of global capital. This utopian dreaming of perpetual abundance links technological progress with faith in human culture’s ability to master the rest of nature. Fredric Jameson followed Ernst Bloch’s recognition of this deep yearning for a land of milk and honey and I likewise return to the Principle of Hope, this time to trace the way Bloch treats light as a mythic symbol of abundance. Citing the famous NASA photomontage of the planet at night, this article shows how modern urban life relies on the unsustainable combustion of fossil fuels in an effort to banish the night from earthly life. It also cites a selection of advertisements that directly link light with magical yet ubiquitous powers of overcoming, and which ignore or conceal the dire ecological consequences of this Promethean dreaming. The article concludes with reference to the comparatively realistic visions of critical ecotopias and ecodystopias that remind us of our collective hopes for a better future in terms both social and ecological.
In 'PAN' 13 John Bradley responded to a rhetorical question put to him by Dinah Norman a-Marrngaw... more In 'PAN' 13 John Bradley responded to a rhetorical question put to him by Dinah Norman a-Marrngawi, a mentor of his in the Yanyuwa language and ways of North East Arnhem Land, which I have not been able to forget since: can her Country hear English? For a fully committed animist like myself, this gentle interrogation works away at the craw like a Zen koan: how can we live 'here' - wherever that is - as full ecological citizens, if we cannot do so in communication with the land and sea, forests and mountains and rivers? If this Country cannot hear English, it cannot receive my blessings, it can only sense my thanks mutely at best, and surely it cannot return any sort of grace when I speak my native language. My relationship with non-human kin is mute; or worse, marked by the violence, disdain and assumed mastery that comes with colonizing history.
How can we think about myth as a creative force in contemporary terms? What might be some of the ... more How can we think about myth as a creative force in contemporary terms? What might be some of the mechanics involved in transformation of deep patterns according to modern issues and themes?
The spread of light witnessed in the NASA image of the planet at night reveals the brilliance of ... more The spread of light witnessed in the NASA image of the planet at night reveals the brilliance of human technological innovation, the extent of global urban colonization, and the associated threat of ecological crisis. This article uses this image as a starting point for an interdisciplinary discussion about the development of lighting technologies and associated symbolic content, including both religious and secular ideals about light’s victory over darkness. A close analysis of the image puts comparative levels of technological development in the context of a widespread faith in the magic of electricity (which is clean, silent and immediate) to provide abundance. This dream transforms our ancient fascination with fire but also hides the ecological costs of the new form, which in many ways exacerbates dualistic relations between culture and nature. Finally the article discusses the costs of light pollution, urbanization, fossil fuel consumption and commodification.
Compares the 'War on Terror' rhetoric of the recent Bush administration with a Dead Sea Scroll, n... more Compares the 'War on Terror' rhetoric of the recent Bush administration with a Dead Sea Scroll, noting the perennial use of the idea that 'we' are on the side of light while the enemy are a force of darkness. Interestingly, the ancient War Scroll motivates its audience to war on behalf of a marginal minority sect, while the US example employs similar symbols and stories on behalf of the world's major superpower. Once again the incredible flexibility of mythic symbols such as light and darkness is proven.
White Fella Dreaming introduces various ways for modern people to experience embodied spiritual a... more White Fella Dreaming introduces various ways for modern people to experience embodied spiritual awareness. It draws from ancient wisdom traditions, including indigenous, western and eastern sources, and integrates or compares these with the findings of contemporary science, philosophy, cultural studies and psychology. It’s a fun ride, but it also deadly serious, because there was never a more important time to enact our own individual and collective spiritual breakthroughs than right now.
White Fella Dreaming can be found at: https://whitefelladreaming.wordpress.com
Environmental Philosophy: The Art of Life in a World of Limits. Volume 13 in the Advances in Sustainability and Environmental Justice series. Emerald Group Publishing Ltd, 2013
"• Purpose
This chapter considers the environmental damage related to Ireland’s recent ‘Ghost Es... more "• Purpose
This chapter considers the environmental damage related to Ireland’s recent ‘Ghost Estates,’ placing this disastrous waste of resources in the long historical context of ancient ruins that also dot the land.
• Methodology/approach
It considers ruins from an ecocritical perspective, as material artefacts attesting directly to a people’s relationship with their environment.
• Findings
From ancient megaliths and sacred sites to imposing castles, Ireland’s impressive ruins ignite romantic reflections in many. Yet, just like the modern ruins of Ghost Estates, they also tell of an often oppressive relationship between human cultures and the natural environment. Ironically perhaps, stone circles and tombs that seem to speak of a people living in much closer relation to nonhuman nature than we moderns do are also associated with one of the greatest environmental scourges known deforestation. Yet they at least stand testament to an ethic of timelessness and robust building, as well as resistance to a seemingly irresistible process of capitalistic modernisation; ethical commitments devoid in the more recent ruins. Given this, however, creative responses should also be noted to the Ghost Estates, including Cloughjordan’s Ecovillage and the NamaLab project.
• Practical and Social implications
Three sets of responses that all work more realistically with a recognition of the limits of sustainable development are considered in the conclusion: Transition Towns, an Ecovillage and architectural reutilisation of defunct buildings.
In PAN 13 John Bradley responded to a rhetorical question put to him by Dinah Norman a-Marrngawi,... more In PAN 13 John Bradley responded to a rhetorical question put to him by Dinah Norman a-Marrngawi, a mentor of his in the Yanyuwa language and ways of North East Arnhem Land, which I have not been able to forget since: can her Country hear English? For a fully committed animist like myself, this gentle interrogation works away at the craw like a Zen koan: how can we live here - wherever that is - as full ecological citizens, if we cannot do so in communication with the land and sea, forests and mountains and rivers? If this Country cannot hear English, it cannot receive my blessings, it can only sense my thanks mutely at best, and surely it cannot return any sort of grace when I speak my native language. My relationship with non-human kin is mute; or worse, marked by the violence, disdain and assumed mastery that comes with colonizing history.
PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature, No. 14, Dec 2018: 24-29
When traditional cultures practice rituals of regeneration, attention is typically paid to united... more When traditional cultures practice rituals of regeneration, attention is typically paid to united concerns of the inner life and care for nature. In an age of increasing climate change crisis, members of urban societies must recompose rituals of renewal with a similarly holistic cosmology in mind. The ‘modern soul’ is more than ever in need of direct relation with the rest of nature as well as inner psychic harmony. But while exercising caution not to ‘co-opt’ Aboriginal songlines such as the kujika of Yanyuwa tribe of north eastern Arnhem Land, we can recognise great potential in adopting a similar ontopoetic structure in a new way. Executed with the appropriate balance of cultural sensitivity and openness to ‘the song of the land,’ new kinds of songlines (or more appropriately ‘country lines’) can combine uniquely modern concerns such as technology and excessive pollution with traditional conceptions of a holistic world wherein nature and psyche are known as a complex and diverse unity. When all creatures and landforms ‘sing’ in one chorus of interrelated life – wherein conflict is included and managed ‘in line’ with this higher synthesis of complexity – a resilient new cosmology may be composed.
From Geoff Berry's editorial intro:
What would we hear if place could speak?
What would we hear ... more From Geoff Berry's editorial intro:
What would we hear if place could speak? What would we hear if we listened to our ancestral stories for wisdom in navigating current circumstances, even while recognizing that we now inhabit entirely new circumstances requiring up-to-date science and inventiveness, as well as ancient insight into the human experience? And then … what would we do with such stories of place and cultural genealogy, if we put them together in service to the earth and its many peopled life forms, shorn of the strong anthropocentrism shown so unreflectively in the global marketplace?
Craig San Roque’s work forms the core of this special issue of PAN, exemplifying an extraordinarily rich example of how such questions may be answered for those who care deeply and passionately about the way our planetary home can be treated with love and respect. Just as New Mexico author Martin Prechtel uses beautiful words to call out to the ‘indigenous soul’ in all of us, this issue offers an opportunity to practice a more reflective awareness, a more subtle kind of listening to the language beneath socialised consciousness. This does not dismiss critique of the currently devastating dominant paradigm, of unrestrained corporate greed and the political/military industrial complex that protects it, because that critique remains absolutely necessary to any and all social collectives dedicated to healing the human relationship with the rest of nature. But PAN Issue 13 asks us to turn our ears towards the earth itself, as well as to our cultural traditions of wisdom, in order to hone our personal and collective relations with the places we live, as if they mattered more than what we can get out of them. Mythopoeia acts as a constantly renewing guide to such relations; a way of being that makes everyday life seem both perfectly natural and connected to a greater reality: a bigger picture, a sacred path of being, belonging and becoming that is embodied in our lived experiences and is a flowering of our sense of timelessness, a never-to-be-repeated celebration of life in all its challenges and promise.
... Issue 7 (2010). Here on Earth: An Argument for Hope [Book Review]. Berry, Geoff (Reviewed by)... more ... Issue 7 (2010). Here on Earth: An Argument for Hope [Book Review]. Berry, Geoff (Reviewed by) 1. Full Text PDF (85kb). To cite this article: Berry, Geoff. ... [cited 23 Jan 11]. Personal Author:Berry, Geoff. Source: PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature, No. 7, 2010: 122-124. ...
The Nordic myths of Asgard have been paid a fair degree of respect over recent years. They were a... more The Nordic myths of Asgard have been paid a fair degree of respect over recent years. They were a major inspiration behind Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, which received magisterial filmic treatment from Peter Jackson, and were granted a more explicit role in Kenneth Branagh's recent visual feast Thor. A. S. Byatt's new novel Ragnarök is a much more personal journey than these heroic epics, retelling the core mythic cycle of the Northern Europeans through the thoughts and experiences of a small girl during the Second World War air raids in and around London. Explicitly taking its cues from Dr W Wagner's 1880 book Asgard and the Gods, Byatt's reverie also clearly utilises autobiographical details in its telling of "the thin child" during wartime.
The prescriptive-sounding title of this slim volume, combined with its stated aim to provide a co... more The prescriptive-sounding title of this slim volume, combined with its stated aim to provide a comprehensive theory of myth (16), provide this reviewer with a double-edged problem, because form my reading the volume is both too ambitious and too limited at once. Too ambitious, because the very idea of a generic approach to the sprawling beast that is "myth," which could offer us a single approach that would work under any circumstance, reminds us of the limits to the structuralist approach, which looks for the common factors in any given version of a myth at the (potential) cost of local nuance, individual flavour, momentary meaning or particular environmental concerns. Myth survives and proliferates because it transcends any given specificity or analysis. The search for such a "skeleton key" can thereby become a dangerous reduction in a postmodern world where the universals and essentialisms redolent of a previous era are being consistently challenged by new way...
Berry, G. Here on Earth : an argument for hope [Review of the book Here on Earth : an argument fo... more Berry, G. Here on Earth : an argument for hope [Review of the book Here on Earth : an argument for hope]. PAN : philosophy activism nature. 2010; 7, 122-124
Those accustomed to Charles Bukowski's usual rant will find less of the offensive, misogynist... more Those accustomed to Charles Bukowski's usual rant will find less of the offensive, misogynistic, bar-brawling alcoholism than usual here; but that doesn't mean it is entirely absent. A novel about the filming of the 1985 film Barfly, which starred Mickey Rourke in the days when he swaggered with a slanted, smart-aleck smile and hadn't yet undergone the transformation to boxing from which he recently returned (for The Wrestler, another fine performance) and Faye Dunaway. Bukowski, as he does in other works of "fiction," barely bothers concealing the inspiration behind his characters. Again he is Henry Chinaski, beaten down by the stupidities of human nature, but never beaten out of the game. The pseudonyms he chooses for others are sometimes merely slight changes of real names and usually the brief description gives the game away; hence we get characterisations of Sean Penn and Madonna, Norman Mailer, Francis Ford Coppola, David Lynch and Isobella Rossellini, an...
Mark Tredinnick's <i>The Little Green Grammar Book</i> is a consciously nonformal... more Mark Tredinnick's <i>The Little Green Grammar Book</i> is a consciously nonformal guide to finding the most effective way to write. Tredinnick eschews any kind of encyclopaedic approach to favour instead an outline of the grammatical laws of the English language that begins with the whole rather than the parts. Thus begins the first major section of the book, "A Natural History of the Sentence": the inner life of its word order, how it makes meaning as more than the sum of its parts, family relationships between phrases and clauses, basic structures.
Since publishing its first edition in 2005, the Myths Series has presented a wide variety of volu... more Since publishing its first edition in 2005, the Myths Series has presented a wide variety of volumes, each by different authors, which capture multivalent aspects of the mythic in literature. In the broadest terms, the qualities that make a tale mythic should include exploration of the connection between human and sacred worlds (tracing the metaphysical element to our lives, as Joseph Campbell urged) and explorations of narratives so pervasive that they work to structure the very way we think (as pointed out by Claude Lévi-Strauss). While the publishers may be accused of stretching this in their stated aim to convey tales of universal and timeless stories, they can certainly be said to have succeeded in providing a richly textured set of examples that make mythic themes and concerns contemporary, exciting and valid, both as entertainment and as spiritual nourishment.
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Papers by Geoff Berry
What would we hear if we listened to our ancestral stories for wisdom in navigating current circumstances, even while recognizing that we now inhabit entirely new circumstances requiring up-to-date science and inventiveness, as well as ancient insight into the human experience?
And then ... what would we do with such stories of place and cultural genealogy, if we put them together in service to the earth and its many peopled life forms, shorn of the strong anthropocentrism shown so unreflectively in the global marketplace?
This piece is an Introduction to the possibility of enacting mythopoeia - or using myth creatively to respond to contemporary circumstances - in the Australian Aboriginal context of Country, which is an enlivened spiritual cosmos of nourishing terrain (Rose). It is the General Introduction to Issue 13 of PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature.
*NB Please visit the website to engage with this paper: http://panjournal.net/issues/13
Professor Louise Westling, University of Oregon (author of The Green Breast of the New World, and Sacred Groves and Ravaged Gardens):
“Berry’s “Under the Dominion of Light: An Ecocritical Mythography” is a substantial contribution to ecocriticism and ... an ambitious attempt to place myth theory in rigorous dialogue with European cultural theory of the past century in order to analyse the deep sources of the present ecological dilemma in the mythos of transcendent light… it succeeds admirably in making its case.
The project is certain to be influential in international ecocritical debates, because it provides a strong new perspective on mythic tendencies driving Western economic behaviour.”
Laurence Coupe, Manchester Metropolitan University (author of Myth in the New Critical Idiom series, and The Green Studies Reader):
“This thesis is ambitious, erudite, well-informed and articulate. It clearly demonstrates the candidate’s ability to synthesise a great deal of diffuse material and to focus on an original theme.”
White Fella Dreaming can be found at: https://whitefelladreaming.wordpress.com
This chapter considers the environmental damage related to Ireland’s recent ‘Ghost Estates,’ placing this disastrous waste of resources in the long historical context of ancient ruins that also dot the land.
• Methodology/approach
It considers ruins from an ecocritical perspective, as material artefacts attesting directly to a people’s relationship with their environment.
• Findings
From ancient megaliths and sacred sites to imposing castles, Ireland’s impressive ruins ignite romantic reflections in many. Yet, just like the modern ruins of Ghost Estates, they also tell of an often oppressive relationship between human cultures and the natural environment. Ironically perhaps, stone circles and tombs that seem to speak of a people living in much closer relation to nonhuman nature than we moderns do are also associated with one of the greatest environmental scourges known deforestation. Yet they at least stand testament to an ethic of timelessness and robust building, as well as resistance to a seemingly irresistible process of capitalistic modernisation; ethical commitments devoid in the more recent ruins. Given this, however, creative responses should also be noted to the Ghost Estates, including Cloughjordan’s Ecovillage and the NamaLab project.
• Practical and Social implications
Three sets of responses that all work more realistically with a recognition of the limits of sustainable development are considered in the conclusion: Transition Towns, an Ecovillage and architectural reutilisation of defunct buildings.
What would we hear if we listened to our ancestral stories for wisdom in navigating current circumstances, even while recognizing that we now inhabit entirely new circumstances requiring up-to-date science and inventiveness, as well as ancient insight into the human experience?
And then ... what would we do with such stories of place and cultural genealogy, if we put them together in service to the earth and its many peopled life forms, shorn of the strong anthropocentrism shown so unreflectively in the global marketplace?
This piece is an Introduction to the possibility of enacting mythopoeia - or using myth creatively to respond to contemporary circumstances - in the Australian Aboriginal context of Country, which is an enlivened spiritual cosmos of nourishing terrain (Rose). It is the General Introduction to Issue 13 of PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature.
*NB Please visit the website to engage with this paper: http://panjournal.net/issues/13
Professor Louise Westling, University of Oregon (author of The Green Breast of the New World, and Sacred Groves and Ravaged Gardens):
“Berry’s “Under the Dominion of Light: An Ecocritical Mythography” is a substantial contribution to ecocriticism and ... an ambitious attempt to place myth theory in rigorous dialogue with European cultural theory of the past century in order to analyse the deep sources of the present ecological dilemma in the mythos of transcendent light… it succeeds admirably in making its case.
The project is certain to be influential in international ecocritical debates, because it provides a strong new perspective on mythic tendencies driving Western economic behaviour.”
Laurence Coupe, Manchester Metropolitan University (author of Myth in the New Critical Idiom series, and The Green Studies Reader):
“This thesis is ambitious, erudite, well-informed and articulate. It clearly demonstrates the candidate’s ability to synthesise a great deal of diffuse material and to focus on an original theme.”
White Fella Dreaming can be found at: https://whitefelladreaming.wordpress.com
This chapter considers the environmental damage related to Ireland’s recent ‘Ghost Estates,’ placing this disastrous waste of resources in the long historical context of ancient ruins that also dot the land.
• Methodology/approach
It considers ruins from an ecocritical perspective, as material artefacts attesting directly to a people’s relationship with their environment.
• Findings
From ancient megaliths and sacred sites to imposing castles, Ireland’s impressive ruins ignite romantic reflections in many. Yet, just like the modern ruins of Ghost Estates, they also tell of an often oppressive relationship between human cultures and the natural environment. Ironically perhaps, stone circles and tombs that seem to speak of a people living in much closer relation to nonhuman nature than we moderns do are also associated with one of the greatest environmental scourges known deforestation. Yet they at least stand testament to an ethic of timelessness and robust building, as well as resistance to a seemingly irresistible process of capitalistic modernisation; ethical commitments devoid in the more recent ruins. Given this, however, creative responses should also be noted to the Ghost Estates, including Cloughjordan’s Ecovillage and the NamaLab project.
• Practical and Social implications
Three sets of responses that all work more realistically with a recognition of the limits of sustainable development are considered in the conclusion: Transition Towns, an Ecovillage and architectural reutilisation of defunct buildings.
PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature, No. 14, Dec 2018: 24-29
What would we hear if place could speak?
What would we hear if we listened to our ancestral stories for wisdom in
navigating current circumstances, even while recognizing that we now inhabit entirely new circumstances requiring up-to-date science and inventiveness, as well as ancient insight into the human experience?
And then … what would we do with such stories of place and cultural
genealogy, if we put them together in service to the earth and its many peopled life forms, shorn of the strong anthropocentrism shown so unreflectively in the global marketplace?
Craig San Roque’s work forms the core of this special issue of PAN,
exemplifying an extraordinarily rich example of how such questions may be answered for those who care deeply and passionately about the way our planetary home can be treated with love and respect. Just as New Mexico author Martin Prechtel uses beautiful words to call out to the ‘indigenous soul’ in all of us, this issue offers an opportunity to
practice a more reflective awareness, a more subtle kind of listening to the language beneath socialised consciousness. This does not dismiss critique of the currently devastating dominant paradigm, of unrestrained corporate greed and the political/military industrial complex that protects it, because that critique remains absolutely necessary to any and all social collectives dedicated to healing the human relationship with the rest of nature. But PAN Issue 13 asks us to turn our ears towards the earth itself, as well as to our cultural traditions of wisdom, in order to hone our personal and collective relations with the places we live, as if they mattered more than what we can get out of them. Mythopoeia acts as a constantly renewing guide to such relations; a way of being that makes everyday life seem both perfectly natural and
connected to a greater reality: a bigger picture, a sacred path of being, belonging and becoming that is embodied in our lived experiences and is a flowering of our sense of timelessness, a never-to-be-repeated celebration of life in all its challenges and promise.