bridgetmck@NatureMC @pvonhellermannn @gdjp Martin Shaw is associated for me with Dark Mountain, that I was involved with from its start in 2009 or so. They asked these Qs about new mythologies, to dismantle discourses of progress, separation, & what I call #everydayecocide And built from Christian patriarchy, the idea that God ordains human reproduction & pastoral agriculture ad infinitum. How weather is conceived as part of this, is a really interesting question.
@NatureMC @pvonhellermannn @gdjp Myths tend to reify, to lay down as truth how things originated or should always be. Do we need myths for this new disrupted context, where weather patterns & species are not as they have been? Or some new forms of storytelling?
Pauline von HellermannHmm, interesting question. I think we do need myths, or at least an openness to mythical thinking - but as you say, reification and the anti-science that mythical thinking can involve are not good. But I think what we do need is a language/arts that recognise how momentous these times really are, and that we are part of these times and can all (each in different ways) be #Heroes (maybe not a helpful concept either but i kind of like it)
In fact, I was just thinking about this quote, and feel that I would like to share it in #ClimateDiary:
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the
epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the
spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."
(opening sentence of Charles #Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities)