Explores the life and ideas of Lynn Margulis, a scientific rebel who challenged…
Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
Feminist thinker and historian of science Donna Haraway is best known as the author of two revolutionary works: the essay "A Cyborg Manifesto" and the book Primate Visions. Both set out to upend well-established "common sense" categories: breaking down the boundaries among humans, animals, and machines while challenging gender essentialism; and questioning the underlying assumptions of humanity’s fascination with primates through a post-colonial lens.
DONNA HARAWAY: STORY TELLING FOR EARTHLY SURVIVAL features Haraway in a playful and engaging exploration of her life, influences, and ideas. Haraway is a passionate and discursive storyteller, and the film is structured around a series of discussions held in the California home she helped build by hand, on subjects including the capitalism and the anthropocene (a term she uses but finds troubling), science fiction writing as philosophical text, kinship relations, the roles of storytelling and Catholicism in her upbringing, humans and dogs, the suppression of women’s writing, the surprisingly fascinating history of orthodontic aesthetics, and the need for new post-colonial and post-patriarchal narratives. It is a remarkably impressive range, from a thinker with a nimble and curious mind.
Haraway and filmmaker Fabrizio Terranova (who we hear but don't see) are clearly at ease with each other, giving the conversations—which are punctuated by images of artwork and quirky animation—a casual, intimate feel. Terranova makes playful use of green screens to illustrate Haraway's words, or to comment on them. As Haraway discusses storytelling, we see an image of her in the background, writing. When the conversation turns to her own unorthodox personal relationships and the oppressive power of heteronormativity, the redwoods out her window are replaced by a crisp suburban street. Underwater invertebrates, one of Haraway’s fascinations, float by in the background of a room.
DONNA HARAWAY: STORY TELLING FOR EARTHLY SURVIVAL is a clever and insightful glimpse into the thought of a major contemporary figure.
"An ode to this thinker’s expansive mind and life. Besides a heady, speculative journey through theory, politics, sci-fi, and so much else, you get a sense of the deep joy that Haraway takes in all life." —Vice Magazine
"A heroine to a generation of women who are starting to call themselves cyberfeminists." —Wired
"An intimate and personal account; makes the viewer feel like they are entering into a personal conversation with Haraway." —American Anthropologist
"Pushing cinéma vérité into the realm of the surreal, Terranova brings one of the most evocative social theorists to life and demonstrates the supple, transformative nature of storytelling itself." —Cultural Anthropology
"A rare, candid, intellectual portrait of a highly original thinker; Haraway is a gifted storyteller who paints a rebellious and hopeful universe teeming with critters and trans species in an era of disasters." —Concreta Journal
"[After the launch of Cyborg, the 2018 Gucci collection,] creative director Alessandro Michele's post-show press conference feels like an advanced seminar in philosophy. His primary source, he said, was Donna Haraway's 1984 'A Cyborg Manifesto,' an essay questioning the boundaries between humans, animals and machines." —The Guardian
"Feminist theorist and philosopher Donna Haraway has substantially impacted thought on science, cyberculture, the environment, animals, and social relations." —Margret Grebowicz, author of 'Beyond the Cyborg: Adventures with Donna Haraway'
"With her inimitable brilliance, compassion and wit, Donna Haraway—and a few of her selected travelling companions—take us through an exhilarating journey that combines sharp theoretical insights with moving personal moments. An intellectual giant comes to life as never before. Enjoy the ride!" —Rosi Braidotti, Philosopher and Distinguished Professor, Utrecht University
"Donna Haraway is brilliant, passionate, original—and a leading intellectual force of our times. This portrait offers an intimate glimpse into the style and imagination of this charismatic thinker." —Anna Tsing, Professor of Anthropology, UC Santa Cruz
Citation
Main credits
Terranova, Fabrizio (film director)
Meiresonne, Ellen (film producer)
Haraway, Donna Jeanne (interviewee)
Hogness, Rusten (on-screen participant)
Pepper, Cayenna (on-screen participant)
Other credits
Cinematography, Tristan Galand; film editing, Bruno Tracq; original music score, Lawrence Le Doux; animators, Jaye Miller, Clara Sobrino.
Distributor subjects
Biography; Biology; Ecofeminism; Feminism; Philosophy; Politics; Primatology; Science; Science Fiction; Social Studies; Technology; Technoscience; Women's StudiesKeywords
WEBVTT
00:00:15.041 --> 00:00:17.709
(soft music)
00:00:17.709 --> 00:00:24.417
♪
00:00:43.417 --> 00:00:44.375
So I took the train up
00:00:44.375 --> 00:00:46.917
and I landed
at Princeton Junction.
00:00:46.917 --> 00:00:48.250
And it was
a beautiful spring day
00:00:48.250 --> 00:00:51.959
and there were lots and lots
of Princeton undergraduates
00:00:51.959 --> 00:00:57.083
sunbathing on this nice,
expansive green lawn, smiling.
00:00:57.083 --> 00:00:58.333
And I looked at them
and I thought,
00:00:58.333 --> 00:01:02.625
\"There\'s something really
strange about this picture.\"
00:01:02.625 --> 00:01:03.458
Sort of unnerving.
00:01:03.458 --> 00:01:06.750
It was, \"Has there been
an alien visitation
00:01:06.750 --> 00:01:08.250
and are these pod people?\"
00:01:08.250 --> 00:01:11.375
They were all beautiful
and, you know,
00:01:11.375 --> 00:01:12.875
really healthy and so on.
00:01:12.875 --> 00:01:13.875
But what really struck me
00:01:13.875 --> 00:01:19.083
was that they all had
very straight teeth
00:01:19.083 --> 00:01:20.542
and straightened teeth
00:01:20.542 --> 00:01:23.125
that it looked
like everybody
00:01:23.125 --> 00:01:25.250
had been
to an orthodontist.
00:01:25.250 --> 00:01:27.792
And, of course, I had
had orthodontia as a child
00:01:27.792 --> 00:01:30.375
because my father had
had very crooked teeth
00:01:30.375 --> 00:01:32.166
and I inherited
very crooked teeth
00:01:32.166 --> 00:01:34.417
and I had exactly the same
orthodontist he did.
00:01:34.417 --> 00:01:37.041
And he showed me
my father\'s plastic models
00:01:37.041 --> 00:01:39.542
of his teeth
from my father\'s childhood
00:01:39.542 --> 00:01:40.959
and matched them
against mine
00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:42.417
and they were
exactly the same.
00:01:42.417 --> 00:01:43.792
And then he\'d put on braces
00:01:43.792 --> 00:01:45.000
and so on and so on.
00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:46.291
So there I was
00:01:46.291 --> 00:01:48.083
lecturing to these
Princeton undergraduates
00:01:48.083 --> 00:01:52.500
with all of us having
these extraordinary teeth.
00:01:52.500 --> 00:01:55.458
And I got interested
in the history
00:01:55.458 --> 00:01:57.625
of the profession
of orthodontia.
00:01:57.625 --> 00:02:00.458
And the question
that drove it was,
00:02:00.458 --> 00:02:01.542
\"How did the orthodontist,\"
00:02:01.542 --> 00:02:03.083
if you\'re fixing
an underbite
00:02:03.083 --> 00:02:04.542
or an overbite
or whatever,
00:02:04.542 --> 00:02:07.834
\"how does the orthodontist
know when to stop?\"
00:02:07.834 --> 00:02:11.041
What counts
as a correct bite?
00:02:11.041 --> 00:02:14.792
Because that\'s an historically
very molten matter,
00:02:14.792 --> 00:02:16.417
it depends on how
you use your teeth.
00:02:16.417 --> 00:02:19.458
People who use their teeth
to process leather
00:02:19.458 --> 00:02:22.959
or chew a different kind
of food or many other things,
00:02:22.959 --> 00:02:26.125
they\'re gonna have
very different shaped jaw.
00:02:26.125 --> 00:02:28.458
And then there are also
the genetic screw-ups
00:02:28.458 --> 00:02:29.500
like my father\'s
and mine
00:02:29.500 --> 00:02:31.375
with teeth
all over the place,
00:02:31.375 --> 00:02:34.792
you know,
getting fixed.
00:02:34.792 --> 00:02:36.375
So, um,
00:02:36.375 --> 00:02:39.500
I found this wonderful
physical anthropologist
00:02:39.500 --> 00:02:41.875
named Loring Brace
who had written a paper
00:02:41.875 --> 00:02:43.917
about the history
of orthodontia
00:02:43.917 --> 00:02:46.999
and, you know, a group
of dental specialists
00:02:46.999 --> 00:02:49.500
that consolidate
into their own profession
00:02:49.500 --> 00:02:50.875
in the late 19th century,
00:02:50.875 --> 00:02:52.500
which is exactly
the period
00:02:52.500 --> 00:02:53.999
when a lot of
the differentiation
00:02:53.999 --> 00:02:55.000
of medicine
is happening
00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:59.500
into separate bodies
of specialists, so on.
00:02:59.500 --> 00:03:00.625
This was very familiar.
00:03:00.625 --> 00:03:01.875
Remember, I was an historian
00:03:01.875 --> 00:03:03.166
of biology in those days.
00:03:03.166 --> 00:03:05.625
But what Loring Brace
was also interested in
00:03:05.625 --> 00:03:09.625
was how the orthodontists
knew when to stop
00:03:09.625 --> 00:03:11.542
if they\'re correcting a bite.
00:03:11.542 --> 00:03:13.625
And what he argued, um,
00:03:13.625 --> 00:03:15.834
was that in the, uh,
00:03:15.834 --> 00:03:18.458
evolutionary bioanthropology
00:03:18.458 --> 00:03:19.667
of the late 19th century
00:03:19.667 --> 00:03:22.417
and well into
the late 20th century,
00:03:22.417 --> 00:03:26.959
the sort of progression
from the big jawed, uh,
00:03:26.959 --> 00:03:31.625
pre-Homo sapiens and then
on through the races of man,
00:03:31.625 --> 00:03:36.041
the fundamentally racist
racialized picture, uh,
00:03:36.041 --> 00:03:39.375
that the, uh,
orthodontia organized itself
00:03:39.375 --> 00:03:42.875
around the correct
facial angle, right?
00:03:42.875 --> 00:03:45.542
Straight out
of racial anthropology
00:03:45.542 --> 00:03:46.542
of the 19th century.
00:03:46.542 --> 00:03:50.458
And the correct bite
was derived from a population
00:03:50.458 --> 00:03:53.166
that has never lived
on planet Earth
00:03:53.166 --> 00:03:54.333
except in sculpture.
00:03:54.333 --> 00:03:56.834
The correct facial angle
is the facial angle
00:03:56.834 --> 00:03:59.625
of the statues
of the Greek gods.
00:03:59.625 --> 00:04:01.083
(laughs)
00:04:01.083 --> 00:04:03.959
(birdsong)
00:04:11.166 --> 00:04:13.834
(ambient music)
00:04:13.834 --> 00:04:23.041
♪
00:04:26.458 --> 00:04:29.458
(shimmering sound)
00:04:31.959 --> 00:04:35.083
(nocturnal nature sounds)
00:04:50.834 --> 00:04:53.917
(soft, eerie music)
00:04:53.917 --> 00:05:03.709
♪
00:05:03.709 --> 00:05:06.542
(birdsong)
00:05:13.667 --> 00:05:16.667
(triangle chiming)
00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:21.542
(chime)
00:05:24.999 --> 00:05:27.917
(soft snoring)
00:05:32.083 --> 00:05:33.625
(chime)
00:05:38.458 --> 00:05:41.375
(soft snoring)
00:05:46.500 --> 00:05:49.125
(soft music)
00:05:49.125 --> 00:05:56.625
♪
00:05:56.625 --> 00:05:58.125
(chime)
00:06:01.750 --> 00:06:04.667
(dog panting)
00:06:04.999 --> 00:06:07.333
I grew up in a family
where storytelling
00:06:07.333 --> 00:06:09.667
was part of the air
we breathed
00:06:09.667 --> 00:06:11.875
and a big part
of what happened
00:06:11.875 --> 00:06:12.750
around the dinner table.
00:06:12.750 --> 00:06:17.208
It was a family that loved words
and loved language,
00:06:17.208 --> 00:06:18.375
not an intellectual family,
00:06:18.375 --> 00:06:21.458
not a family
of scholars at all,
00:06:21.458 --> 00:06:23.667
but a family
full of laughter
00:06:23.667 --> 00:06:28.291
and full of the vitality
of sharing stories,
00:06:28.291 --> 00:06:30.417
especially at dinner time.
00:06:30.417 --> 00:06:32.709
And there was
an anchor to that,
00:06:32.709 --> 00:06:35.125
and the anchor
really was my father,
00:06:35.125 --> 00:06:36.000
who was a sports writer.
00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:37.834
He worked
for theDenver Post
00:06:37.834 --> 00:06:39.208
for more than 50 years
00:06:39.208 --> 00:06:41.667
in the sports department
writing game stories
00:06:41.667 --> 00:06:45.083
for baseball, basketball,
football, hockey,
00:06:45.083 --> 00:06:49.500
covered the Kentucky Derby
sometimes, so forth.
00:06:49.500 --> 00:06:52.792
And Dad loved to write
the game stories.
00:06:52.792 --> 00:06:54.834
He didn\'t want to be
one of the columnists,
00:06:54.834 --> 00:06:57.291
he didn\'t want to do
the muckraking,
00:06:57.291 --> 00:07:01.375
to dig up the dirt on
corporate, big time sports.
00:07:01.375 --> 00:07:04.583
He wanted to write about
the drama of the game.
00:07:04.583 --> 00:07:07.333
And I think that\'s something
that he brought with him
00:07:07.333 --> 00:07:10.750
into his adult life
from childhood.
00:07:10.750 --> 00:07:13.291
My father
contracted tuberculosis
00:07:13.291 --> 00:07:15.000
as a very young child,
00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:17.333
and it was tuberculosis
in his bones,
00:07:17.333 --> 00:07:18.291
not in his lungs,
00:07:18.291 --> 00:07:20.667
and particularly
in the bones of his hips
00:07:20.667 --> 00:07:23.999
and his upper legs
and his knees.
00:07:23.999 --> 00:07:26.583
It was very serious
and it kept him
00:07:26.583 --> 00:07:29.792
in a full-length body cast
from, you know,
00:07:29.792 --> 00:07:33.542
just at his chest level
down to his knees
00:07:33.542 --> 00:07:34.917
for three years,
00:07:34.917 --> 00:07:37.625
immobilized
and in significant pain.
00:07:37.625 --> 00:07:39.750
There was
no real good treatment
00:07:39.750 --> 00:07:42.542
for tuberculosis
in those days.
00:07:42.542 --> 00:07:44.875
And he was blessed with,
you know,
00:07:44.875 --> 00:07:48.333
parents and friends
and a neighborhood full of kids
00:07:48.333 --> 00:07:52.375
and folks who made
his life very full.
00:07:52.375 --> 00:07:54.458
And my dad was not
an intellectual,
00:07:54.458 --> 00:07:56.458
neither was my mother or...
00:07:56.458 --> 00:07:59.417
The family
had a love of words
00:07:59.417 --> 00:08:00.500
and a love of stories,
00:08:00.500 --> 00:08:03.834
but not in a--
they weren\'t critics,
00:08:03.834 --> 00:08:04.875
they weren\'t, um,
00:08:04.875 --> 00:08:06.291
they weren\'t
particularly political.
00:08:06.291 --> 00:08:07.667
And so far as
they were political,
00:08:07.667 --> 00:08:10.166
I try to forget
what they thought.
00:08:10.166 --> 00:08:11.000
Uh...
00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:12.417
(laughs)
00:08:12.709 --> 00:08:14.875
Sort of an embarrassing part
of one\'s childhood,
00:08:14.875 --> 00:08:16.083
you know, I mean,
on the one hand
00:08:16.083 --> 00:08:18.000
there was Cardinal Spellman
and the, you know,
00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:22.291
the (unintelligible)
Catholic scene of the 1950s
00:08:22.291 --> 00:08:23.917
in Irish Catholic Denver.
00:08:23.917 --> 00:08:28.875
Uh, yeah, I try to forget
the political scene, basically.
00:08:28.875 --> 00:08:32.291
But the love of story
I don\'t forget.
00:08:32.291 --> 00:08:34.458
And I think that,
you know,
00:08:34.458 --> 00:08:39.959
my father was a tremendously
positive presence.
00:08:39.959 --> 00:08:42.834
He--his sense
of storytelling
00:08:42.834 --> 00:08:49.375
was a kind of making
live for an audience
00:08:49.375 --> 00:08:50.500
what made something vital.
00:08:50.500 --> 00:08:55.917
I also think I inherited
a strong love of storytelling
00:08:55.917 --> 00:08:57.458
from growing up Catholic.
00:08:57.458 --> 00:08:59.959
There\'s no way
you grow up Catholic
00:08:59.959 --> 00:09:02.625
as the serious little girl
I was.
00:09:02.625 --> 00:09:07.291
You know, with a profound
immersion in the liturgy
00:09:07.291 --> 00:09:09.208
and the colors
and the symbols
00:09:09.208 --> 00:09:11.500
and the rituals
and the incense
00:09:11.500 --> 00:09:14.834
and the dressing up
and the--the, you know,
00:09:14.834 --> 00:09:16.542
I wanted to lead
a children\'s crusade
00:09:16.542 --> 00:09:18.625
to the Holy Land,
for Christ\'s sake,
00:09:18.625 --> 00:09:20.125
I mean, this is really bad.
00:09:20.125 --> 00:09:20.917
You know, I mean,
00:09:20.917 --> 00:09:23.041
you think about today\'s world
00:09:23.041 --> 00:09:24.500
to remember that, you know,
00:09:24.500 --> 00:09:25.291
as a seven-year-old girl
00:09:25.291 --> 00:09:28.500
I wanted to lead
a crusade as, uh...
00:09:28.500 --> 00:09:30.625
Well, less said
the better, you know?
00:09:30.625 --> 00:09:34.583
Except that it also
helps me remember
00:09:34.583 --> 00:09:37.917
how deeply rooted, um, the--
00:09:37.917 --> 00:09:40.709
how deeply rooted
Christian culture is
00:09:40.709 --> 00:09:41.999
in this thing
we call the West
00:09:41.999 --> 00:09:44.917
and how profoundly
Islamophobic it is.
00:09:44.917 --> 00:09:47.333
And that in some way,
uh, you know,
00:09:47.333 --> 00:09:50.709
I inherited that
without even knowing
00:09:50.709 --> 00:09:52.041
that I was
inheriting that.
00:09:52.041 --> 00:09:54.208
What I thought
I was inheriting
00:09:54.208 --> 00:09:55.750
was the drama
of a little girl
00:09:55.750 --> 00:09:59.083
leading other children
into battle for truth
00:09:59.083 --> 00:10:01.291
or some other weird fantasy.
00:10:01.291 --> 00:10:02.208
No wonder
I liked Fellini
00:10:02.208 --> 00:10:06.458
when I started going
to real movies, you know?
00:10:06.458 --> 00:10:07.333
(laughs)
00:10:07.333 --> 00:10:10.000
(nocturnal nature sounds)
00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:12.667
(mystical music)
00:10:12.667 --> 00:10:22.917
♪
00:10:33.667 --> 00:10:37.291
I think I want to say
that it doesn\'t look maybe,
00:10:37.291 --> 00:10:39.125
at first glance,
00:10:39.125 --> 00:10:42.208
that this beautiful
Navajo basket,
00:10:42.208 --> 00:10:44.041
which of course
I have no right to own,
00:10:44.041 --> 00:10:45.667
one of the reasons
I held it up here
00:10:45.667 --> 00:10:47.417
is \'cause
it\'s also embarrassing.
00:10:47.417 --> 00:10:51.709
How is it that
a daughter of conquest
00:10:51.709 --> 00:10:54.291
owns this object?
00:10:54.291 --> 00:10:57.875
Uh, I sort of leave that
there as a question.
00:10:57.875 --> 00:11:02.000
There\'s no way
that we can touch
00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:04.333
without inheriting
the whole thing.
00:11:04.333 --> 00:11:09.375
It\'s not that I feel guilty
with holding this basket,
00:11:09.375 --> 00:11:14.709
but the basket
is also this eruption
00:11:14.709 --> 00:11:17.542
of the whole story
00:11:17.542 --> 00:11:20.625
of dispossession
00:11:20.625 --> 00:11:23.500
and of dependent sovereignty
00:11:23.500 --> 00:11:25.875
of Native American peoples,
00:11:25.875 --> 00:11:28.250
of, uh, it--of the--
00:11:28.250 --> 00:11:34.083
the pricing apparatus for
selling amazing Navajo rugs
00:11:34.083 --> 00:11:37.667
as if it were raw wool
for decades
00:11:37.667 --> 00:11:40.125
that kept Navajo
weaving families
00:11:40.125 --> 00:11:44.083
in bondage
to the trading--
00:11:44.083 --> 00:11:45.250
to the trading stores
00:11:45.250 --> 00:11:48.000
in exchange for flour
and sugar and, you know...
00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:53.375
I can\'t not know who I am
in the American West.
00:11:53.375 --> 00:11:56.291
Um, I also can\'t know
who I am--
00:11:56.291 --> 00:11:58.667
I can\'t forget who I am
in the American West
00:11:58.667 --> 00:12:03.041
when I hear on the soundtrack
my now old dog,
00:12:03.041 --> 00:12:05.709
my dog with whom
I played agility,
00:12:05.709 --> 00:12:07.875
an Australian Shepherd,
a herding dog,
00:12:07.875 --> 00:12:11.500
a dog who herded sheep
on the conquest ranches
00:12:11.500 --> 00:12:12.834
of the American West,
00:12:12.834 --> 00:12:15.875
that her heritage
and my heritage
00:12:15.875 --> 00:12:18.500
are both white in this--
00:12:18.500 --> 00:12:22.208
not as a color but--
uh, exactly,
00:12:22.208 --> 00:12:24.667
but as an apparatus.
00:12:24.667 --> 00:12:26.166
And what she\'s doing now
00:12:26.166 --> 00:12:28.291
is canine
cognitive dysfunction.
00:12:28.291 --> 00:12:30.125
She\'s a little bit senile.
00:12:30.125 --> 00:12:34.250
And she starts barking in
a little bit of confusion
00:12:34.250 --> 00:12:35.125
in the late afternoon.
00:12:35.125 --> 00:12:40.750
She doesn\'t exactly quite know
what to do with herself.
00:12:40.750 --> 00:12:44.458
And what I hear
is my old friend
00:12:44.458 --> 00:12:47.125
a little bit confused.
00:12:47.125 --> 00:12:50.291
And the barking,
like the basket,
00:12:50.291 --> 00:12:54.375
reminds me
of the detail,
00:12:54.375 --> 00:12:56.625
the intimacy
of inheritance
00:12:56.625 --> 00:13:00.291
that\'s the inheritance of
big things and little things.
00:13:00.291 --> 00:13:03.959
The different life spans
of a woman and a dog,
00:13:03.959 --> 00:13:07.458
that we both flamed together
for 10 years.
00:13:07.458 --> 00:13:11.917
And that she\'s old
in a way I\'m not yet.
00:13:11.917 --> 00:13:16.792
And my obligation
is to accompany my friend, uh,
00:13:16.792 --> 00:13:20.667
to--to the kind of
companion species
00:13:20.667 --> 00:13:23.208
as accompanying
with each other
00:13:23.208 --> 00:13:24.999
through now this time,
00:13:24.999 --> 00:13:27.208
which includes
mental confusion
00:13:27.208 --> 00:13:29.709
a little bit
for my dog.
00:13:29.709 --> 00:13:32.959
So since she\'s right here
00:13:32.959 --> 00:13:35.041
and looking for
a little bit of comfort,
00:13:35.041 --> 00:13:38.834
it lets me go back to that
other part of storytelling
00:13:38.834 --> 00:13:40.458
so that--let me put it, uh,
00:13:40.458 --> 00:13:41.709
let me say something else.
00:13:41.709 --> 00:13:47.709
It has been considered improper
to be interrupted.
00:13:47.709 --> 00:13:49.709
(laughs)
00:13:49.709 --> 00:13:50.709
You.
00:13:50.709 --> 00:13:53.125
(laughs)
00:13:53.125 --> 00:13:54.041
Cayenne, hey,
00:13:54.041 --> 00:13:56.500
I think I\'m gonna ask Rusten
to come get you.
00:13:56.500 --> 00:13:58.583
I am, I\'m gonna
ask Rusten to come--
00:13:58.583 --> 00:14:00.792
yeah, I think we--
I think she needs Rusten.
00:14:00.792 --> 00:14:04.875
So I\'m gonna ask my buddy
to come get her.
00:14:11.458 --> 00:14:12.999
Rusten?
00:14:15.417 --> 00:14:16.959
Rusten?
00:14:17.750 --> 00:14:20.291
She doesn\'t--
she doesn\'t--
00:14:20.291 --> 00:14:23.875
she doesn\'t know
what\'s going on here.
00:14:29.750 --> 00:14:32.834
(wind chimes ringing)
00:14:50.959 --> 00:14:54.083
(nocturnal nature sounds)
00:15:37.750 --> 00:15:40.583
(barking)
00:15:50.750 --> 00:15:53.583
(barking)
00:16:03.917 --> 00:16:05.667
Right here.
00:16:06.875 --> 00:16:08.959
Cayenne, huddle.
00:16:20.834 --> 00:16:23.667
(barking)
00:16:29.999 --> 00:16:32.834
(barking)
00:16:33.083 --> 00:16:36.166
Over, over, over, left!
00:16:36.166 --> 00:16:36.917
Huddle.
00:16:36.917 --> 00:16:38.834
Go, go, go.
00:16:40.083 --> 00:16:42.291
(cheering, applause)
00:16:42.291 --> 00:16:45.125
(barking)
00:16:49.709 --> 00:16:50.667
Cayenne.
00:16:50.667 --> 00:16:51.166
Over.
00:16:51.166 --> 00:16:54.875
Cayenne, Cayenne,
Cayenne, Cayenne.
00:16:54.875 --> 00:16:56.417
Left!
00:16:57.959 --> 00:16:59.250
Cayenne.
00:17:00.250 --> 00:17:00.959
Over.
00:17:00.959 --> 00:17:04.667
Left, right.
00:17:04.667 --> 00:17:06.333
Over, left.
00:17:06.333 --> 00:17:07.875
Huddle.
00:17:09.667 --> 00:17:11.208
Left.
00:17:13.667 --> 00:17:16.750
Go, go, go, go, go,
go, go, go, go.
00:17:16.750 --> 00:17:18.250
(cheering, applause)
00:17:18.250 --> 00:17:20.917
(soft music)
00:17:20.917 --> 00:17:31.125
♪
00:18:34.625 --> 00:18:36.041
(Cayenne barks)
00:18:36.041 --> 00:18:45.542
♪
00:18:45.542 --> 00:18:48.417
(nature sounds)
00:18:56.959 --> 00:18:58.166
(gorillas snorting)
00:18:58.166 --> 00:19:00.834
(dramatic music)
00:19:00.834 --> 00:19:02.542
♪
00:19:02.542 --> 00:19:06.792
(Tarzan style yell)
00:19:09.166 --> 00:19:19.417
♪
00:19:21.125 --> 00:19:24.000
Are you an animal
or a person?
00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:26.208
I\'m animal-gorilla.
00:19:26.208 --> 00:19:27.166
The words we just heard
00:19:27.166 --> 00:19:29.166
were spoken by
the gorilla Koko
00:19:29.166 --> 00:19:30.875
to the human being
Penny Patterson.
00:19:30.875 --> 00:19:33.166
Let\'s look at those words
from the point of view
00:19:33.166 --> 00:19:35.875
of the way a world looks
to a culture critic.
00:19:35.875 --> 00:19:39.750
And let\'s take culture apart
like these balls of yarn.
00:19:39.750 --> 00:19:42.166
First I\'d like to explain
the principle that I use
00:19:42.166 --> 00:19:45.083
in looking at the production
of modern culture.
00:19:45.083 --> 00:19:46.709
Seems to me
the cultural critic
00:19:46.709 --> 00:19:49.208
is faced by a world
that looks very much
00:19:49.208 --> 00:19:51.000
like tangled balls
of yarn,
00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:54.166
and that one way to approach
the situation
00:19:54.166 --> 00:19:55.291
is to pull on a thread
00:19:55.291 --> 00:19:58.208
and begin to untangle
the ball of meanings
00:19:58.208 --> 00:20:02.542
and begin to trace through
one thread and then another
00:20:02.542 --> 00:20:05.000
what gets to count
as nature,
00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:06.417
for whom and when,
00:20:06.417 --> 00:20:09.500
and how much it costs
to produce nature
00:20:09.500 --> 00:20:11.583
at a particular moment
in history
00:20:11.583 --> 00:20:13.500
for a particular group
of people.
00:20:13.500 --> 00:20:16.875
Another way to imagine
the same situation
00:20:16.875 --> 00:20:18.125
is to take a layer cake,
00:20:18.125 --> 00:20:19.583
Pepperidge Farm layer cake,
00:20:19.583 --> 00:20:20.333
formerly boycotted
00:20:20.333 --> 00:20:24.792
because of the Nestlé
bottle-feeding scandal,
00:20:24.792 --> 00:20:28.417
You take a layer cake
and cut into history
00:20:28.417 --> 00:20:30.166
as if it were a layer cake
00:20:30.166 --> 00:20:35.041
and begin to unpack
the layers of meanings.
00:20:36.333 --> 00:20:37.999
Okay.
00:20:40.917 --> 00:20:43.959
Unpack the layers
of meanings
00:20:43.959 --> 00:20:46.750
of all of the pleasures
00:20:46.750 --> 00:20:48.667
and all of the problems
00:20:48.667 --> 00:20:51.166
that these layers
of meanings produce
00:20:51.166 --> 00:20:53.875
for the historian
in a culture space.
00:20:53.875 --> 00:20:54.458
(laughs)
00:20:54.458 --> 00:20:55.959
So let\'s go back
00:20:55.959 --> 00:20:57.583
to Penny Patterson and Koko
00:20:57.583 --> 00:20:59.917
and the problem
of the talking gorillas...
00:20:59.917 --> 00:21:02.208
That part upset my father.
00:21:02.208 --> 00:21:03.041
...in the first world
00:21:03.041 --> 00:21:06.583
in this mythic time called
the late 20th century.
00:21:06.583 --> 00:21:09.458
And let\'s do it
by looking at some covers
00:21:09.458 --> 00:21:11.542
of theNational Geographic
Magazine
00:21:11.542 --> 00:21:14.917
that presented Koko
to an American public
00:21:14.917 --> 00:21:16.125
in the 1970s.
00:21:16.125 --> 00:21:19.709
The first cover of aNational
GeographicMagazinewe see
00:21:19.709 --> 00:21:23.166
is Koko the gorilla
taking a picture of herself
00:21:23.166 --> 00:21:25.875
in the mirror
with a Japanese camera.
00:21:25.875 --> 00:21:29.500
And what we see is the gorilla
with the attribute
00:21:29.500 --> 00:21:32.208
of self-reflection,
self-vision,
00:21:32.208 --> 00:21:34.083
the gorilla with
a Japanese tourist--
00:21:34.083 --> 00:21:38.208
a Japanese tourist camera
sees herself in the mirror
00:21:38.208 --> 00:21:39.375
and takes her own picture.
00:21:39.375 --> 00:21:41.625
She\'s in charge
of her own image,
00:21:41.625 --> 00:21:44.125
she represents
universal man.
00:21:44.125 --> 00:21:47.917
The next picture we see in the
National Geographic Magazine
00:21:47.917 --> 00:21:51.917
is Koko the gorilla
with a kitten in her arms.
00:21:51.917 --> 00:21:53.999
Koko herself with a pet.
00:21:53.999 --> 00:21:56.458
Koko, again,
is universal man
00:21:56.458 --> 00:21:58.792
who names the animals.
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:03.166
(indistinct conversation)
00:22:08.333 --> 00:22:12.000
So I am literally
physically surrounded
00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:13.417
by, you know,
00:22:13.417 --> 00:22:15.375
two not huge,
but, you know,
00:22:15.375 --> 00:22:19.041
up to the ceiling down
to the floor bookshelves
00:22:19.041 --> 00:22:20.542
full of science fiction books
00:22:20.542 --> 00:22:22.458
that Rusten
and I have read
00:22:22.458 --> 00:22:24.125
and collected
over the years
00:22:24.125 --> 00:22:25.083
out of our pleasures.
00:22:25.083 --> 00:22:27.542
It\'s a very idiosyncratic,
00:22:27.542 --> 00:22:30.625
it isn\'t any effort to,
you know,
00:22:30.625 --> 00:22:32.208
take up the history
of science fiction
00:22:32.208 --> 00:22:33.166
or anything
of the kind,
00:22:33.166 --> 00:22:35.750
but they\'re books
that we have read and loved
00:22:35.750 --> 00:22:38.000
and that our friends
have read and loved.
00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:41.375
Um, and I think,
you know, for me,
00:22:41.375 --> 00:22:44.542
a classic writer
like Robert Heinlein,
00:22:44.542 --> 00:22:47.208
you know,The Moon
is a Harsh Mistress,
00:22:47.208 --> 00:22:50.083
is something I read very late
in the process.
00:22:50.083 --> 00:22:54.083
I didn\'t know Heinlein
as a teenager or in any--
00:22:54.083 --> 00:22:56.083
didn\'t do any
science fiction reading
00:22:56.083 --> 00:22:56.792
as a teenager,
00:22:56.792 --> 00:22:58.375
and my good friend
and former student,
00:22:58.375 --> 00:23:00.500
Katie King,
who\'s always loved Heinlein
00:23:00.500 --> 00:23:02.834
and who really knew
science fiction,
00:23:02.834 --> 00:23:05.375
both as a kid and later, um,
00:23:05.375 --> 00:23:06.000
teaches me.
00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:09.417
And I was really introduced
to science fiction
00:23:09.417 --> 00:23:10.333
through my friends,
00:23:10.333 --> 00:23:11.959
which is kind of true
for all my ideas.
00:23:11.959 --> 00:23:14.834
I feel like everything
I think I was introduced to
00:23:14.834 --> 00:23:17.125
by networks of friends.
00:23:17.125 --> 00:23:19.250
But the science fiction writers,
00:23:19.250 --> 00:23:22.250
the books that really mattered,
00:23:22.250 --> 00:23:23.583
and still matter,
00:23:23.583 --> 00:23:26.125
are books by Joanna Russ,
00:23:26.125 --> 00:23:27.667
Picnic on Paradise,
00:23:27.667 --> 00:23:31.625
The Female Manespecially.
00:23:31.625 --> 00:23:34.250
An older generation
of writers,
00:23:34.250 --> 00:23:35.250
Naomi Mitchison,
00:23:35.250 --> 00:23:37.834
Memoirs of a Space Woman.
00:23:37.834 --> 00:23:40.542
These are feminist
science fiction writers,
00:23:40.542 --> 00:23:44.792
feminist theorists of two
quite different generations,
00:23:44.792 --> 00:23:49.250
both of whom are read
by women\'s liberation people
00:23:49.250 --> 00:23:50.041
of the \'70s.
00:23:50.041 --> 00:23:54.917
And these books
make a huge impact on us.
00:23:54.917 --> 00:23:57.875
Joanna Russ also did
this amazing book called
00:23:57.875 --> 00:24:00.875
How to Suppress
Women\'s Writing.
00:24:00.875 --> 00:24:02.333
And the cover, you know,
00:24:02.333 --> 00:24:03.291
\"She didn\'t write it,
00:24:03.291 --> 00:24:05.250
but it\'s clear
that she did the deed.
00:24:05.250 --> 00:24:06.875
She wrote it,
but she shouldn\'t have.
00:24:06.875 --> 00:24:08.542
She wrote it, but look
what she wrote about it.
00:24:08.542 --> 00:24:10.458
She wrote it, but she
only wrote one of it.
00:24:10.458 --> 00:24:12.834
She wrote it, but she
really isn\'t an artist
00:24:12.834 --> 00:24:13.834
and it isn\'t really art.
00:24:13.834 --> 00:24:15.333
She wrote it,
but she had help.
00:24:15.333 --> 00:24:17.709
She wrote it,
but she\'s an anomaly.
00:24:17.709 --> 00:24:19.375
She wrote it, but...\"
00:24:19.375 --> 00:24:24.125
The way that women\'s writing
was always sort of, uh,
00:24:24.125 --> 00:24:24.999
explained away.
00:24:24.999 --> 00:24:25.709
She wrote it, but...
00:24:25.709 --> 00:24:27.542
it\'s not really
first class literature.
00:24:27.542 --> 00:24:31.291
She wrote it,
but it\'s all very derivative.
00:24:31.291 --> 00:24:32.458
You know, she wrote it,
00:24:32.458 --> 00:24:33.709
but it must have come
00:24:33.709 --> 00:24:35.291
from Nietzsche and Deleuze.
00:24:35.291 --> 00:24:37.458
You know,
she wrote it, but...
00:24:37.458 --> 00:24:38.667
I began writing here,
00:24:38.667 --> 00:24:40.875
right here
in this physical place
00:24:40.875 --> 00:24:43.875
while Rusten and Jay
and Bob and Nick and I
00:24:43.875 --> 00:24:47.500
were still building
the house around it.
00:24:47.500 --> 00:24:48.375
And we had electricity
00:24:48.375 --> 00:24:51.375
and I had an old
Hewlett-Packard-86 machine
00:24:51.375 --> 00:24:53.291
and an old
daisy wheel printer,
00:24:53.291 --> 00:24:54.500
clunk-clunk, I mean,
really huge.
00:24:54.500 --> 00:24:58.917
We--offloading it to the dump
later was a problem.
00:24:58.917 --> 00:25:00.250
You know?
00:25:00.250 --> 00:25:02.375
I was working,
00:25:02.375 --> 00:25:03.458
helping with the construction,
00:25:03.458 --> 00:25:06.375
building the gardens,
building the house,
00:25:06.375 --> 00:25:09.875
and writing at the same time.
00:25:09.875 --> 00:25:11.999
And, um,
00:25:11.999 --> 00:25:12.625
in the summers,
00:25:12.625 --> 00:25:14.625
because I was teaching
in the rest of the year
00:25:14.625 --> 00:25:19.542
and I\'m not capable
of writing sustained work
00:25:19.542 --> 00:25:20.500
when I\'m also teaching
00:25:20.500 --> 00:25:21.999
because teaching
is all-consuming,
00:25:21.999 --> 00:25:23.417
it takes the best
you\'ve got,
00:25:23.417 --> 00:25:24.750
it takes everything
you\'ve got.
00:25:24.750 --> 00:25:26.792
And you might be able
to write something short,
00:25:26.792 --> 00:25:28.625
but I\'ve never been able
to write.
00:25:28.625 --> 00:25:31.834
And I stopped applying
for grants a long time ago
00:25:31.834 --> 00:25:34.542
because the process
was so alienating.
00:25:34.542 --> 00:25:36.291
And I made enough money
that I could fund
00:25:36.291 --> 00:25:40.291
an occasional period off,
you know, I had a salary.
00:25:40.291 --> 00:25:43.125
And, um, we would, um,
you know,
00:25:43.125 --> 00:25:44.500
so I felt like I--
00:25:44.500 --> 00:25:46.083
my research is not expensive,
00:25:46.083 --> 00:25:47.333
I don\'t need a laboratory.
00:25:47.333 --> 00:25:49.959
So I just stopped
writing grant proposals
00:25:49.959 --> 00:25:52.500
and wrote
during the summer
00:25:52.500 --> 00:25:54.750
and stole time.
00:25:54.750 --> 00:25:56.834
And wrote here.
00:25:56.834 --> 00:25:58.500
And I\'m surrounded by beauty.
00:25:58.500 --> 00:26:01.041
I\'m surrounded
by redwood trees,
00:26:01.041 --> 00:26:04.834
I\'m surrounded
by a beautiful creek,
00:26:04.834 --> 00:26:09.999
by friends and lovers
and family.
00:26:09.999 --> 00:26:11.709
And I\'m surrounded by books
00:26:11.709 --> 00:26:13.333
and I have a really fabulous--
00:26:13.333 --> 00:26:14.583
I mean, this one
is an old computer
00:26:14.583 --> 00:26:17.750
\'cause I\'m not doing my current
writing here, you know?
00:26:17.750 --> 00:26:20.834
But, you know, we had
a really pretty seriously
00:26:20.834 --> 00:26:24.583
working computer system
before we had a telephone.
00:26:24.583 --> 00:26:27.041
We set up our computers
before we paid attention
00:26:27.041 --> 00:26:29.667
to any of the other
electricity needs, you know,
00:26:29.667 --> 00:26:33.458
the--all, you know,
working digitally.
00:26:33.458 --> 00:26:37.250
Rusten and Nick
are both software designers
00:26:37.250 --> 00:26:39.667
working, you know,
00:26:39.667 --> 00:26:42.625
to do really neat
contract design work,
00:26:42.625 --> 00:26:45.417
software tool design for, um,
00:26:45.417 --> 00:26:47.583
various companies
and whatnot.
00:26:47.583 --> 00:26:50.792
The savvy about
working screen--
00:26:50.792 --> 00:26:54.375
about digital worlds was, um,
00:26:54.375 --> 00:26:56.542
part of my network
of friends.
00:26:56.542 --> 00:26:58.542
And this space, then,
00:26:58.542 --> 00:27:00.625
became a really good place
to write.
00:27:00.625 --> 00:27:05.625
And I wrote--I wrote
Primate Visionshere.
00:27:05.625 --> 00:27:09.333
I wrote most of
The Cyborg Manifestohere.
00:27:09.333 --> 00:27:11.542
It\'s not like--it didn\'t--
00:27:11.542 --> 00:27:12.999
its origins aren\'t here,
00:27:12.999 --> 00:27:13.792
the writing is here,
00:27:13.792 --> 00:27:16.250
the writing process was here,
00:27:16.250 --> 00:27:18.500
because it could be a rhythm
00:27:18.500 --> 00:27:22.041
between physical labor
and writing, um,
00:27:22.041 --> 00:27:25.041
and a whole lotta good food
00:27:25.041 --> 00:27:26.333
because we\'re all cooks
00:27:26.333 --> 00:27:27.792
and we invested in--
00:27:27.792 --> 00:27:28.625
And besides computers,
00:27:28.625 --> 00:27:31.834
we invested in
a really good cooktop
00:27:31.834 --> 00:27:34.166
and a really good
convection oven early on.
00:27:34.166 --> 00:27:37.333
And our refrigerator was
still up in the redwood trees
00:27:37.333 --> 00:27:38.750
covered by a piece of a plast--
00:27:38.750 --> 00:27:41.375
of, you know, plywood.
00:27:41.375 --> 00:27:44.041
(mellow music)
00:27:44.041 --> 00:27:54.291
♪
00:28:24.834 --> 00:28:27.625
(singing in Spanish)
00:28:27.625 --> 00:28:37.875
♪
00:29:15.999 --> 00:29:18.834
(birdsong)
00:29:33.125 --> 00:29:35.792
(soft music)
00:29:35.792 --> 00:29:41.875
♪
00:29:41.875 --> 00:29:43.166
This is to remind all of us
00:29:43.166 --> 00:29:46.333
of the specificity
of the subject.
00:29:46.333 --> 00:29:51.542
♪
00:29:51.542 --> 00:29:52.834
(laughs)
00:29:52.834 --> 00:29:57.458
♪
00:29:57.458 --> 00:29:58.959
Next slide.
00:29:59.375 --> 00:30:09.625
♪
00:30:16.917 --> 00:30:20.041
(nocturnal nature sounds)
00:30:47.500 --> 00:30:50.166
(bright music)
00:30:50.166 --> 00:30:52.250
♪
00:30:52.250 --> 00:30:54.208
(Rusten)
Welcome to California Bird Talk.
00:30:54.208 --> 00:30:55.083
I\'m Rusten Hogness.
00:30:55.083 --> 00:30:58.917
This year we\'ve been trying
to learn to hear birds better.
00:30:58.917 --> 00:31:02.458
Today we\'ll listen
to two very different songs
00:31:02.458 --> 00:31:03.834
of a song sparrow
00:31:03.834 --> 00:31:04.750
recorded by Chris Tenney
00:31:04.750 --> 00:31:06.875
in the Los Padres
National Forest.
00:31:06.875 --> 00:31:10.250
I\'ll play a couple
of variations of each song
00:31:10.250 --> 00:31:10.917
at normal speed,
00:31:10.917 --> 00:31:13.125
then slow down
one of the variations
00:31:13.125 --> 00:31:15.625
by eight times
to let us discriminate
00:31:15.625 --> 00:31:19.250
what bird ears can hear
at faster speeds.
00:31:19.250 --> 00:31:21.417
Here\'s the first song.
00:31:21.417 --> 00:31:24.291
(bird song)
00:31:30.041 --> 00:31:31.834
Now slowed down.
00:31:31.834 --> 00:31:34.875
(bird song slowed down)
00:31:51.875 --> 00:31:53.834
The second song.
00:31:53.834 --> 00:31:56.709
(bird song)
00:32:01.375 --> 00:32:02.500
Slowed.
00:32:02.500 --> 00:32:05.542
(bird song slowed down)
00:32:28.375 --> 00:32:32.083
It\'s a wonderful world
of sound out there.
00:32:32.083 --> 00:32:33.125
Enjoy it.
00:32:33.125 --> 00:32:34.834
For California Bird Talk,
00:32:34.834 --> 00:32:37.041
this is Rusten Hogness.
00:32:37.041 --> 00:32:40.041
(layered birdsong)
00:33:00.667 --> 00:33:02.333
(Cayenne barks)
00:33:11.542 --> 00:33:12.458
(xylophone music)
00:33:12.458 --> 00:33:14.583
(Donna)
Cat\'s Cradle is not just
00:33:14.583 --> 00:33:16.208
a game of string figures,
00:33:16.208 --> 00:33:18.041
but it is a model
for thinking,
00:33:18.041 --> 00:33:19.875
a model for storytelling.
00:33:19.875 --> 00:33:23.417
It\'s a working practice
for me.
00:33:23.417 --> 00:33:28.041
And (unintelligible) Despret,
00:33:28.041 --> 00:33:29.333
Isabelle Stengers,
00:33:29.333 --> 00:33:31.917
and Bruno Latour and I
00:33:31.917 --> 00:33:34.959
played this game together, um,
00:33:34.959 --> 00:33:35.667
in many ways.
00:33:35.667 --> 00:33:37.041
It\'s because, I think,
00:33:37.041 --> 00:33:39.917
we have a kind of, um,
00:33:39.917 --> 00:33:41.959
love for each other\'s thinking
00:33:41.959 --> 00:33:44.750
and a deep kind of need
00:33:44.750 --> 00:33:49.166
for each other\'s relays
of these figures.
00:33:49.166 --> 00:33:51.041
How it is that
science fiction writing
00:33:51.041 --> 00:33:54.999
and science fiction writers
become not illustrations
00:33:54.999 --> 00:33:59.500
of arguments
or illustrations of thinking,
00:33:59.500 --> 00:34:01.375
but the thinking itself.
00:34:01.375 --> 00:34:05.041
How the science fiction
00:34:05.041 --> 00:34:08.083
goes through
a kind of metamorphosis,
00:34:08.083 --> 00:34:10.166
a kind of transmogrification,
00:34:10.166 --> 00:34:11.542
transmutation,
00:34:11.542 --> 00:34:13.458
and is the theoretical practice.
00:34:13.458 --> 00:34:17.417
And women have
repeatedly understood
00:34:17.417 --> 00:34:18.875
that not being disappeared
00:34:18.875 --> 00:34:24.750
by the powerful apparatus
of masculinist thinking,
00:34:24.750 --> 00:34:27.375
of masculinist practices
both in institutions
00:34:27.375 --> 00:34:31.500
and in--and at the level
of individual people,
00:34:31.500 --> 00:34:35.291
that our thinking
is disappeared fast.
00:34:35.291 --> 00:34:38.291
And I think one
of the feminist practices,
00:34:38.291 --> 00:34:39.875
by Le Guin, by Isabelle,
00:34:39.875 --> 00:34:41.000
by me Niven, by Vinciane,
00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:43.625
we\'re still trying to teach
Bruno to do this.
00:34:43.625 --> 00:34:45.542
He\'s getting
a little better.
00:34:45.542 --> 00:34:46.667
(laughs)
00:34:46.667 --> 00:34:47.250
No, but...
00:34:47.250 --> 00:34:48.999
You know, I\'m joking about it.
00:34:48.999 --> 00:34:51.959
But one
of the feminist practices
00:34:51.959 --> 00:34:54.583
is deliberately
and carefully,
00:34:54.583 --> 00:34:57.583
to be very precise about
the history of ideas
00:34:57.583 --> 00:35:02.041
and the particular creativity
and originality
00:35:02.041 --> 00:35:05.875
and importance
of other women\'s thinking.
00:35:05.875 --> 00:35:10.375
And I know myself,
from my own experience
00:35:10.375 --> 00:35:16.667
and from powerful women
I know, that, um,
00:35:16.667 --> 00:35:18.166
the speed with which
we disappear
00:35:18.166 --> 00:35:22.667
from the citation apparatuses
is breathtaking.
00:35:22.667 --> 00:35:23.125
(laughs)
00:35:23.125 --> 00:35:24.750
So later this week we\'ll talk
00:35:24.750 --> 00:35:25.959
aboutThe Camille Stories,
00:35:25.959 --> 00:35:27.709
stories that you
and I and Vinciane
00:35:27.709 --> 00:35:29.417
are trying
to tell together.
00:35:29.417 --> 00:35:32.250
And they\'re stories
of the children of compost,
00:35:32.250 --> 00:35:33.667
the children of the soil,
00:35:33.667 --> 00:35:34.792
of the underground,
00:35:34.792 --> 00:35:36.792
of the dark,
of the night,
00:35:36.792 --> 00:35:38.750
of incapacity,
00:35:38.750 --> 00:35:40.750
of non-action,
00:35:40.750 --> 00:35:42.917
of non-success.
00:35:42.917 --> 00:35:45.458
Not as a bad thing,
00:35:45.458 --> 00:35:51.999
but as that soil
within which human souls,
00:35:51.999 --> 00:35:55.250
and perhaps
not just human souls,
00:35:55.250 --> 00:35:56.542
are made.
00:35:56.542 --> 00:35:58.000
So the science fiction writers
00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:01.000
who write about
these matters all the time,
00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:05.125
who tell their stories
in these worldings,
00:36:05.125 --> 00:36:06.917
are, in my view,
00:36:06.917 --> 00:36:08.250
in the strict sense,
00:36:08.250 --> 00:36:09.208
philosophical texts.
00:36:09.208 --> 00:36:11.542
So I don\'t feel like
I am importing them
00:36:11.542 --> 00:36:14.000
in order to do some
other kind of work,
00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:18.458
much less using them to
illustrate one of my points.
00:36:18.458 --> 00:36:19.875
But the stories
that they tell,
00:36:19.875 --> 00:36:23.291
the storytellers are,
in my view,
00:36:23.291 --> 00:36:24.125
thinking.
00:36:24.125 --> 00:36:26.417
And thinking
is what we need to do,
00:36:26.417 --> 00:36:28.500
not the discipline
of philosophy
00:36:28.500 --> 00:36:30.500
or political economy
or biology
00:36:30.500 --> 00:36:33.250
or literature
or--or--or--or...
00:36:33.250 --> 00:36:38.333
The disciplines will take care
of themselves without my help.
00:36:38.333 --> 00:36:39.667
It\'s not like
everything that happens
00:36:39.667 --> 00:36:42.417
in the disciplines is bad,
far from it,
00:36:42.417 --> 00:36:45.083
but thinking is
what we are about
00:36:45.083 --> 00:36:48.041
and thinking is
a materialist practice
00:36:48.041 --> 00:36:48.917
with other thinkers.
00:36:48.917 --> 00:36:53.583
And some of the best thinking
is done as storytelling.
00:36:53.583 --> 00:36:56.208
(folk music)
00:36:56.208 --> 00:37:04.083
♪
00:37:04.083 --> 00:37:06.583
(male vocalist)
♪ Fat and docile, big and dumb ♪
00:37:06.583 --> 00:37:10.333
♪ They look so stupid,
they aren\'t much fun ♪
00:37:10.333 --> 00:37:12.125
♪
00:37:12.125 --> 00:37:14.041
♪ Cows aren\'t fun ♪
00:37:14.041 --> 00:37:15.166
♪
00:37:15.166 --> 00:37:17.959
♪ They eat to grow,
grow to die ♪
00:37:17.959 --> 00:37:21.667
♪ Die to be et
at the hamburger fry ♪
00:37:21.667 --> 00:37:23.208
♪
00:37:23.208 --> 00:37:25.166
♪ Cows well-done ♪
00:37:25.166 --> 00:37:26.375
♪
00:37:26.375 --> 00:37:28.917
♪ Nobody thunk it,
nobody knew ♪
00:37:28.917 --> 00:37:33.250
♪ No one imagined
the great cow guru ♪
00:37:33.250 --> 00:37:34.375
♪
00:37:34.375 --> 00:37:36.333
♪ Cows are one ♪
00:37:36.333 --> 00:37:36.834
♪
00:37:36.834 --> 00:37:39.709
♪ He hid in the forest,
read books with great zeal ♪
00:37:39.709 --> 00:37:44.166
♪ He loves Che Guevara,
a revolutionary veal ♪
00:37:44.166 --> 00:37:45.291
♪
00:37:45.291 --> 00:37:47.208
♪ Cow Tse Tung ♪
00:37:47.208 --> 00:37:47.875
♪
00:37:47.875 --> 00:37:50.500
♪ He spoke about justice,
but nobody stirred ♪
00:37:50.500 --> 00:37:54.999
♪ He felt like an outcast,
alone in the herd ♪
00:37:54.999 --> 00:37:56.125
♪
00:37:56.125 --> 00:37:58.375
♪ Cow doldrums ♪
00:37:58.375 --> 00:37:58.875
♪
00:37:58.875 --> 00:38:01.166
♪ He mooed \"We must fight,
escape or we\'ll die\" ♪
00:38:01.166 --> 00:38:05.500
♪ Cows gathered around,
\'cause the steaks were so high ♪
00:38:05.500 --> 00:38:07.166
♪
00:38:07.166 --> 00:38:09.166
♪ Bad cow pun ♪
00:38:09.166 --> 00:38:09.667
♪
00:38:09.667 --> 00:38:12.125
♪ But then he was captured,
stuffed into a crate ♪
00:38:12.125 --> 00:38:16.291
♪ Loaded onto a truck,
where he rode to his fate ♪
00:38:16.291 --> 00:38:17.792
♪
00:38:17.792 --> 00:38:20.000
♪ Cows are bummed ♪
00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:20.542
♪
00:38:20.542 --> 00:38:23.458
♪ He was a scrawny calf
who looked rather woozy ♪
00:38:23.458 --> 00:38:27.041
♪ No one suspected
he was packing an Uzi ♪
00:38:27.041 --> 00:38:28.583
♪
00:38:28.583 --> 00:38:30.834
♪ Cows with guns♪
00:38:30.834 --> 00:38:31.291
♪
00:38:31.291 --> 00:38:33.792
♪ They came with a needle
to stick in his thigh ♪
00:38:33.792 --> 00:38:37.792
♪ He kicked for the groin,
he pissed in their eye ♪
00:38:37.792 --> 00:38:39.333
♪
00:38:39.333 --> 00:38:41.291
♪ Cow well hung ♪
00:38:41.291 --> 00:38:41.959
♪
00:38:41.959 --> 00:38:44.500
♪ Knocked over a tractor
and ran for the door ♪
00:38:44.500 --> 00:38:48.458
♪ Six gallons of gas
flowed out on the floor ♪
00:38:48.458 --> 00:38:50.000
♪
00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:52.041
♪ Run, cows, run ♪
00:38:52.041 --> 00:38:52.542
♪
00:38:52.542 --> 00:38:56.417
♪ He picked up a bullhorn
and jumped up on the hay ♪
00:38:56.417 --> 00:38:58.834
♪ We are free roving bovines,
00:38:58.834 --> 00:39:01.750
we run free today ♪
00:39:01.750 --> 00:39:04.125
First of all is a quotation, um,
00:39:04.125 --> 00:39:06.625
of me, so we can get rid
of this rather quickly,
00:39:06.625 --> 00:39:10.959
although of course it\'s
a quotation of me in French,
00:39:10.959 --> 00:39:12.999
which I like because...
00:39:12.999 --> 00:39:14.458
I, of course,
wrote it in English
00:39:14.458 --> 00:39:17.083
and Isabelle translated it
into French
00:39:17.083 --> 00:39:18.959
and now I read it in French
00:39:18.959 --> 00:39:21.625
in order to speak
about it in English, uh,
00:39:21.625 --> 00:39:24.542
which is exactly
a Cat\'s Cradle game
00:39:24.542 --> 00:39:25.667
in and of itself.
00:39:25.667 --> 00:39:28.250
(speaks in French)
00:39:28.625 --> 00:39:32.417
We need other kinds of stories.
00:39:32.417 --> 00:39:34.875
We must change the story.
00:39:34.875 --> 00:39:38.417
The ages, the stories
of the Earth, uh,
00:39:38.417 --> 00:39:41.542
we must change
the deadly story,
00:39:41.542 --> 00:39:46.208
the story of the first
beautiful words and weapons,
00:39:46.208 --> 00:39:47.792
the story of the killing,
00:39:47.792 --> 00:39:50.625
the story of achievement
as the achievement
00:39:50.625 --> 00:39:53.125
of second birthing,
that is, killing.
00:39:53.125 --> 00:39:56.000
The great existentialist
philosopher Sartre
00:39:56.000 --> 00:39:59.458
who argues that it is
in second birthing
00:39:59.458 --> 00:40:00.458
that we become human.
00:40:00.458 --> 00:40:03.542
First birthing
is merely birthing,
00:40:03.542 --> 00:40:06.667
the birthing of women,
the birthing of the Earth,
00:40:06.667 --> 00:40:08.375
the birthing in the soil.
00:40:08.375 --> 00:40:09.875
It is in second birthing
00:40:09.875 --> 00:40:12.000
in the achievement
of self-made--
00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:14.875
in the following
through tragically
00:40:14.875 --> 00:40:16.875
of self-realized purpose,
00:40:16.875 --> 00:40:20.667
of coming--of that kind
of tragic consciousness
00:40:20.667 --> 00:40:22.667
that is human consciousness.
00:40:22.667 --> 00:40:24.041
That is second birthing,
00:40:24.041 --> 00:40:26.667
usually through
some kind of killing.
00:40:26.667 --> 00:40:30.375
Well, no, if ever
there was nonsense
00:40:30.375 --> 00:40:34.083
of an extraordinary kind, uh,
00:40:34.083 --> 00:40:38.250
and a nonsense that
has ruled storytelling,
00:40:38.250 --> 00:40:40.500
not--I mean,
Sartre only concretized
00:40:40.500 --> 00:40:46.917
and distilled what is
a very old, um, uh,
00:40:46.917 --> 00:40:47.959
set of commitments,
00:40:47.959 --> 00:40:50.041
not just beliefs
but commitments.
00:40:50.041 --> 00:40:53.750
And we, all of us,
in this time,
00:40:53.750 --> 00:40:58.166
where the ongoingness
of life as we know it,
00:40:58.166 --> 00:41:01.750
where Gaia is intruding,
00:41:01.750 --> 00:41:03.458
where the intrusion of that
00:41:03.458 --> 00:41:08.083
which will no longer
be put down, um,
00:41:08.083 --> 00:41:11.834
threatens ways of life
as usual.
00:41:11.834 --> 00:41:14.709
It doesn\'t threaten life itself.
00:41:14.709 --> 00:41:17.542
Life itself, uh, will go on
00:41:17.542 --> 00:41:20.250
for as long as this planet
has the right conditions
00:41:20.250 --> 00:41:23.291
of temperature and moisture
and whatever for--
00:41:23.291 --> 00:41:26.041
microbes are very inventive, um,
00:41:26.041 --> 00:41:26.875
they\'re, you know,
00:41:26.875 --> 00:41:29.500
it\'s not like life itself
is at stake,
00:41:29.500 --> 00:41:33.667
but vast ways of life
and becoming with each other
00:41:33.667 --> 00:41:37.375
across peoples and species
on this Earth
00:41:37.375 --> 00:41:39.125
are truly at stake.
00:41:39.125 --> 00:41:43.166
And the rate of extinction
of ways of life,
00:41:43.166 --> 00:41:44.834
ways of living and dying,
00:41:44.834 --> 00:41:49.166
of peoples of all species
including human,
00:41:49.166 --> 00:41:52.625
are truly on the ledge,
00:41:52.625 --> 00:41:57.583
on the edge of falling off
into nothingness.
00:41:57.583 --> 00:42:03.000
Uh, the story of the Earth
is at stake
00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:04.375
as we participate in it.
00:42:04.375 --> 00:42:07.917
Our own extinction is,
of course, truly possible.
00:42:07.917 --> 00:42:09.542
But with
or without extinction
00:42:09.542 --> 00:42:11.959
in terms of
the kind of final death,
00:42:11.959 --> 00:42:16.417
the deepening
of the destruction
00:42:16.417 --> 00:42:20.417
of ways of living
and dying on this Earth
00:42:20.417 --> 00:42:21.875
is happening.
00:42:21.875 --> 00:42:24.166
And the story
of this Earth,
00:42:24.166 --> 00:42:27.000
the arts of living
on a damaged planet,
00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:28.834
Anna Tsing\'s term, uh,
00:42:28.834 --> 00:42:32.625
the absolute obligation
to become capable,
00:42:32.625 --> 00:42:37.999
to render each other capable
of changing the story,
00:42:37.999 --> 00:42:42.291
a story of ongoingness
cultivated in the Earth,
00:42:42.291 --> 00:42:43.709
in the tunnels
of the Earth.
00:42:43.709 --> 00:42:48.125
If the makers of living
and dying on this Earth
00:42:48.125 --> 00:42:52.125
could begin to somehow
risk--put, you know,
00:42:52.125 --> 00:42:53.875
be at risk to each other,
00:42:53.875 --> 00:42:58.166
to propose something real,
you know,
00:42:58.166 --> 00:43:01.041
to make a proposition
in a sense
00:43:01.041 --> 00:43:02.667
that Whitehead
might mean.
00:43:02.667 --> 00:43:05.667
That which is not yet
but might be, you know?
00:43:05.667 --> 00:43:10.917
Some mode of coherence
which might have a chance,
00:43:10.917 --> 00:43:11.750
every scale.
00:43:11.750 --> 00:43:15.500
Until the stories start
getting told like that,
00:43:15.500 --> 00:43:16.999
and until those
who tell the news
00:43:16.999 --> 00:43:19.667
start hearing where
those bits of story
00:43:19.667 --> 00:43:21.166
are actually being told,
00:43:21.166 --> 00:43:24.417
where people are
actually doing this
00:43:24.417 --> 00:43:26.542
but they\'re not
on the news.
00:43:26.542 --> 00:43:28.750
Maybe just a little bit,
maybe very weak.
00:43:28.750 --> 00:43:31.000
How to make
the weak stories stronger
00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:32.917
and the strong stories weaker.
00:43:32.917 --> 00:43:35.959
We are speechless to this now.
00:43:35.959 --> 00:43:37.750
And then we give it bad names.
00:43:37.750 --> 00:43:40.750
But good thinking
always happens
00:43:40.750 --> 00:43:43.250
at the moment
of speechlessness.
00:43:43.250 --> 00:43:45.375
You know, as a--
as a proper Catholic kid
00:43:45.375 --> 00:43:46.333
who grew up with, you know,
00:43:46.333 --> 00:43:48.500
reading Thomas Aquinas
and Anselm
00:43:48.500 --> 00:43:50.709
and, you know, I had
these doubts about faith
00:43:50.709 --> 00:43:52.959
and so I was told
to read all this stuff
00:43:52.959 --> 00:43:53.792
when I was 13 and 14.
00:43:53.792 --> 00:43:57.458
I didn\'t--you don\'t understand
a word, you know?
00:43:57.458 --> 00:43:58.000
I mean, what?
00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:00.250
You have no idea
what you\'re reading.
00:44:00.250 --> 00:44:01.917
The mystics and the--
and the, you know,
00:44:01.917 --> 00:44:05.208
Thomas Aquinas, I mean,
come on, give me a break.
00:44:05.208 --> 00:44:09.041
No idea, but it--
but it fucks with your mind,
00:44:09.041 --> 00:44:10.166
you know what I mean?
00:44:10.166 --> 00:44:12.917
It changes who you are, right?
00:44:12.917 --> 00:44:15.750
And so, um, I,
from early on,
00:44:15.750 --> 00:44:16.917
you know,
baby Catholic on,
00:44:16.917 --> 00:44:19.542
I mean, you know,
teenage Catholic on,
00:44:19.542 --> 00:44:23.959
I knew that the minute you start
reciting the names of God,
00:44:23.959 --> 00:44:24.792
you are an idolater.
00:44:24.792 --> 00:44:27.792
The minute you think
you have a positive name,
00:44:27.792 --> 00:44:30.834
you have told--you have
become an idolater,
00:44:30.834 --> 00:44:34.375
you have told
a very particular kind of lie,
00:44:34.375 --> 00:44:35.792
the biggest kind of lie,
00:44:35.792 --> 00:44:37.667
and that the only truth
that can be told
00:44:37.667 --> 00:44:42.166
must at some--
at its most fundamental level
00:44:42.166 --> 00:44:43.542
be the failure of naming,
00:44:43.542 --> 00:44:46.999
it\'s the failure
of giving positive names.
00:44:46.999 --> 00:44:48.917
It\'s at that moment
of failure
00:44:48.917 --> 00:44:53.208
that there is
some encounter with it,
00:44:53.208 --> 00:44:54.125
whatever it is.
00:44:54.125 --> 00:44:56.667
Something that\'s not a lie.
00:44:56.667 --> 00:44:58.083
And the minute
you name it God,
00:44:58.083 --> 00:44:59.291
you\'re an idolater.
00:44:59.291 --> 00:45:02.542
So worshippers of God
are idolaters.
00:45:02.542 --> 00:45:06.375
And yet the only way
to come to grips,
00:45:06.375 --> 00:45:09.917
to come into the--
what presence of it,
00:45:09.917 --> 00:45:11.583
say the important mystics
that shaped
00:45:11.583 --> 00:45:14.875
my little 13-year-old
screwed up mind.
00:45:14.875 --> 00:45:17.041
(laughs)
00:45:17.041 --> 00:45:20.166
The only way to come
into the presence of it
00:45:20.166 --> 00:45:23.417
is to constantly keep
doing positive things,
00:45:23.417 --> 00:45:26.583
you have to keep trying
to make an experiment work.
00:45:26.583 --> 00:45:29.959
You have to constantly keep
writing this particular story,
00:45:29.959 --> 00:45:33.333
not some story in general,
but this story.
00:45:33.333 --> 00:45:34.250
You have to do this,
00:45:34.250 --> 00:45:36.250
you have to be here,
not everywhere.
00:45:36.250 --> 00:45:38.625
You have to be attached
to some things, not everything.
00:45:38.625 --> 00:45:42.458
The only possible way is
again and again and again
00:45:42.458 --> 00:45:46.208
we engage each other
in the--in the--
00:45:46.208 --> 00:45:48.166
in doing something, you know?
00:45:48.166 --> 00:45:49.125
-Okay.
-Okay.
00:45:49.125 --> 00:45:51.166
You don\'t even have
your back brace.
00:45:51.166 --> 00:45:54.458
All right,
those with stamina continue.
00:45:54.458 --> 00:45:56.583
(laughs)
00:45:56.750 --> 00:45:59.458
Those without stamina
take a break.
00:45:59.458 --> 00:46:01.083
(laughs)
00:46:01.083 --> 00:46:03.750
(soft music)
00:46:03.750 --> 00:46:13.999
♪
00:49:05.250 --> 00:49:08.083
(birdsong)
00:49:13.458 --> 00:49:16.375
But I don\'t have the choice,
we don\'t have the choice,
00:49:16.375 --> 00:49:17.792
Anthropocene is in play,
00:49:17.792 --> 00:49:20.375
it\'s a good enough word,
does a lot of work,
00:49:20.375 --> 00:49:23.291
good enough work, eh.
00:49:23.291 --> 00:49:24.417
Tough for me, whatever,
00:49:24.417 --> 00:49:27.000
so I would have done it
differently, too bad,
00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:28.500
who cares, you know?
00:49:28.500 --> 00:49:29.875
I mean, truly, who cares?
00:49:29.875 --> 00:49:31.458
We work with what we\'ve got.
00:49:31.458 --> 00:49:33.834
And they really
are places to work
00:49:33.834 --> 00:49:36.417
where that terminology
and that apparatus
00:49:36.417 --> 00:49:40.709
and those modelings
are really important,
00:49:40.709 --> 00:49:44.333
even though it\'s made to be
too big and too important.
00:49:44.333 --> 00:49:45.625
It\'s always a story.
00:49:45.625 --> 00:49:47.709
These stories,
Anthropocene,
00:49:47.709 --> 00:49:49.333
Capitalocene,
nyah-nyah-cene,
00:49:49.333 --> 00:49:51.875
they always threaten
to become too big.
00:49:51.875 --> 00:49:54.125
And as soon
as they become too big,
00:49:54.125 --> 00:49:57.125
they act like they take
over everything, okay?
00:49:57.125 --> 00:49:59.667
And if you\'re going
to change the story,
00:49:59.667 --> 00:50:00.959
you can\'t do that.
00:50:00.959 --> 00:50:04.083
So even, you know,
I propose the Chthulucene.
00:50:04.083 --> 00:50:06.250
Well, of course,
that\'s, in a way, a joke,
00:50:06.250 --> 00:50:09.750
because that threatens
to be too big too,
00:50:09.750 --> 00:50:10.375
you know, um...
00:50:10.375 --> 00:50:15.458
So Isabelle here is giving me
this provocation.
00:50:15.458 --> 00:50:17.875
She and Philippe Pignarre
and others,
00:50:17.875 --> 00:50:21.999
she is really worried
about the, um,
00:50:21.999 --> 00:50:26.041
the way that capitalism
00:50:26.041 --> 00:50:28.166
and the critique
of capitalism
00:50:28.166 --> 00:50:31.875
and the critique of capital
makes us stupid,
00:50:31.875 --> 00:50:35.041
and makes us stupid
in a particular way.
00:50:35.041 --> 00:50:38.000
It makes us believe
there is nothing else
00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:39.709
possible in the world.
00:50:39.709 --> 00:50:41.458
The kind of stupidity
00:50:41.458 --> 00:50:44.458
that comes from
constantly repeating
00:50:44.458 --> 00:50:46.458
the ever-newer,
ever-smarter,
00:50:46.458 --> 00:50:49.041
up-to-the-minute,
latest version
00:50:49.041 --> 00:50:50.667
of the critique of capital,
00:50:50.667 --> 00:50:55.542
the smartest possible,
you know, you know,
00:50:55.542 --> 00:50:57.709
I mean, really good,
you know what I mean?
00:50:57.709 --> 00:51:01.208
The Marxism that I really
am not gonna let go of,
00:51:01.208 --> 00:51:06.500
and I refuse to let Bruno
say that we don\'t need it.
00:51:06.500 --> 00:51:08.083
I think we do
need our Marxism
00:51:08.083 --> 00:51:10.458
and a lot
of other things too.
00:51:10.458 --> 00:51:12.917
But how to make it
be part of what is added
00:51:12.917 --> 00:51:15.458
to the Cat\'s Cradle
in the smart way
00:51:15.458 --> 00:51:18.917
because the stupid thing
is to be so mesmerized
00:51:18.917 --> 00:51:22.417
by the smartness
of the latest analysis
00:51:22.417 --> 00:51:25.500
of capital, you know,
00:51:25.500 --> 00:51:28.709
that we lose all sense
00:51:28.709 --> 00:51:30.625
that what is really important
in the world
00:51:30.625 --> 00:51:33.375
and the only reason
to do these analytical--
00:51:33.375 --> 00:51:36.333
to do this analytical work
is to learn how
00:51:36.333 --> 00:51:39.250
to tell another story
and to build--
00:51:39.250 --> 00:51:41.625
to learn how to add
to the work
00:51:41.625 --> 00:51:45.458
of those who were already
storying otherwise.
00:51:45.458 --> 00:51:47.458
The only possible thing
to do in the world
00:51:47.458 --> 00:51:51.291
as we are inhabiting
is to revolt, you know?
00:51:51.291 --> 00:51:52.834
It\'s like Emily Carr,
00:51:52.834 --> 00:51:53.542
it\'s like--
00:51:53.542 --> 00:51:56.750
it\'s an insurrection, okay?
00:51:56.750 --> 00:52:00.041
And it\'s an insurrection
that refuses to--
00:52:00.041 --> 00:52:03.375
refuses the paralysis
of critique,
00:52:03.375 --> 00:52:06.166
that the world is finished
because we knew how it works.
00:52:06.166 --> 00:52:08.125
And you\'re stupid \'cause
you don\'t know how it works
00:52:08.125 --> 00:52:11.834
and you\'re just an activist
or you\'re just a witch
00:52:11.834 --> 00:52:13.500
or you\'re just a something.
00:52:13.500 --> 00:52:15.125
You just believe in
all these stupid things.
00:52:15.125 --> 00:52:17.125
You\'re a Christian,
you\'re really stupid.
00:52:17.125 --> 00:52:18.667
You\'re a Muslim,
you\'re really stupid.
00:52:18.667 --> 00:52:20.667
You\'re a Pagan,
you\'re really stupid.
00:52:20.667 --> 00:52:23.417
We know how the world
really works.
00:52:23.417 --> 00:52:25.583
That kind of arrogance,
00:52:25.583 --> 00:52:27.917
which is the arrogance
of the scholars,
00:52:27.917 --> 00:52:31.250
the arrogance
of the intellectuals,
00:52:31.250 --> 00:52:35.291
our poison is that
with which we poison
00:52:35.291 --> 00:52:38.250
the very thing we think
we\'re doing, you know?
00:52:38.250 --> 00:52:42.375
We think we\'re contributing
to building a different story
00:52:42.375 --> 00:52:43.583
and we\'re feeding it poison
00:52:43.583 --> 00:52:48.417
by our own relentless being
smarter than everybody else
00:52:48.417 --> 00:52:51.375
with the latest version
of our theory.
00:52:51.375 --> 00:52:52.792
We do have
to practice war,
00:52:52.792 --> 00:52:56.625
we do have to be for
some worlds and not others.
00:52:56.625 --> 00:53:01.500
We are against some ways
of doing the world.
00:53:01.500 --> 00:53:05.834
We are truly against building
the Keystone Pipeline
00:53:05.834 --> 00:53:09.083
and sucking the Earth
dry of fossil fuels,
00:53:09.083 --> 00:53:10.500
and many other things.
00:53:10.500 --> 00:53:14.999
It is really important
to be in a revolt.
00:53:14.999 --> 00:53:18.417
So for some ways of life
and not others
00:53:18.417 --> 00:53:20.417
is a kind of
war of the worlds,
00:53:20.417 --> 00:53:21.917
but it\'s a war
of the worlds
00:53:21.917 --> 00:53:25.542
as a part of
the proposition of peace,
00:53:25.542 --> 00:53:28.208
of the risky proposition.
00:53:28.208 --> 00:53:30.750
So I think that this is--
00:53:30.750 --> 00:53:32.291
that there is a shift.
00:53:32.291 --> 00:53:34.417
There is of course
a shift in the world
00:53:34.417 --> 00:53:36.834
in that we have a little time.
00:53:36.834 --> 00:53:39.625
We--we, whatever this we is,
00:53:39.625 --> 00:53:42.709
we are living in
a period of time,
00:53:42.709 --> 00:53:44.375
short, long,
I don\'t know,
00:53:44.375 --> 00:53:47.709
it\'s not instantaneous
but it\'s maybe not long,
00:53:47.709 --> 00:53:51.875
there is a little time
to make a difference,
00:53:51.875 --> 00:53:53.834
maybe not very much,
00:53:53.834 --> 00:53:59.834
after which the consequences
of what we have provoked,
00:53:59.834 --> 00:54:01.917
not just we
in the human sense
00:54:01.917 --> 00:54:06.333
but significantly, uh...
00:54:06.333 --> 00:54:08.166
I don\'t know,
it\'s not the Anthropos.
00:54:08.166 --> 00:54:10.750
I really do think
it\'s a lot of--
00:54:10.750 --> 00:54:12.875
it\'s not only capitalism
of course,
00:54:12.875 --> 00:54:14.375
of course it\'s not
only capitalism,
00:54:14.375 --> 00:54:16.417
but, wow, if we could
have only one name,
00:54:16.417 --> 00:54:20.792
you know, the last 500 years
of sucking the Earth dry
00:54:20.792 --> 00:54:23.583
in the form of resourcing it
for, um,
00:54:23.583 --> 00:54:28.500
for extraction as wealth
in the form of capital.
00:54:28.500 --> 00:54:31.125
This is a pretty good
analysis, you know,
00:54:31.125 --> 00:54:34.959
of what these last 500 years
have done to this Earth.
00:54:34.959 --> 00:54:38.500
And we have
a little time, um,
00:54:38.500 --> 00:54:40.917
to reinherit
the consequences.
00:54:40.917 --> 00:54:47.750
And we have a while
to see if peace is possible.
00:54:47.750 --> 00:54:50.375
(mystical music)
00:54:50.375 --> 00:55:00.625
♪
00:56:40.625 --> 00:56:43.542
(soft snoring)
00:57:10.333 --> 00:57:12.999
(soft music)
00:57:12.999 --> 00:57:23.208
♪
00:57:25.166 --> 00:57:31.208
♪
00:58:02.083 --> 00:58:05.792
One\'s whole life
is in the work,
00:58:05.792 --> 00:58:07.834
in the writing and the play,
00:58:07.834 --> 00:58:10.417
and my life has involved
00:58:10.417 --> 00:58:14.875
intense, um, good family.
00:58:14.875 --> 00:58:17.875
A family with whom
I\'ve biologically--
00:58:17.875 --> 00:58:19.000
well, reproductive family,
00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:22.208
fathers, brothers,
mothers, cousins,
00:58:22.208 --> 00:58:23.041
so forths,
00:58:23.041 --> 00:58:26.208
with whom
I feel very strong--
00:58:26.208 --> 00:58:27.208
strong connection.
00:58:27.208 --> 00:58:32.959
So it\'s not about something
negative in that regard.
00:58:32.959 --> 00:58:36.166
But my life--
my adult life especially,
00:58:36.166 --> 00:58:38.999
but from kind of early,
I don\'t know,
00:58:38.999 --> 00:58:40.875
almost as early
as one can--
00:58:40.875 --> 00:58:42.792
I can imagine,
00:58:42.792 --> 00:58:45.208
I remember
my mother worrying
00:58:45.208 --> 00:58:47.291
that I wasn\'t
marriageable
00:58:47.291 --> 00:58:49.083
for some odd reason.
00:58:49.083 --> 00:58:51.291
There was a non-fittingness
00:58:51.291 --> 00:58:54.959
into heteronormativity
for me from childhood.
00:58:54.959 --> 00:58:57.375
I don\'t know why,
it just was.
00:58:57.375 --> 00:59:00.041
You know, I had 21 dolls
and most of them had Polio
00:59:00.041 --> 00:59:03.208
or were in iron lungs or--
you know what I mean?
00:59:03.208 --> 00:59:07.709
They were--they were--
it was--I had...
00:59:07.709 --> 00:59:09.583
It was--it was--
I had a very--
00:59:09.583 --> 00:59:11.250
I had a relationship
to femininity
00:59:11.250 --> 00:59:14.667
that was probably
not all that unusual,
00:59:14.667 --> 00:59:16.291
that was both/and,
neither/nor,
00:59:16.291 --> 00:59:19.166
all of the above,
none of the above
00:59:19.166 --> 00:59:19.917
kind of thing.
00:59:19.917 --> 00:59:24.208
And I think
in my adult life, um,
00:59:24.208 --> 00:59:26.917
Jay, who was
a fellow graduate student
00:59:26.917 --> 00:59:27.709
at Yale University,
00:59:27.709 --> 00:59:28.792
he was in
the history department,
00:59:28.792 --> 00:59:33.250
and I came to be intensely
engaged with each other
00:59:33.250 --> 00:59:36.999
as friends and lovers
with no model
00:59:36.999 --> 00:59:41.625
for how--how to handle that
except marriage.
00:59:41.625 --> 00:59:44.041
I knew Jay was gay,
00:59:44.041 --> 00:59:46.959
there was never
any secret about that.
00:59:46.959 --> 00:59:49.917
Um, and, um,
for some reason,
00:59:49.917 --> 00:59:53.208
it didn\'t activate jealousy
or--I don\'t know,
00:59:53.208 --> 00:59:54.959
for some--I don\'t know why
00:59:54.959 --> 00:59:56.583
there was a way
in which Jay and I,
00:59:56.583 --> 00:59:58.500
for our own reasons,
needed to be married,
00:59:58.500 --> 01:00:02.417
but somehow marriage was
seriously the wrong model
01:00:02.417 --> 01:00:03.625
for what we were doing.
01:00:03.625 --> 01:00:04.709
It was a kind of, what,
01:00:04.709 --> 01:00:07.375
brother/sister sexuality that--
01:00:07.375 --> 01:00:08.375
incest is the wrong name, too,
01:00:08.375 --> 01:00:11.041
\'cause that connotes
some kind of violation
01:00:11.041 --> 01:00:12.417
and it wasn\'t.
01:00:12.417 --> 01:00:14.583
And that kind
of accreting,
01:00:14.583 --> 01:00:17.583
making family
by making homes,
01:00:17.583 --> 01:00:20.583
that making kin,
making kind.
01:00:20.583 --> 01:00:23.667
And this was, of course,
a period of history
01:00:23.667 --> 01:00:26.999
where lots of people
are experimenting
01:00:26.999 --> 01:00:32.166
with forms of social
and sexual life.
01:00:32.166 --> 01:00:34.125
Communes of all kinds,
01:00:34.125 --> 01:00:36.792
love relationships
of all kinds,
01:00:36.792 --> 01:00:38.542
heteronormative marriage
was an object
01:00:38.542 --> 01:00:39.917
of ridicule
and critique,
01:00:39.917 --> 01:00:41.333
that helps a lot.
01:00:41.333 --> 01:00:41.709
(laughs)
01:00:41.709 --> 01:00:45.583
Yeah, you know,
in one\'s own explorations.
01:00:45.583 --> 01:00:48.500
And, um, you know,
01:00:48.500 --> 01:00:50.041
Jay\'s lover Bob,
01:00:50.041 --> 01:00:54.750
my current--my lover
and husband and friend, Rusten,
01:00:54.750 --> 01:00:55.417
joi--enjoin--
01:00:55.417 --> 01:00:56.667
I mean, we got
officially divorced
01:00:56.667 --> 01:00:59.583
but we could never figure out
who got the camera,
01:00:59.583 --> 01:01:01.375
you know what I mean,
we couldn\'t split the property.
01:01:01.375 --> 01:01:04.208
I don\'t know, we had
a sewing machine and a camera.
01:01:04.208 --> 01:01:05.250
I\'m being facetious.
01:01:05.250 --> 01:01:08.625
The point is,
whatever it was that we did,
01:01:08.625 --> 01:01:10.625
was--really was for life, um,
01:01:10.625 --> 01:01:14.208
and in ways that we had
no particular models for
01:01:14.208 --> 01:01:17.834
except that a lot of people
at that moment in history
01:01:17.834 --> 01:01:18.999
were finding
ways of living
01:01:18.999 --> 01:01:21.083
for which there were
no particular models.
01:01:21.083 --> 01:01:24.625
And in retrospect it wasn\'t
all that radical or anything,
01:01:24.625 --> 01:01:27.792
but it--but it
never resolved into
01:01:27.792 --> 01:01:30.625
the reproductive
heteronormative family
01:01:30.625 --> 01:01:32.083
as a model
for a good life.
01:01:32.083 --> 01:01:35.041
And so our relationships
with Susan and Marco Harding,
01:01:35.041 --> 01:01:37.750
our godson
and good friend Susan,
01:01:37.750 --> 01:01:40.291
is an extended
kin relationship
01:01:40.291 --> 01:01:42.333
that is way more--
01:01:42.333 --> 01:01:43.709
in a significant way
01:01:43.709 --> 01:01:45.917
we are extended kin
to each other.
01:01:45.917 --> 01:01:48.458
In some ways legally
with things we\'ve done
01:01:48.458 --> 01:01:49.667
with various instruments,
01:01:49.667 --> 01:01:52.291
but mostly
it\'s that insistence
01:01:52.291 --> 01:01:54.250
on living that way.
01:01:54.250 --> 01:01:56.709
You know, Jay and Bob
both died of AIDS,
01:01:56.709 --> 01:02:00.667
Bob in 1986
and Jay in 1991.
01:02:00.667 --> 01:02:01.500
Um, and, you know,
01:02:01.500 --> 01:02:05.166
they were among the early, um,
01:02:05.166 --> 01:02:06.999
people who fell to the--
01:02:06.999 --> 01:02:11.166
you know, that fire
that swept their generation
01:02:11.166 --> 01:02:12.583
of--of, um, gay men,
01:02:12.583 --> 01:02:14.999
and, of course,
continues to sweep--
01:02:14.999 --> 01:02:17.542
cut a wide swath among
the peoples of the world
01:02:17.542 --> 01:02:20.999
even though it\'s manageable
as a chronic disease now
01:02:20.999 --> 01:02:23.583
with drug cocktails
and the rest.
01:02:23.583 --> 01:02:24.792
It\'s, you know, there--
01:02:24.792 --> 01:02:27.542
it affects
tens of millions of people,
01:02:27.542 --> 01:02:30.083
which is a big deal,
you know?
01:02:30.083 --> 01:02:33.542
And it touched us
intimately
01:02:33.542 --> 01:02:36.291
at the heart
of our family.
01:02:36.291 --> 01:02:39.333
And Jay\'s mother, Maxine,
01:02:39.333 --> 01:02:42.250
you know,
conventional,
01:02:42.250 --> 01:02:44.500
conservative
Christian woman,
01:02:44.500 --> 01:02:45.417
so on and so forth.
01:02:45.417 --> 01:02:47.999
She introduces Rusten and me
as her daughter-in-law
01:02:47.999 --> 01:02:50.291
and her son-in-law,
you know what I mean?
01:02:50.291 --> 01:02:55.041
Her having this religious
apartment complex.
01:02:55.041 --> 01:02:56.250
They just look like, \"What?\"
01:02:56.250 --> 01:02:58.333
You know, they really
can\'t figure this out.
01:02:58.333 --> 01:03:02.417
You know, Maxine doesn\'t
even know she\'s saying that.
01:03:02.417 --> 01:03:05.875
Um, so making kin--
01:03:05.875 --> 01:03:07.458
making non--
01:03:07.458 --> 01:03:08.625
making kin, making fa--
01:03:08.625 --> 01:03:12.125
making, uh,
family with each other
01:03:12.125 --> 01:03:15.917
without the imperative
of biological reproduction,
01:03:15.917 --> 01:03:17.959
and indeed with
quite something else,
01:03:17.959 --> 01:03:20.917
with a kind of--cultivating
the responsibility
01:03:20.917 --> 01:03:24.709
to be part of moving
the population of this Earth
01:03:24.709 --> 01:03:26.583
to more tolerable levels.
01:03:26.583 --> 01:03:28.792
And starting
in the rich countries.
01:03:28.792 --> 01:03:31.709
Um, I mean,
obviously, the...
01:03:31.709 --> 01:03:34.458
So, um, and then,
01:03:34.458 --> 01:03:36.417
as you point out
with Cayenne,
01:03:36.417 --> 01:03:38.667
it\'s more than a joke.
01:03:38.667 --> 01:03:41.875
We are kin with more
than other human beings.
01:03:41.875 --> 01:03:45.834
We make our households,
our families, our, um,
01:03:45.834 --> 01:03:49.625
our worldings with
a host of other critters.
01:03:49.625 --> 01:03:53.125
And that cobbling together
connections that really matter,
01:03:53.125 --> 01:03:57.125
may as well call them kin,
making kinships.
01:03:57.125 --> 01:03:59.875
And the question
is not so much
01:03:59.875 --> 01:04:00.875
who you go
to bed with,
01:04:00.875 --> 01:04:01.959
although that
of course matters
01:04:01.959 --> 01:04:04.917
at certain key points
in one\'s life, you know,
01:04:04.917 --> 01:04:10.291
but the ways
one builds lifetime kin,
01:04:10.291 --> 01:04:11.667
I would love to see
01:04:11.667 --> 01:04:14.583
certain kinds of
institutional apparatuses
01:04:14.583 --> 01:04:18.750
like being able much more easily
to adopt adults,
01:04:18.750 --> 01:04:21.542
to build
legally protected family
01:04:21.542 --> 01:04:25.625
to be engaged in city planning
and architecture
01:04:25.625 --> 01:04:27.792
and--and, um, to, um,
01:04:27.792 --> 01:04:29.875
be engaged in
the building of rituals
01:04:29.875 --> 01:04:32.375
that celebrate adulthood
with, uh,
01:04:32.375 --> 01:04:34.417
adulthood that involves
the response--
01:04:34.417 --> 01:04:35.625
the decision
not to have a child,
01:04:35.625 --> 01:04:39.709
how to celebrate that as opposed
to regard it as a tragedy
01:04:39.709 --> 01:04:42.083
while celebrating
children too.
01:04:42.083 --> 01:04:45.500
You know, it\'s that
kind of needing to build
01:04:45.500 --> 01:04:50.000
a non-heteronormative joy
in these kinds of lives.
01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:55.999
So, yeah, it\'s a lifetime
commitment for sure.
01:04:56.458 --> 01:04:57.959
(director)
Finish finally
01:04:57.959 --> 01:05:00.417
this green screen shooting.
01:05:00.417 --> 01:05:02.959
Okay, end of green screen.
01:05:02.959 --> 01:05:03.709
Hey, we get--
01:05:03.709 --> 01:05:06.333
oh, good,
holes in being at last.
01:05:06.333 --> 01:05:07.875
(laughs)
01:05:08.999 --> 01:05:10.417
Yay!
01:05:10.417 --> 01:05:11.417
Agh!
01:05:11.417 --> 01:05:14.000
(laughs)
01:05:14.000 --> 01:05:15.417
Oh, yes.
01:05:15.417 --> 01:05:18.750
I can--I can have
a third eye.
01:05:18.750 --> 01:05:19.208
(laughs)
01:05:19.208 --> 01:05:21.542
I don\'t know
what\'s happening here.
01:05:21.542 --> 01:05:22.625
Yes, this is excellent.
01:05:22.625 --> 01:05:24.417
I have more
green things out there
01:05:24.417 --> 01:05:26.166
if you bring them in.
01:05:26.166 --> 01:05:27.792
(laughs)
01:05:27.792 --> 01:05:29.542
(director)
I searched for the big ball.
01:05:29.542 --> 01:05:30.709
The big ball
is in the bedroom,
01:05:30.709 --> 01:05:33.750
it\'s over--it\'s in
the corner of the bedroom.
01:05:33.750 --> 01:05:35.875
Yeah, and we have--
01:05:35.875 --> 01:05:37.750
yeah, this is...
01:05:37.750 --> 01:05:39.250
(laughs)
01:05:39.834 --> 01:05:41.917
Yeah? Or maybe this is--
oh, I don\'t know,
01:05:41.917 --> 01:05:43.458
this is the egg you laid,
01:05:43.458 --> 01:05:45.083
I\'m sorry.
01:05:45.083 --> 01:05:46.917
There we go.
01:05:46.917 --> 01:05:48.417
(laughs)
01:05:49.000 --> 01:05:51.333
(director)
This is not bad.
01:05:51.333 --> 01:05:53.375
It laid an egg.
01:05:53.375 --> 01:05:54.875
(laughs)
01:05:54.875 --> 01:05:57.208
-This is...
-Okay.
01:05:57.208 --> 01:05:58.333
(laughs)
01:05:58.333 --> 01:05:59.999
This is--yeah, there we go.
01:05:59.999 --> 01:06:00.999
Okay.
01:06:00.999 --> 01:06:01.333
(laughs)
01:06:01.333 --> 01:06:03.166
There we go,
now we\'re really done.
01:06:03.166 --> 01:06:05.291
(director)
Yes, thank you.
01:06:05.291 --> 01:06:05.834
(laughs)
01:06:05.834 --> 01:06:07.917
(Donna)
How\'s that for the end?
01:06:07.917 --> 01:06:10.417
(laughs)
01:06:17.750 --> 01:06:19.417
(Cayenne barks)
01:06:22.291 --> 01:06:25.166
(nature sounds)
01:06:32.917 --> 01:06:35.542
(dark music)
01:06:35.542 --> 01:06:45.792
♪
01:06:46.542 --> 01:06:49.333
(footsteps in brush)
01:06:49.333 --> 01:06:59.250
♪
01:07:06.542 --> 01:07:09.375
(footsteps intensify)
01:07:09.375 --> 01:07:19.625
♪
01:07:23.375 --> 01:07:25.625
Early in the 21st century,
01:07:25.625 --> 01:07:29.041
communities
all over the planet
01:07:29.041 --> 01:07:30.959
sensed a kind of urgency
01:07:30.959 --> 01:07:34.917
of the undoing of ways
of living and dying.
01:07:34.917 --> 01:07:36.750
(nocturnal nature sounds)
01:07:36.750 --> 01:07:40.709
An undoing that involved
humans and other critters
01:07:40.709 --> 01:07:46.083
in the tissues of our being
together on Earth itself.
01:07:46.083 --> 01:07:48.875
(soggy footsteps)
01:07:48.875 --> 01:07:52.542
♪
01:07:52.542 --> 01:07:56.250
Somehow, a kind of wave
of feeling and action
01:07:56.250 --> 01:08:00.999
and thinking and motion
began to sweep the Earth
01:08:00.999 --> 01:08:03.542
in a very particular sense.
01:08:03.542 --> 01:08:08.166
Communities
of 150 to 500 people
01:08:08.166 --> 01:08:10.166
began to form
with each other
01:08:10.166 --> 01:08:12.458
either from already
being in place
01:08:12.458 --> 01:08:14.792
but finding each other
and coming together
01:08:14.792 --> 01:08:19.291
with intensities that were
practiced in quite new ways
01:08:19.291 --> 01:08:22.458
or moving from one place
to another.
01:08:22.458 --> 01:08:24.750
(nocturnal nature sounds)
01:08:24.750 --> 01:08:27.208
All of these communities
formed themselves
01:08:27.208 --> 01:08:31.291
around a particular kind
of felt intensity,
01:08:31.291 --> 01:08:36.166
of felt need and lust
and desire and project,
01:08:36.166 --> 01:08:38.750
which was to live
for the recuperation
01:08:38.750 --> 01:08:40.417
of the critters
of the Earth,
01:08:40.417 --> 01:08:42.875
the human
and the non-human.
01:08:42.875 --> 01:08:46.000
(nocturnal nature sounds)
01:08:47.417 --> 01:08:50.041
(ethereal music)
01:08:50.041 --> 01:08:57.500
♪
01:08:58.875 --> 01:09:03.917
To somehow cultivate the arts
of living on a damaged planet,
01:09:03.917 --> 01:09:08.250
to be those who came
to recuperate and restore
01:09:08.250 --> 01:09:09.375
where they could,
01:09:09.375 --> 01:09:12.625
as communities
who either already lived
01:09:12.625 --> 01:09:14.917
or moved to damaged lands
01:09:14.917 --> 01:09:19.542
to be communities
of care and concern.
01:09:19.542 --> 01:09:29.291
♪
01:09:29.291 --> 01:09:30.125
(rocks falling)
01:09:30.125 --> 01:09:32.542
Camille 1 was born
in a community
01:09:32.542 --> 01:09:35.709
that had decided that
at least three parents
01:09:35.709 --> 01:09:39.750
were going to be required
for every new baby.
01:09:39.750 --> 01:09:42.583
And having a baby
was not something
01:09:42.583 --> 01:09:44.625
someone could
just decide to do.
01:09:44.625 --> 01:09:47.083
It was rather
a collective decision,
01:09:47.083 --> 01:09:49.458
so that folks
who wanted to bear babies
01:09:49.458 --> 01:09:50.834
or bring babies
into the world
01:09:50.834 --> 01:09:54.208
might well have to wait
or might never be able to do so,
01:09:54.208 --> 01:09:56.834
but they could
participate as parents
01:09:56.834 --> 01:09:59.542
in a family
raising a baby.
01:09:59.542 --> 01:10:02.166
(soft music)
01:10:02.166 --> 01:10:04.166
♪
01:10:04.166 --> 01:10:06.875
So that Camille 1 was going
to have to have siblings,
01:10:06.875 --> 01:10:10.083
not necessarily in
the same immediate household
01:10:10.083 --> 01:10:12.458
but the children to be born
in this community
01:10:12.458 --> 01:10:13.959
had to have
other children
01:10:13.959 --> 01:10:15.875
who were going to be
their siblings
01:10:15.875 --> 01:10:18.875
but who were almost
certainly not going to be
01:10:18.875 --> 01:10:21.166
their biological siblings.
01:10:21.166 --> 01:10:24.083
(nocturnal nature sounds)
01:10:24.083 --> 01:10:26.999
♪
01:10:26.999 --> 01:10:30.208
So the reproductive choice
for the person
01:10:30.208 --> 01:10:31.875
who would bear
the pregnancy,
01:10:31.875 --> 01:10:35.000
whether that person was
a male or a female person
01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:36.792
in the beginning
of this process,
01:10:36.792 --> 01:10:39.583
whoever bore the pregnancy
to birthing
01:10:39.583 --> 01:10:43.125
had a particular kind
of reproductive choice
01:10:43.125 --> 01:10:45.417
which was to choose
a symbiont,
01:10:45.417 --> 01:10:49.125
another critter
who was to be in symbiosis
01:10:49.125 --> 01:10:53.583
with the human baby
for the lifetime of that baby.
01:10:53.583 --> 01:10:56.750
(nocturnal nature sounds)
01:10:56.999 --> 01:10:58.667
(soft moan)
01:11:07.125 --> 01:11:08.834
(soft moan)
01:11:12.417 --> 01:11:13.417
(soft moan)
01:11:13.417 --> 01:11:15.625
(dark music)
01:11:15.625 --> 01:11:18.583
So the woman
who bore Camille 1,
01:11:18.583 --> 01:11:22.041
in a dream that she had
during her pregnancy,
01:11:22.041 --> 01:11:23.542
chose for Camille 1
01:11:23.542 --> 01:11:27.417
the symbiont
of a monarch butterfly.
01:11:27.417 --> 01:11:28.875
(soft moan)
01:11:28.875 --> 01:11:32.667
♪
01:11:32.667 --> 01:11:36.000
Monarch butterflies
had part of their range
01:11:36.000 --> 01:11:39.667
in the area where this
community had settled down.
01:11:39.667 --> 01:11:43.083
Camille 1, at puberty,
could do many things.
01:11:43.083 --> 01:11:46.417
Camille 1 could decide
to alter its body
01:11:46.417 --> 01:11:50.083
into male--in male or female
or other ways.
01:11:50.083 --> 01:11:51.500
Camille 1
could choose to stay
01:11:51.500 --> 01:11:54.333
with whatever body
it was birthed with
01:11:54.333 --> 01:11:55.291
or it could
partially alter,
01:11:55.291 --> 01:11:57.333
maybe a little bit of this,
little bit of that.
01:11:57.333 --> 01:11:58.917
And some of it was
gonna be irreversible,
01:11:58.917 --> 01:12:01.500
they\'d have to learn
to live with consequences.
01:12:01.500 --> 01:12:03.291
The community
was not afraid
01:12:03.291 --> 01:12:07.542
of a kind of
morphological experimentation
01:12:07.542 --> 01:12:09.250
and thought that
that was something
01:12:09.250 --> 01:12:12.542
that adolescents ought
to have the means to do.
01:12:12.542 --> 01:12:16.542
Camille 1 chose
to stay with the symbiosis
01:12:16.542 --> 01:12:17.542
and to deepen it.
01:12:17.542 --> 01:12:23.125
And the story begins with
the first heir of Camille 1,
01:12:23.125 --> 01:12:24.375
Camille 2.
01:12:24.375 --> 01:12:27.250
(thunder, rain)
01:12:27.458 --> 01:12:31.041
Camille 2 was born female,
and as an adolescent,
01:12:31.041 --> 01:12:34.709
Camille 2
decided to stay female
01:12:34.709 --> 01:12:37.500
but wanted
to grow a beard.
01:12:37.500 --> 01:12:40.375
(thunder, rain)
01:12:42.500 --> 01:12:44.583
In Camille 1\'s lifetime,
01:12:44.583 --> 01:12:46.333
the symbiotic relationships
01:12:46.333 --> 01:12:50.709
were not yet
at a molecular level.
01:12:50.709 --> 01:12:53.583
(thunder, rain)
01:12:54.250 --> 01:12:55.458
Biological sciences,
01:12:55.458 --> 01:12:57.208
the technobiological sciences
01:12:57.208 --> 01:12:59.959
of the community had
developed in such a way
01:12:59.959 --> 01:13:02.542
that by the time
Camille 2 was born,
01:13:02.542 --> 01:13:06.542
it was possible and indeed
desirable in the community
01:13:06.542 --> 01:13:09.250
for the symbionts
and the human beings
01:13:09.250 --> 01:13:11.125
to share
bodily substance
01:13:11.125 --> 01:13:13.917
and to share
genetic substance.
01:13:13.917 --> 01:13:16.709
(otherworldly music)
01:13:16.709 --> 01:13:20.125
♪
01:13:20.125 --> 01:13:22.500
So at puberty
Camille 2 decided
01:13:22.500 --> 01:13:25.291
to have implanted
on her face
01:13:25.291 --> 01:13:27.917
a beard made up
of the stem cells
01:13:27.917 --> 01:13:31.500
that would grow
the antennae of butterflies.
01:13:31.500 --> 01:13:32.917
♪
01:13:32.917 --> 01:13:35.417
So that Camille 2
had a face
01:13:35.417 --> 01:13:38.792
full of the antennae
of butterflies.
01:13:38.792 --> 01:13:40.917
And the antennae
could sense,
01:13:40.917 --> 01:13:43.667
could taste the air,
taste the foods.
01:13:43.667 --> 01:13:48.542
And Camille 2 had
an enhanced sensory being
01:13:48.542 --> 01:13:53.166
that she--he/she--
xe felt enhanced
01:13:53.166 --> 01:13:56.667
xe\'s ability to care for
and to care about
01:13:56.667 --> 01:14:00.125
the ongoing possibilities
of the monarchs.
01:14:00.125 --> 01:14:03.166
(insects buzzing)
01:14:03.166 --> 01:14:05.834
(soft music)
01:14:05.834 --> 01:14:09.250
♪
01:14:09.250 --> 01:14:11.917
(child shouting)
01:14:11.917 --> 01:14:12.542
♪
01:14:12.542 --> 01:14:13.959
By Camille 2\'s generation,
01:14:13.959 --> 01:14:17.667
the kids were doing
skin implants of stem cells
01:14:17.667 --> 01:14:20.125
to build patterns
on their skin
01:14:20.125 --> 01:14:21.917
that were the patterns
of the insects
01:14:21.917 --> 01:14:24.667
and the critters that
they were taking care of.
01:14:24.667 --> 01:14:25.625
So they would do, you know,
01:14:25.625 --> 01:14:27.875
their dance raves
and drug scenes
01:14:27.875 --> 01:14:28.625
and all the rest,
01:14:28.625 --> 01:14:31.250
they had various kinds
of light shows
01:14:31.250 --> 01:14:32.166
and really, you know,
01:14:32.166 --> 01:14:33.333
some of the--
the ones that were, um,
01:14:33.333 --> 01:14:36.999
symbiotically banded
to the octopus and the squid
01:14:36.999 --> 01:14:39.375
had the chromatophores
in their skin
01:14:39.375 --> 01:14:40.792
so if they got
sexually excited
01:14:40.792 --> 01:14:41.959
they would pulse
the same way
01:14:41.959 --> 01:14:44.250
that the squid
and the cuttlefish
01:14:44.250 --> 01:14:45.542
and the octopus
would pulse.
01:14:45.542 --> 01:14:49.792
They could do these amazing
light shows with their skin.
01:14:49.792 --> 01:14:52.417
(water bubbling)
01:14:52.417 --> 01:14:52.834
♪
01:14:52.834 --> 01:14:55.917
So there was
a kind of playfulness
01:14:55.917 --> 01:14:58.750
around this caring.
01:14:58.750 --> 01:15:07.542
♪
01:15:07.542 --> 01:15:11.250
Just as making kin
without making babies
01:15:11.250 --> 01:15:12.250
was a lifetime matter,
01:15:12.250 --> 01:15:16.000
this question of forming
and reforming kin
01:15:16.000 --> 01:15:17.917
was not something
done all at once.
01:15:17.917 --> 01:15:20.000
You didn\'t inherit
everything all at once.
01:15:20.000 --> 01:15:22.999
Frequently, adoptions
would take place
01:15:22.999 --> 01:15:25.500
of people
in their 50s.
01:15:25.500 --> 01:15:27.250
Families would
form and reform
01:15:27.250 --> 01:15:28.999
and perhaps redo
their houses
01:15:28.999 --> 01:15:30.834
and rewrite
their instruments
01:15:30.834 --> 01:15:34.542
of financial
joint responsibility.
01:15:34.542 --> 01:15:36.834
(wind blowing)
01:15:36.834 --> 01:15:39.166
It was understood
that making family
01:15:39.166 --> 01:15:40.208
was a lifetime matter
01:15:40.208 --> 01:15:42.041
and that families
needed to be able
01:15:42.041 --> 01:15:44.250
to experiment
and change.
01:15:44.250 --> 01:15:46.208
The commitments
were very serious
01:15:46.208 --> 01:15:48.500
and intended to be
for a lifetime,
01:15:48.500 --> 01:15:50.083
but it could take
various forms.
01:15:50.083 --> 01:15:53.834
It was understood that you
needed rituals and support,
01:15:53.834 --> 01:15:55.500
you know,
ways of celebrating
01:15:55.500 --> 01:15:57.458
the breaking up
of love affairs
01:15:57.458 --> 01:15:59.625
and the consolidation
of friendships
01:15:59.625 --> 01:16:02.750
out of love affairs
that had broken.
01:16:02.750 --> 01:16:05.542
(otherworldly music)
01:16:05.542 --> 01:16:15.458
♪
01:16:15.625 --> 01:16:17.917
Of course there were
terrible mistakes made.
01:16:17.917 --> 01:16:19.917
It was understood
that there would be
01:16:19.917 --> 01:16:21.709
a lot of suffering in this,
01:16:21.709 --> 01:16:22.500
but the communities felt
01:16:22.500 --> 01:16:24.125
that they were
the Children of Compost,
01:16:24.125 --> 01:16:25.542
they were staying
with the trouble.
01:16:25.542 --> 01:16:30.083
They were here to somehow
build the Cat\'s Cradle games
01:16:30.083 --> 01:16:34.417
that would make flourishing
ongoing possible.
01:16:34.417 --> 01:16:37.208
(footsteps in the brush)
01:16:37.208 --> 01:16:47.458
♪
01:16:47.709 --> 01:16:50.375
(mellow music)
01:16:50.375 --> 01:17:00.625
♪
Distributor: Icarus Films
Length: 81 minutes
Date: 2017
Genre: Expository
Language: English; French / English subtitles
Color/BW: /
Closed Captioning: Available
Existing customers, please log in to view this film.
New to Docuseek? Register to request a quote.
Related Films
An up-close and personal encounter with this influential philosopher and…