> On May 7, 2009, at 2:42 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote:
>> Zizek says...the premise, the
>> first axiom even, of every radical ecology is “there is no Nature.”
> The premise of the scientific naturalist (sometimes called
> "materialist") world view is that "there is *only* Nature."
> Shane Mage
note to Dwayne: we really ought to write an article developing these themse or something. :)
reminds me of a conversation Dwayne and I have been having, mostly off list, about conceptions of nature.
I have been telling him that it would be delicious to have him consider Zizek's explorations of woman-as-thing in the context of chivalrous love, where the obvious issue is about putting woman on a pedastal and, thereby, emptying her of content, subjectivity. But the less obvious thing about the chivalrous lover is that the chivalrous lover never actually wants to have sex with the Lady, though that would seem his most obvious desire.
Rather, the chivalrous lover is terrified of such a prospect. Rather than sleep with the Lady, the chivalrous lover wants endless postponement by being subjected to the lady's arbitrary and punishing demands in order, ostensibly, to win her "love" and thus her enthusiastic desire to have sex with the chivalrous lover.
i think this analysis of chivalry/romantic love/etc. would be marvelous applied to the way environmentalist often conceive of the nature they claim they are part of. but in this claiming, there is the endless postponement. it is never really so, because to claim, constantly, "we *are* nature" seems to belie everything such a statement is supposed to me.
More frivolously, all I can fucking think of is a bugs bunny cartoon character, Yeti.
Please cue the song, "Get Ready for This" (2 Unlimited -- dance track from 90s) except change the lyrics to, "Y'all Yeti for this?" That should get you in the right posit.... frame of mind.
Yeti's this cute/ugly furry thing that gets carried away in his love for Bugs. He grabs him, too strongly, hugs him to his chest far too hard, and, crushing him, he says, "I'm going to love you and stroke you and squeeze you and call you george."
and that is what I tend to think happens to the folks who don't realize that, in their attempt to constantly remind themselves that we are nature/ nature is us (and believe me, I'm obviously sympathetic to that view but wonder how it happens that you get to Michael Pollan's weridness in The Botany of Desire -- i've written about this in archives.)
So, just remember this: "I'm gonna love you and squeeze you and stroke you and call you George." (nature)
Interestingly enough, poking around, I learned that the Yeti character's destructive love for Bugs (nature) is based on John Steinbeck's character, Lennie, in _Of Mice and Men_.
shag -- http://cleandraws.com Wear Clean Draws ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)