Chthulucene

 LEARNING FROM OTHER CRITTERS

Donna Haraway likes to call the current epoch the Chthulucene not the Anthropocene, since she believes itki will be the way out of the ecological death spiral we humans are pushing the world towards. Techno savvy may not be our savior, but learning from other living elements of our planet may be. Here’s a couple stories about training birds to pick up some of the trash that is accumulating in our cities. Go here: ¡Viva Los Cuervos!

STAYING WITH THE TROUBLE

Making Kin in the Chthulucene

by Donna Haraway

(Duke University Press, 2016)

“The Chthulucene ... is ‘made up of ongoing multispecies stories and practises of becoming-with in times that remain at stake, in precarious times, in which the world is not finished and the sky has not fallen – yet."

"In the Chthulucene, humans are not the only important actors – they, along with other beings, are with and of the earth, and ‘the biotic and abiotic powers of this earth are the main story."

(photo courtesy of  treehugger.com)

I'm in the middle of reading Haraway's book, but itki's a dense read. Itki's taking me a while. Seems like I want to savor and reflect on her words. She loves neologisms and bringing new perspectives to everything she sees. So far I've gotten one poem coming out of staying with the trouble of her ideas -- disturbing, trenchant & deep-rooted.

Chthulucene

Could the much-vaunted state of consciousness

that we as a species so prize -- setting ourselves

atop the pyramids. Surveying the universe as if

star-struck, itki were ours. Could, in truth, this

trick of signaling be no more an alpha leap

than any pandemic coronavirus on a rip

Than any fungi’s mycorrhizal philosophies

& hyphal praxis leading them to feedstock

Consciousness may only be as mysterious as itki 

is common. Limited only by instinct’s parameters

All of us placelings, not just rubbing alien shoulders

but horizontally transferring DNA in all directions

To learn more about the Chthulucene go HERE.

(photo courtesy of Ninja Journalist)