Monday, April 20, 2009

Reading a text is a profoundly ecological act

...says Timothy Morton in The ecological thought—mission statement. I found this post when I was looking around for reviews of Morton's book Ecology Without Nature, a book I decided to buy after listening to the first four lectures of his "Literature and the Environment" course, the course that I mentioned in my last post. Of course I plan to listen to the rest of the lectures as I wait for the book to arrive.

I also checked out Morton's blog and learned of phallic art on rooftops, viewable via Google Earth, which he comments on at some length.

My whole day was not spent in front of the computer, however. It's spring and I've been spending a fair bit of time outside. Every time we look around we see another arrival. Merlins yesterday. Greater Yellowlegs today. A Myrtle just a few minutes ago.

This afternoon H and I drove out to Annabel Creek to check out the flow and the birds. On the way there, Morton's words about what ecology, mentally, is all about (which I heard in the second lecture titled "Edges, Margins, Silence") suddenly came to mind when I saw this sign.


I think it's a sign.

2 comments:

Leona said...

Wow, thanks for the great links to Morton.

Brenda Schmidt said...

Thanks, Leona! Wow is how I feel. While I'm always amazed by what I find online, I'm more amazed by what I miss. I can't believe this book wasn't on my radar before now. I'm really taken with the lectures thus far - both the content and the way in which he presents the material. I'm learning lots of nifty stuff in both regards.