MODERATOR'S NOTE: UMP is soliciting a reviewer for the book on the list.
If you are interested, let me know, and I will pass your name on to
them.--k
************
From: "Stacy Lienemann"
A foundational exploration of the figure of the animal in modern culture
ELECTRIC ANIMAL: Toward a Rhetoric of Wildlife
Akira Mizuta Lippit
University of Minnesota Press | 296 pages | 2008
ISBN 978-0-8166-3486-6 | paperback | $25.00
NOW IN PAPER
Akira Mizuta Lippit shows us the animal as a crucial figure in the
definition of modernity‹essential to developments in the natural sciences
and technology, radical transformations in modern philosophy and literature,
and the advent of psychoanalysis and the cinema.
"In a dazzling interdisciplinary romp through Aristotle, Heidegger, Darwin,
Freud, and up to the present with a discussion of Kafka, photography, and
cinema, Lippit is keenly aware of how, throughout history, people have
condescended toward animals‹the flip side of valuing humanity above all
else. Lippit deconstructs the masking of animal consciousness in our
intellectual traditions." ‹Chronicle of Higher Education
"This book is, among other things, an extraordinarily promising preface to
a, perhaps the, theory of cinema." ‹MLN
For more information, including the table of contents, visit the book¹s
webpage:
http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/L/lippit_electric.html
Sign up to receive news on the latest releases from University of Minnesota
Press:
http://www.upress.umn.edu/eform.html
Saturday, June 14, 2008
reviewer wanted - "Electric animal: toward a rhetoric of wildlife"
probably already taken, but possibly of interest...
Cedarvale park tree tour
key points of interest from the tour:
- the entire valley would have been the site of the spadina expressway, if it weren't for protests which resulted in the cancellation of the project in 1971.
- the university-spadina subway that runs under cedarvale park needs to be pumped free of water or it would flood within a couple days! that's because the stream that used to run through the valley was burried in a sewer pipe, so the rain now has nowhere to go.
- there are some old oaks and one old pine that we saw that remain from early days (150-200 years ago), but they have a hard time regenerating as other species (Norway and Manitoba Maples) take over in areas disturbed by people. So the valley is a mix of native species and European exotics (sometimes planted by settlers to remind them of home).
- still, there's a process of regeneration happening as areas that were once mowed lawn have been left to grow 'wild' and/or planted with native trees (a lot of silver maple).
- there's a children's garden that produces organic food you can buy on the spot on Wednesday evenings.
What struck me in all this:
- about 35 people or so! mostly (not entirely) white in 20s-50s, middle-class
- not a lot of interaction among "tourists", that is, most of the talking comes from the tour leaders, so you only get to know each other to the extent that you strike conversation while walking along.
- still, there was a weird sense of commraderie that seemed to form as we moved along. At one point, we were standing on a street near the ravine cheering at the fact that a homeowner had torn up some of her lawn to plant more trees (the homeowner actually came out of the house and joined us for the rest of the tour!). Then, following the cheers, we boooed the opposite household for not having disconnected downspouts (thereby sending rain water into the sewer instead of onto the lawn or garden). very strange.
- a couple times there was mention of how "sad" it was that we had lost the landscape of the past, that exotic invasives were taking over. these comments imply a moral landscape, a kind of fall from grace.
- this moral landscape was connected to a scientific language about health, diversity and ecosystems, as well as to a political landscape about human choices.
Overall, a fairly informative grassroots approach, yet with certain assumptions about who should be talking, where authority comes from, and what each of our roles could be (a restrictive view, I thought).
- the entire valley would have been the site of the spadina expressway, if it weren't for protests which resulted in the cancellation of the project in 1971.
- the university-spadina subway that runs under cedarvale park needs to be pumped free of water or it would flood within a couple days! that's because the stream that used to run through the valley was burried in a sewer pipe, so the rain now has nowhere to go.
- there are some old oaks and one old pine that we saw that remain from early days (150-200 years ago), but they have a hard time regenerating as other species (Norway and Manitoba Maples) take over in areas disturbed by people. So the valley is a mix of native species and European exotics (sometimes planted by settlers to remind them of home).
- still, there's a process of regeneration happening as areas that were once mowed lawn have been left to grow 'wild' and/or planted with native trees (a lot of silver maple).
- there's a children's garden that produces organic food you can buy on the spot on Wednesday evenings.
What struck me in all this:
- about 35 people or so! mostly (not entirely) white in 20s-50s, middle-class
- not a lot of interaction among "tourists", that is, most of the talking comes from the tour leaders, so you only get to know each other to the extent that you strike conversation while walking along.
- still, there was a weird sense of commraderie that seemed to form as we moved along. At one point, we were standing on a street near the ravine cheering at the fact that a homeowner had torn up some of her lawn to plant more trees (the homeowner actually came out of the house and joined us for the rest of the tour!). Then, following the cheers, we boooed the opposite household for not having disconnected downspouts (thereby sending rain water into the sewer instead of onto the lawn or garden). very strange.
- a couple times there was mention of how "sad" it was that we had lost the landscape of the past, that exotic invasives were taking over. these comments imply a moral landscape, a kind of fall from grace.
- this moral landscape was connected to a scientific language about health, diversity and ecosystems, as well as to a political landscape about human choices.
Overall, a fairly informative grassroots approach, yet with certain assumptions about who should be talking, where authority comes from, and what each of our roles could be (a restrictive view, I thought).
Friday, June 13, 2008
comments on a star editorial on copyright
« l o c a l - w e a t h e r »: notes on copyright reform in canada: bring out the thumbscrews!
comments on a star editorial on copyright
if interested, it's a little bit of a rant, but still (i hope) interesting and slightly informative.
A link to the editorial is at the top of that page, but is here again:
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/442594
happy friday!
comments on a star editorial on copyright
if interested, it's a little bit of a rant, but still (i hope) interesting and slightly informative.
A link to the editorial is at the top of that page, but is here again:
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/442594
happy friday!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
temple uni. (philadelphia, pa) exchange programs
... none of which require you to actually go to Philadelphia (tho' i have heard it's a wonderful town):
http://www.temple.edu/studyabroad/programs/summer/index.html
thought i'd share it because it's not all anthropology, and not all in Japan. (tho' no costa rica, there is Ghana, Jamaica, Mexico, Senegal, and Spain...)
it is, however, not inexpensive.
-k
http://www.temple.edu/studyabroad/programs/summer/index.html
thought i'd share it because it's not all anthropology, and not all in Japan. (tho' no costa rica, there is Ghana, Jamaica, Mexico, Senegal, and Spain...)
it is, however, not inexpensive.
-k
Monday, June 9, 2008
Paul Kingsnorth on Renewables in Apr. '08 Ecologist
thought a few might be interested in this (maybe CEO Hoicka most):
in the April 2008 issue of Ecologist, Paul Kingsnorth writes about the storm brewing in Lewis about a massive, 181 turbine wind farm. here are some highlights from the article.
in the April 2008 issue of Ecologist, Paul Kingsnorth writes about the storm brewing in Lewis about a massive, 181 turbine wind farm. here are some highlights from the article.
The battle of Lewis [a contested site of a 181 turbine wind farm] is not the easily-told story of greens versus anti-green reactionaries. It is more complex, and more interesting, than that.
The question that hovers above it all is currently echoing around the world, and will only grow louder: in the fight against climate change, will the environment have to be destroyed to save the environment? Can the ends justify the means?
(26)
The amount of maize needed to fill the tank of a Range Rover with ethanol fuel would feed a person for a whole year. Fill your tank every two weeks for a year and you have taken enough food out of circulation to feed a hungry village.
(27)
Ironically, it now seems that biofuels don't even do what they were intended to: new research has revealed that, once the 'carbon cost' of clearing land for biofuels is taken into account, virtually every biofuel crop actually produces more emissions than the fuel it replaces.
(27)
The lesson to be learned from all this is a sobering one. Renewable energy technologies as we currently know them are incapable of providing anything like the amount of power we have come to expect from fossil fuels. Even if technologies improve, which they will undoubtedly do, they will not do so fast or cheaply enough to prevent the growing conflicts over land that the spread of large-scale renewables is already provoking.interesting and highly relevant stuff, even if he may be a little more polemics than research.
...
[G]reen technologies can have a distinctly un-green downside. And green technologies – any technologies – on this sort of ['mega project'] scale are going to be undemocratic, top-down, unaccountable and, potentially, very destructive indeed.
Scale, in the end, is all.
(28)
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