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The Resource Stone : an ecology of the inhuman, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

Stone : an ecology of the inhuman, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

Creator
Summary
"Stone maps the force, vivacity, and stories within our most mundane matter, stone. For too long stone has served as an unexamined metaphor for the "really real": blunt factuality, nature's curt rebuke. Yet, medieval writers knew that stones drop with fire from the sky, emerge through the subterranean lovemaking of the elements, tumble along riverbeds from Eden, partner with the masons who build worlds with them. Such motion suggests an ecological enmeshment and an almost creaturely mineral life.Although geological time can leave us reeling, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen argues that stone's endurance is also an invitation to apprehend the world in other than human terms. Never truly inert, stone poses a profound challenge to modernity's disenchantments. Its agency undermines the human desire to be separate from the environment, a bifurcation that renders nature "out there," a mere resource for recreation, consumption, and exploitation.Written with great verve and elegance, this pioneering work is notable not only for interweaving the medieval and the modern but also as a major contribution to ecotheory. Comprising chapters organized by concept --"Geophilia," "Time," "Force," and "Soul"--Cohen seamlessly brings together a wide range of topics including stone's potential to transport humans into nonanthropocentric scales of place and time, the "petrification" of certain cultures, the messages fossils bear, the architecture of Bordeaux and Montparnasse, Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste disposal, the ability of stone to communicate across millennia in structures like Stonehenge, and debates over whether stones reproduce and have souls.Showing that what is often assumed to be the most lifeless of substances is, in its own time, restless and forever in motion, Stone fittingly concludes by taking us to Iceland--a land that, writes the author, "reminds us that stone like water is alive, that stone like water is transient." "--
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
366 pages
Contents
  • Machine generated contents note: ContentsIntroduction: Stories of Stone
  • Geophilia: The Love of Stone
  • Excursus: The Weight of the Past
  • Time: The Insistence of Stone
  • Excursus: A Heart Unknown
  • Force: The Adventure of Stone
  • Excursus: Geologic
  • Soul: The Life of Stone
  • Afterword: Iceland
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index
Isbn
9780816692620
Instance
Label
Stone : an ecology of the inhuman
Title
Stone
Title remainder
an ecology of the inhuman
Statement of responsibility
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
"Stone maps the force, vivacity, and stories within our most mundane matter, stone. For too long stone has served as an unexamined metaphor for the "really real": blunt factuality, nature's curt rebuke. Yet, medieval writers knew that stones drop with fire from the sky, emerge through the subterranean lovemaking of the elements, tumble along riverbeds from Eden, partner with the masons who build worlds with them. Such motion suggests an ecological enmeshment and an almost creaturely mineral life.Although geological time can leave us reeling, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen argues that stone's endurance is also an invitation to apprehend the world in other than human terms. Never truly inert, stone poses a profound challenge to modernity's disenchantments. Its agency undermines the human desire to be separate from the environment, a bifurcation that renders nature "out there," a mere resource for recreation, consumption, and exploitation.Written with great verve and elegance, this pioneering work is notable not only for interweaving the medieval and the modern but also as a major contribution to ecotheory. Comprising chapters organized by concept --"Geophilia," "Time," "Force," and "Soul"--Cohen seamlessly brings together a wide range of topics including stone's potential to transport humans into nonanthropocentric scales of place and time, the "petrification" of certain cultures, the messages fossils bear, the architecture of Bordeaux and Montparnasse, Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste disposal, the ability of stone to communicate across millennia in structures like Stonehenge, and debates over whether stones reproduce and have souls.Showing that what is often assumed to be the most lifeless of substances is, in its own time, restless and forever in motion, Stone fittingly concludes by taking us to Iceland--a land that, writes the author, "reminds us that stone like water is alive, that stone like water is transient." "--
Assigning source
Provided by publisher
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome
Dewey number
113
Government publication
government publication of a state province territory dependency etc
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
LC call number
BD581
LC item number
.C64 2015
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Nature
  • Stone
  • Ecology
  • Literature, Medieval
  • PHILOSOPHY / General
  • LITERARY CRITICISM / Semiotics & Theory
  • HISTORY / Medieval
Label
Stone : an ecology of the inhuman, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Machine generated contents note: ContentsIntroduction: Stories of Stone -- Geophilia: The Love of Stone -- Excursus: The Weight of the Past -- Time: The Insistence of Stone -- Excursus: A Heart Unknown -- Force: The Adventure of Stone -- Excursus: Geologic -- Soul: The Life of Stone -- Afterword: Iceland -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Control code
18462663
Dimensions
23 cm.
Extent
366 pages
Isbn
9780816692620
Isbn Type
(pb)
Lccn
2014045916
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
Label
Stone : an ecology of the inhuman, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Machine generated contents note: ContentsIntroduction: Stories of Stone -- Geophilia: The Love of Stone -- Excursus: The Weight of the Past -- Time: The Insistence of Stone -- Excursus: A Heart Unknown -- Force: The Adventure of Stone -- Excursus: Geologic -- Soul: The Life of Stone -- Afterword: Iceland -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Control code
18462663
Dimensions
23 cm.
Extent
366 pages
Isbn
9780816692620
Isbn Type
(pb)
Lccn
2014045916
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations

Subject

Library Locations

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      51.046473 -114.057859

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