#Themes: Death Gore Life Ecology

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Obituary - Suffocation

[borderlinehotnpsycho]

Break the mirror, the reflection lies. Hiding the darkness, and all its little spies. The one who looks back isn't the one who looks in. They may smile with you but they're not your friend.

The ego it lives here, the shallow and the vain and though you look just alike you're so far from the same. Behind the reflector is selfish, casting stones at other glass, it will go over to your lawn and destroy it for your greener grass.

Every insecurity is brought to light right here, every single detail that contributes to your fears. Seconds pass like hours, hours pass like days, reality distorted in so many ways.

The brain it cannot fatham what it's looking at, and if it could it never would choose to peer back.

[thecreaturecodex]

Asura Rana, Cas

Image by Daarken, © Wizards of the Coast. Accessed at the Heroes of Horror Art Gallery here

[Furtober finishes off with a big bang and a Big Bad. Heroes of Horror introduced Cas, the Lord of Spite, and I remember a lot of people making fun of him at the time. The idea that a supervillain evil god has the head of a moose was seen as ridiculous, and comparisons to Bullwinkle were common. Nowadays, the fact that moose are huge and terrifying relict megafauna seems to be more appreciated, and there’s something I find appealing about the idea of a prey species becoming the hunter. Appropriate for a god of spite and revenge. The knee pads and codpiece made of human skulls are admittedly silly, though.

The original Cas was NE and a god, and his CR 25 avatar was basically just a 20th level ranger with some extra outsider HD and a few surprisingly weak SLAs. I’ve moved him to LE to fit with his retribution theme, and because his hatred of the gods seems very appropriate for the asuras. I’ve left some of the ranger abilities, but added some inquisitor material as well, in addition to a few new surprises.]

Asura Rana, Cas CR 26 LE Outsider (extraplanar) This giant has reddish brown skin and the head of a moose, the antlers stained with blood. It has clawed hands, cloven hooves and brandishes a large mace of black metal. Its body seems to shimmer with heat.

Cas Lord of Spite, the Red Grudge, He Who Balances the Scales Concerns spite, disproportionate retribution, vengeance Domains Destruction, Evil, Law, Strength Subdomains Corruption, Ferocity, Hatred, Judgment Worshipers inquisitors, vigilantes, the wronged Minions asuras, devourers, revenants Unholy Symbol a rack of blood-stained antlers Favored Weapon heavy mace Devotion spend one hour ruminating aloud on those that have wronged you, beginning in a whisper and culminating in a scream. Gain a +4 profane bonus on Diplomacy checks to gather information, Survival checks to follow tracks, and Intimidate checks. Boons 1: bestow curse 1/day; 2: transformation 1/day; 3: energy drain 1/day

Cas the Lord of Spite is an asura rana who nurses hate and frustration, stoking the fires of vengeance until they erupt destructively. According to his cult, he was once a mortal huntsman with a loving family. He and his family grew isolated from their community, until violence erupted and his whole family was slain. Due to the social standing of his assailants, he could not turn to the law for recourse, and so turned to the gods. When divine intervention was not forthcoming, he swore vengeance against both his assailants and the divine order, fueling his apotheosis through pure rage and resulting in the destruction of the entire kingdom.

Cas’ ultimate hatred is towards the gods, making him a natural member of the asura ranas. His ambition is still greater; he is currently brooding over his lesser position surrounded by more powerful asuras, the Lords of the Nine and even Asmodeus himself. Cas covets true divinity, but he knows he has a long way to go, and this sulking bitterness fuels him. His violent outbursts at every slight make him a fiend of few allies and many toadies, but more powerful archfiends attempt to steer his rage into useful directions.

The Red Grudge enjoys combat, but he even more enjoys drawing out the hunt of a victim and increasing their terror. He is rarely found without the Ebon Rod of Cas, which he wields in two hands in order to feel more savagely its crushing blows. Cas’ blood boils with the heat of his rage, and the shimmer this causes makes him difficult to strike in combat. Cas is a skilled spellcaster despite his love of violence, and uses magic to inflict pain, forbid actions and heal himself and his allies.

Cas’ faithful are few and far between, and often keep a low profile. His cult broods in dungeons and cellars, not meets in exalted temples. He delights in perverting those with legitimate grievances, as he once was, turning them into ruthless vigilantes who kill to punish minor crimes. His priesthood believes that civilization is a thin veneer beneath which lies nothing but chaos, and it must be kept in order through savage violence. They also believe that anyone, even the most holy and pure, can become a follower of Cas if wronged sufficiently. The faithful of Cas have an unfortunate tendency to rise as undead upon their death, continuing their campaigns of violent revenge beyond the grave.

Ebon Rod of Cas (major artifact) The prized weapon of Cas, he occasionally loans it out to his devout in order to strike somewhere where he cannot go himself. The Ebon Rod of Cas is a Large +3 vicious adamantine heavy mace. It acts as a bane weapon against any creature that has caused injury to its wielder for up to 1 year. It is effectively immune to sundering and other forms of direct damage; a creature that deals damage to it must succeed a DC 25 Will save or take that damage instead. The Ebon Rod of Cas can only be destroyed if it is carried for 100 years by an empyreal lord devoted to peace and forgiveness, whereupon it evaporates into mist. 

Cas      CR 26 XP 2,457,600 LE Large outsider (asura, asura rana, evil, extraplanar, lawful) Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect good, Perception +39, see in darkness, true seeing Aura frightful presence (60 ft., DC 34) Defense AC 44, touch 26, flat-footed 36 (-1 size, +7 Dex, +1 dodge, +9 profane, +18 natural) hp 573 (31d10+403); regeneration 25 (deific or mythic) Fort +23, Ref +23, Will +28; +8 vs. mind-influencing, improved evasion DR 15/good, epic and cold iron; Immune ability damage, ability drain, charm effects, compulsion effects, curse effects, death effects, disease, divinations, energy drain, fear, fire, petrifaction, poison, polymorph; Resist acid 30, electricity 30; SR 37 Defensive Abilities freedom of movement, hateful ward, heat shimmer Offense Speed 50 ft., fly 100 ft. (perfect) Melee Ebon Rod of Cas +48/+43/+38/+33 (2d6+25 plus 2d6 vicious/19-20), gore +40 (2d8+7 plus 2d6 fire) or 2 claws +45 (2d6+12 plus 2d6 fire), gore +45 (2d8+12 plus 2d6 fire) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks agony beam, favored enemy (dragons +2, good outsiders +6, evil outsiders +4, humans +4, magical beasts +2) Spell-like Abilities CL 26th, concentration +35 Constant—detect good, freedom of movement, mind blank, true seeing At will—bestow curse (DC 23), enervation, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. material only), malicious spite (DC 23), permanent image (DC 25), vampiric touch 3/day—command undead (DC 26), fire storm (DC 27), greater dispel magic, instant enemy, quickened major curse (DC 25), summon asuras 1/day—energy drain (DC 28), unhallow, wail of the banshee (DC 28), wish Spells CL 20th, concentration +29 6th (6/day)—blade barrier (DC 25), harm (DC 25), heal (DC 25), mass fester (DC 25), overwhelming presence (DC 25) 5th (7/day)—dispel good (DC 24), geas/quest, greater command (DC 24), mass castigate (DC 24), unwilling shield (DC 24) 4th (7/day)—cure critical wounds (DC 23), divination, divine power, fear (DC 23), greater invisibility, spell immunity 3rd (7/day)—arcane sight, deeper darkness, dimensional anchor, heroism, terrible remorse (DC 22), ward the faithful 2nd (7/day)—cure moderate wounds (DC 21), howling agony (DC 21), knock, resist energy, silence (DC 21), spiritual weapon 1st (8/day)—bless, comprehend languages, cure light wounds, divine favor, expeditious retreat, shield of faith 0th—bleed (DC 19), brand (DC 19), create water, detect magic, read magic, resistance Statistics Str 35, Dex 25, Con 37, Int 22, Wis 28, Cha 28 Base Atk +31; CMB +44; CMD 61 Feats Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Dazzling Display, Dodge, Improved Critical (mace), Intimidating Prowess, Mobility, Power Attack, Quicken SLA (major curse), Shatter Defenses, Spring Attack, Staggering Critical, Stand Still, Stunning Critical, Whirlwind Attack Skills Appraise +29, Bluff +35, Escape Artist +11, Fly +41, Intimidate +47, Linguistics +29, Knowledge (arcana, history, nobility, religion) +29, Knowledge (local, planes) +32, Perception +39, Sense Motive +35, Spellcraft +29, Stealth +31, Survival +35; Racial Modifiers +6 Escape Artist, +4 Perception Languages Celestial, Common, Infernal, 23 others; telepathy 300 ft. SQ asura rana traits Ecology Environment any land or underground (Hell) Organization unique Treasure double standard (Ebon Rod of Cas, other treasure) Special Abilities Agony Beam (Su) Once every 1d4 rounds as a standard action, Cas can unleash a beam of pure pain in a 120 foot line. All living creatures in the area take 12d12 damage and are filled with pain for 1 minute, suffering a -4 penalty on attack rolls, skill checks and ability checks. A successful DC 34 Fortitude save halves the damage and negates the penalties. Multiple failed saves cause the duration of the penalties to stack. This is a pain effect, and the save DC is Charisma based. Asura Rana Traits (Ex, Su and Sp) Cas has the following traits:

Cas can grant spells to his worshipers as if he were a deity.

Cas’ natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as lawful, epic, and evil for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Infernal Resurrection (Ex) Cas rules an infernal domain. If he is slain, his body rapidly melts into corruption (leaving behind any gear he held or carried), his soul returns to a hidden location within his realm, and it is immediately restored to life (as true resurrection) at that location. Once this occurs, Cas can’t use this ability again until a full year has passed. An asura rana that is slain again during this year or is killed by unusual methods (such as by a true deity or an artifact created for this purpose) is slain forever.

Immunity to ability damage, ability drain, charm effects, compulsion effects, death effects, energy drain, and petrification.

Regeneration (Ex) Only chaotic, epic and  good  damage, or damage from a creature of equal or greater power (such as an archdevil, deity, demon lord, or protean lord) interrupts Cas’s regeneration.

Resistance to acid 30, and  electricity 30

Summon Asuras (Sp) Three times per day as a swift action, Cas can summon any asura or combination of asuras whose total  combined CR is  20 or lower. This otherwise works like the summon  universal monster rule with a 100% chance of success, and counts as a 9th-level spell effect.

Telepathy 300 feet.

Favored Enemy (Ex) Cas gains the favored enemy ability of a 20th level ranger. Hateful Ward (Su) Cas gains a profane bonus to his armor class equal to his Charisma modifier. Heat Shimmer (Su) Cas’ body radiates heat, warping his position and protecting him from attacks. Creatures gain a 20% miss chance on attack rolls against Cas if they use sight, and a creature that strikes Cas with a melee weapon, natural weapon, unarmed strike or touch attack takes 2d6 points of fire damage. Weapons with the reach property do not endanger their wielders in this way. If Cas takes 30 or more points of cold damage from a single spell or effect, this ability is suppressed for 1d4 rounds. Spells Cas gains spellcasting as a 20th level inquisitor. He does not gain other class abilities of inquisitors, such as the judgment ability.

[terramythos]

TerraMythos 2021 Reading Challenge - Book 3 of 26

Title: Acceptance (The Southern Reach #3) (2014) - REREAD

Author: Jeff VanderMeer

Genre/Tags: Horror, Science Fiction, Ecological Horror, Cosmic Horror, Weird, First-Person, Second-Person, Third-Person, Unreliable Narrator, Female Protagonists, LGBT Protagonist

Rating: 10/10

Date Began: 1/11/2021

Date Finished: 1/20/2021

Area X, a self-aware wilderness along the coast, has existed for decades behind a mysterious border. The landscape itself annihilates humans and repurposes them for its own ends. Hundreds of people have died attempting to uncover its secrets. But no one has yet discovered its origins or true purpose.

Now, Area X has spread past its former borders, perhaps to the entire world. Acceptance follows several key figures through the history of Area X, and their attempts to fight against an impossible threat.  

You feel numb and you feel broken, but there’s a strange relief mixed in with the regret: to come such a long way, to come to a halt here, without knowing how it will turn out, and yet... to rest. To come to rest. Finally. All your plans back at the Southern Reach, the agonizing and constant fear of failure or worse, the price of that... all of it leaking out into the sand beside you in gritty red pearls. 

Full review, major spoilers, and content warning(s) under the cut.

Content warnings for the book: Extreme body horror, altered states of mind, and psychological manipulation, including hypnosis. Several characters lose their sanity, and you see it happen in real time from their perspective. Intentional self-harm/mutilation as a plot point. Some violence and gore. There are brief references to animal abuse and terminal cancer. Not many happy endings in this one.  

This review contains major series spoilers. It’s also super long, as the book covers a lot of material. 

Acceptance is the most narratively ambitious book in the Southern Reach trilogy. While Annihilation and Authority feature a single protagonist/perspective, this one has four rotating POVs and one guest narrator partway through the book. It also covers a broader timeline than previous entries, from the origins of Area X 30-ish years ago to the ongoing present-day apocalypse. Acceptance is one of the few books I've read that utilizes first-, second-, AND third-person narration in a single volume, adopting whichever one makes the most sense for the character and their situation

While this sounds complicated, it's basically just a way to tell four different stories at the same time. VanderMeer also uses each storyline to address the major questions of the series. How did Area X come to be? What happened to the biologist? What was the former director of the Southern Reach trying to accomplish? And perhaps most pressing-- what is the fate of the world now that Area X has spread? Not everything is resolved, but it's definitely a conclusion.

The stories have some unifying connections, containing similar themes and callbacks/references to each other. However, for the purposes of this review I will be looking at each story and protagonist individually.

First up is Saul Evans the lighthouse keeper. He's been mentioned before, but never in much detail. Going in, we know a few things-- (1) he knew the director/Cynthia when she was a child and (2) something happened to him that turned him into the Crawler, the eldritch creature which writes the sermon on the walls of the tower in Area X. In Acceptance, we learn he's a former preacher who had a crisis of faith and left his old life, taking up the role of lighthouse keeper on the forgotten coast. It's implied this is partially due to him realizing he's gay and fleeing the resulting homophobic fallout. His past vocation explains the elevated, sermonic language of the words in the tower.

From the onset Saul is an intensely likeable character. He's trying to build a happier and more genuine life for himself. This part probably takes place during the 70s or 80s, but he's cautiously optimistic about his new life with a local fisherman named Charlie. He also forms an unlikely friendship with Gloria (aka Cynthia), a local kid who loves exploring the coast. However, he is tormented by the "Séance and Science Brigade", a shady organization that investigates/worships(?) paranormal phenomena. They sabotage the lighthouse beacon, which we learned in Authority is a marvelous piece of technology with a mysterious history. Shortly after, Saul accidentally absorbs a fragment of the beacon into himself, and shit goes downhill real fast.

While the catalyst of Area X may seem a little weird, the reader can piece together that part of the beacon has extraterrestrial origins, and Saul unintentionally activates part of it. The gradual shift from a normal life to something deeply unsettling has its appeal. I especially like seeing his logs/journal entries and how they devolve as proto-Area X overtakes his mind. The disturbing bar scene near the end is great as well. We know going in that this story has a bad ending (from a human perspective), but learning specifics about Saul as a person gives this more impact. Saul's is a sad tale of a man who wants to make a better life for himself and gets screwed over by bad luck.

Cynthia/Gloria/the former director is the next perspective character. In Annihilation she serves as the antagonist, but in Authority we learn it isn't that simple. She had ulterior motives, handpicking the biologist for the expedition in order to use her as a weapon against Area X. And, of course, we learn she was the little girl in that old picture of Saul, which means she probably grew up there before the border came down. 

This part opens with Cynthia/Gloria's death as "the psychologist" in Annihilation, but told from her perspective. From there, the pacing is a little slow, in similar style to Authority. We learn how Cynthia lived her daily life, how she infiltrated the Southern Reach, and her interpersonal relationships with Grace, Whitby, and Lowry. However, her storyline ramps up when detailing Area X and the lead up to twelfth expedition. Lots of old scenes/dynamics from Annihilation hit different with the new context. Especially interesting is the interview between Cynthia and the biologist; turns out there was a lot more context that the biologist obscured in her story. On some level we already knew she was an unreliable narrator, but it's fun to have it pop up again in a different book entirely.

I admire how VanderMeer makes someone who comes off as a throwaway villain into the one of the most complex, important characters in the series. This part is also really cool as it's written in second-person perspective, and the story justification for this (Area X examining her memories) is neat. While I like Cynthia's characterization in this part, the additional bits in Saul's story and his interactions with Gloria add helpful context and emotional impact. The end of the book being her letter to Saul is so damn sad.

The third main storyline follows Control and Ghost Bird in the "current" timeline-- exploring Area X in the immediate fallout of Authority. I love this part for several reasons. The contrast between the two leads and how they perceive themselves, Area X, and the current situation is great. Control is very much losing control, feeling "the brightness" taking over (a callback to Annihilation). Meanwhile, Ghost Bird is in her element, seeing and experiencing things the regular human characters do not. There's the sense that she's truly something "new" in terms of both humanity and Area X.

We also learn a ton of stuff about Area X that is hinted in earlier volumes but confirmed in Acceptance. (MAJOR SPOILERS) The first is that Area X isn't on Earth at all; something briefly hinted at in Annihilation, when the biologist doesn't recognize the stars in the sky.  Instead it mimics Earth, or something representative of it. The second big thing is that time works differently here. The uncanny state of decay noted in earlier books isn't actually a direct result of Area X. It's just the passage of time, because way more time passes in Area X compared to the "real" world.

The guest narrator/story is told within the Control/Ghost Bird storyline. The two meet up with Grace, who has managed to survive the Area X attack on the Southern Reach. She took shelter on the mysterious northern island and discovered an old journal written by... the biologist from Annihilation, which details what happened to her over the last THIRTY YEARS (yeah, the time thing) until she finally decided to give into Area X.

This section is sobering and sad; basically a glimpse at how the biologist's isolation slowly made her go mad. She finds an owl (hello cover) that she believes is her husband post Area X conversion and the two live together for decades. When it dies, the biologist loses the will to keep fighting Area X. It's ambiguous if the owl really is her husband, or if she's just projecting, but her heartbreak at the end is probably the strongest emotion she shows in the series. But what is interesting about this part is it confirms a cool detail. Injury and pain can halt the progression of "the brightness" within someone. Which is how the biologist managed to survive 30 years, how Grace survived what turns out to be 3 years, and so on. Even more interesting, when someone DOES finally succumb after warding off the brightness this way, they turn into something more strange and alien. Hence the moaning creature, and Saul/the Crawler. It's also probably why some creatures have incongruencies, like the dolphins with human eyes.

The biologist? She transformed into a giant, oceanic eldritch abomination COVERED in eyes. Just primo aesthetic. We get to see her from both Ghost Bird and Control's perspectives. Ghost Bird feels solidarity and a sort of euphoria meeting her alternate self. Control... basically breaks in the face of something like that, full cosmic horror style. Again, the contrast here is really appealing to me.

Both of their story arcs end in a way that is narratively satisfying, though the ending is open. The future seems hopeful in a bittersweet way, but presumably Area X has destroyed humanity as we know it. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on your perspective and is a central thesis of the series.

So, I said I'd discuss how this series approaches aliens. While there's an appeal to anthropomorphic alien species one can talk to and communicate with, I think an "unknowable" perspective is more realistic. After all, who's to say alien life formed under similar conditions or has any resemblance to our own? The extraterrestrial element in The Southern Reach is very much this type. But it's a fine line to walk in fiction, because handwaving the weird alien stuff as impossible to comprehend (and thus conveniently ducking any responsibility for explaining it) is lazy writing when done wrong.

The thing I find interesting about this series is the human characters understand lots of the what of the alien elements, but not the why. For example, Area X transforms humans into various plants and animals. We know it instills a sense of "brightness" in humans exposed for too long, which encourages assimilation into itself. Humans infected in this way, even if horrified or resistant, have thoughts of this being inevitable, even a good thing. The biologist takes samples in Annihilation and finds several plants and animals have human cells. Control logically knows what Area X does to people, but he is ultimately helpless to resist the process when he experiences it firsthand.

As for the why of it all... we don't really know! There's multiple ideas presented throughout the story. Ghost Bird probably gets closest to the "truth"; that Area X is part of a machine organism from a dead alien civilization, and that it has a bizarre effect on Earth's biology based on its now defunct programming. Other worlds would have their own Area Xes based on this idea, as it's implied the Earth version is just one piece of many. But it's worth noting that Ghost Bird is a creation of Area X and sees things differently than the other characters. Unreliable narration is ironically consistent through the series. So it's hard to say if this is true or not; perhaps it's silly to think any explanation would be understandable to a human mind. Obsession with finding the answer is a recurring theme that drives characters insane. I think this is an interesting compromise when discussing the unknowable; to have some facts and theories but not necessarily a concrete answer. 

If I have a criticism for this book, it's the role of the "Séance and Science Brigade", especially in Saul's storyline. While they're set up earlier in the series, we only really see them in this book. Our limited perspective via Saul leaves a lot of ambiguity as to their purpose, function, and goals. There's an implication that Control's family influenced the organization's decision to sabotage the beacon and create Area X. But I consider the subplot with Control's mom/grandfather to be one of the weaker ones in the series, and this book didn't help. The S&SB comes off as campy and ineffectual, which is perhaps intentional? But since they're narratively the fanatics who caused Area X to happen, I really wish they felt more sinister and impactful. There's some attempt to make them scary, but it's not very convincing when compared to Area X. Kind of like a Saturday morning cartoon villain vs the unknowable cosmic horror of the universe. This is a nitpick, though.

While rereading the series, I discovered there's a planned fourth book which may or may not star a minor character from Saul's story. I'm interested to see what else there is to explore about Area X and the Southern Reach. As it stands, I still really like this series. Between the horror and general weirdness, it's not for everyone, but it sure does appeal to me. I think this is one of those series that you'll either adore or hate. Obviously I recommend it.

[tcm]

Classic Environmental Films for Earth Day By Raquel Stecher

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a global initiative to promote awareness about a variety of environmental issues. Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator from Wisconsin Gaylord Nelson. He was spurred to action after witnessing the devastating effects the 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, California had on the local wildlife. The first Earth Day was held on April 22nd, 1970 and has been celebrated yearly ever since. It began in the U.S. with teach-ins, public demonstrations and protests at schools and universities across the state. By 1990, it had become a global event.

Over the years, films have highlighted a variety of environmental concerns. Director Pare Lorentz made the ground-breaking government films THE PLOW THAT BROKE THE PLAINS (’36) and THE RIVER (’38), which used extensive documentary footage and dramatic music and narration to demonstrate key ecological crises happening in pre-WWII America. Other more contemporary documentaries, like Godfrey Reggio’s visual poem KOYAANISQATSI (’82) and Al Gore’s hard-hitting AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (’06), made a profound impact on viewers. By the mid-20th century, the conservation movement had come to a tipping point and environmental issues continued to pop up in feature films.

Let’s take a look at some feature films of that time with notable environmental themes.

WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES (’58) — After the success of ON THE WATERFRONT (’54), Budd Schulberg started a production company with his brother Stuart and their first project was the Warner Bros. film WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES. The film stars Burl Ives as Cottonmouth, a rare bird poacher who rules the Everglades with an iron fist. His nemesis is Walt Murdock (Christopher Plummer), an ornithologist who is determined to save the endangered birds. The film was shot on location in the Everglades of South Florida, the first production of its kind according to the proclamation in the film’s trailer. The story touches upon the challenges environmentalists face in doing their jobs, often putting their lives at risk to do so.

NO BLADE OF GRASS (’70) —When actor Cornel Wilde started working behind the camera as a director, he took on some interesting projects including THE NAKED PREY (’65) and the environmental disaster film NO BLADE OF GRASS. The year 1970 proved to be important in the environmental movement, and Wilde’s film explored the chaos that ensues during an ecological catastrophe. A viral pandemic sweeps the globe killing plant life, including grass, wheat and rice. The rapidly shrinking food supply causes widespread famine and political unrest in the form of bombings, rioting, looting and mass killings. Wilde’s film was based on John Christopher’s novel The Death of Grass published in 1956. In addition to directing, Wilde also produced and co-wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym Jefferson Pascal.

SILENT RUNNING (’72) —If you take the impending ecological disaster in NO BLADE OF GRASS and take it one step further, you get the post-apocalyptic science fiction movie SILENT RUNNING. Directed by Douglas Trumbull, the film takes place in the distant future when all of Earth’s flora has gone extinct and humans are now living in space. It stars Bruce Dern as Freeman Lowell, a botanist working on a spaceship, a Noah’s Ark of sorts, where he tends to the last remaining specimens of plants. While Freeman’s shipmates are happy with their new lives, Freeman is determined that his work can bring back life on Earth. When asked why he wants to go back to the now-abandoned Earth, he responds with the timely response “because it’s not too late to change it.”

SOYLENT GREEN (’73) — Set in the year 2022, SOYLENT GREEN imagines a world where pollution and over population have destroyed the majority of food supply leaving little for consumption. The rich still get access to fresh food and clean water while the poor are rationed food in the form of Soylent (soy and lentil) wafers. Directed by Richard Fleischer, the film stars Charlton Heston as a police detective who, while investigating an assassination, uncovers more than he bargained for. While the famous line of the film spoils the ending, it’s still a fascinating and engaging film that delivers a stark warning about the dangers of over-consumption.

THE CHINA SYNDROME (’79) — Growing concerns for the impact nuclear power was having on the environment made THE CHINA SYNDROME incredibly timely. The film stars Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas as a news reporter and cameraman investigating a cover-up at a nuclear power plant. They work with whistleblower Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon), who is increasingly concerned about an impending disaster. THE CHINA SYNDROME debuted on March 16th, 1979 and on March 28th, just 12 days later, a nuclear meltdown occurred on Three Mile Island. Director James Bridges and star/producer Michael Douglas knew they had a timely subject on their hands but couldn’t imagine how timely it would actually be.

NEVER CRY WOLF (’83) — Myths about wolves have plagued the species for centuries. They were falsely accused of many things, including being a danger to humans and decimating populations of caribou. It was the latter that government biologist Farley Mowat researched, and his autobiography Never Cry Wolf, published in 1963, became a landmark publication that changed the public narrative about wolves. Twenty years later, Disney would bring Mowat’s story to the big screen with director Carroll Ballard’s film NEVER CRY WOLF, starring Charles Martin Smith as Mowat (AKA Tyler). The film features on-location shooting in Alaska and plentiful footage of wolves (albeit domesticated ones). It captures not only the struggle Mowat faced in researching this elusive species in an unforgiving landscape but also the delicate balance of nature and how harmful human activity disrupts that balance.

[presssorg]

Terence Corcoran: At Davos, the world is aflame. Everywhere else, things are awesome

Terence Corcoran: At Davos, the world is aflame. Everywhere else, things are awesome Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, interviewed broadcaster Sir David Attenborough at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos this week. Reaching deep for the hard question, Prince William asked: “David, recently you were in Poland and you spoke out very powerfully at the UN climate change conference there. How urgent is that crisis now?” Sir David did not fail to take up challenge: “It’s difficult to overstate it.” But let me try, he might have added. “We are now so numerous, so powerful, so all pervasive, the mechanisms that we have for destruction are so wholesale and so frightening, that we can actually exterminate whole ecosystems without even noticing it.” Attenborough — promoting Our Planet, a new Netflix series set to stream in April, backed by the environmentalist activists at the World Wildlife Fund — also told a Davos audience “The Holocene has ended. The Garden of Eden is no more.” That may be true, but who wants to go back to the Garden of Eden, when humans were at the mercy of nature, including routine weather events? In his bestselling book last year, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress, Harvard University’s Steven Pinker writes: “Our ancestors were powerless to stop these lethal menaces, so in that sense technology has not made this a uniquely dangerous era in the history of our species but a uniquely safe one.” In Enlightenment Now, out in paperback this month, Pinker fills hundreds of pages with text and graphs that show the world to be on a trajectory of progress, with less extreme poverty, more food, less violence, and growing prosperity even as the world’s population continues to expand. I looked through the list of Davos performers but could find no sign of Pinker. Instead, as is traditional at the WEF sessions, every known aspect of human existence is portrayed as a threat, a risk, a source of looming disaster. The usual suspects were on hand to join CEOs and other private-jetsetters whose aim is to turn corporations into knights charging into battle against global economic, political and environmental forces that seem to be out of control. A video feed from the WEF’s website starred such experts as Al Gore and Bono. “Capitalism is a wild beast that needs to be tamed,” said Bono, who is estimated to have amassed a net worth of US$700 million from selling rock music to the capitalist beast.

But the greatest alarmism came from WEF itself, via its own annual Global Risks publication, assembled for the annual Davos festival of doom by a pair of insurance industry giants. “The world is facing a growing number of complex and interconnected challenges,” said WEF president Borge Brende in the forum’s annual Global Risks report. Nothing is off the list of threats that are circling the planet this year: climate change, rising urbanization, degrading environments, man-made ecological disasters, food crises, profound social instability, rising cyber dependency, rising sea levels, emotional disruption, monetary populism, deflation, data fraud, aging populations, urban population growth, rising chronic diseases, extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, social instability, rising inequality, increasing nationalism etc., etc., etc. To hammer home the mind-boggling scale of the risks and all their spine-tingling interconnectedness, the WEF report produced a dramatic if incoherent Graphic of Gloom, which is reprinted here (see accompanying graphic).  “Is the world sleepwalking into a crisis?” the report asks. “Global risks are intensifying but the collective will to tackle them appears to be lacking.” Enough. Next year the World Economic Forum should invite Pinker to reset the organization’s compass. His Enlightenment Now is an encyclopedia of data and analysis that demolishes most of the Davosian portrayal of a world in a perpetual state of crisis brought on by human action. Despite the fact that human life expectancy has risen, diseases have been eliminated, terrorism deaths have declined, income distribution has risen, and the world is a better place than it ever has been, a sense of dystopian doom pervades Davos. Another book Davosians could benefit from is Population Bombed! Exploding the Link Between Overpopulation and Climate Change by two Toronto academics, Pierre Desrochers and Joanna Szurmak. They also dissect the Davos myths that the world is going to a hell in a handbasket of overpopulation and never-ending crises.

Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore delivers a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Fabrice Coffrini / AFP / Getty Pinker has many explanations for the rise of doomism, including this reference. “Starting in the 1970s,” he writes, “the mainstream environmental movement latched onto a quasi-religious ideology, greenism, which can be found in the manifestos of activists as diverse as Al Gore, the Unabomber and Pope Francis.” Pinker quotes the 2015 Papal encyclical, which sounds like a line from an Attenborough documentary script: “Our common home is like a sister with whom we share a life… (who) now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her.” At Davos, everything is a panicky crisis, with one point of risk piled on top of others, from the economy in China to Brexit, to the risks of recession and trade wars, population growth and the rise of nationalism and populism. In the opening words of Enlightenment Now, Pinker outlines his theme, which is “the historical sweep of progress.” We may not be living in a perfect world. But neither are we living the nightmare that the Davos conclave portrays every January, when the real world is filled with great achievement and even greater opportunity. Published at Fri, 25 Jan 2019 11:00:52 +0000 Read the full article

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Terence Corcoran: At Davos, the world is aflame. Everywhere else, things are awesome

Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, interviewed broadcaster Sir David Attenborough at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos this week.

Reaching deep for the hard question, Prince William asked: “David, recently you were in Poland and you spoke out very powerfully at the UN climate change conference there. How urgent is that crisis now?”

Sir David did not fail to take up challenge: “It’s difficult to overstate it.”

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But let me try, he might have added. “We are now so numerous, so powerful, so all pervasive, the mechanisms that we have for destruction are so wholesale and so frightening, that we can actually exterminate whole ecosystems without even noticing it.” Attenborough — promoting Our Planet, a new Netflix series set to stream in April, backed by the environmentalist activists at the World Wildlife Fund — also told a Davos audience “The Holocene has ended. The Garden of Eden is no more.”

That may be true, but who wants to go back to the Garden of Eden, when humans were at the mercy of nature, including routine weather events? In his bestselling book last year, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress, Harvard University’s Steven Pinker writes: “Our ancestors were powerless to stop these lethal menaces, so in that sense technology has not made this a uniquely dangerous era in the history of our species but a uniquely safe one.”

In Enlightenment Now, out in paperback this month, Pinker fills hundreds of pages with text and graphs that show the world to be on a trajectory of progress, with less extreme poverty, more food, less violence, and growing prosperity even as the world’s population continues to expand.

I looked through the list of Davos performers but could find no sign of Pinker. Instead, as is traditional at the WEF sessions, every known aspect of human existence is portrayed as a threat, a risk, a source of looming disaster. The usual suspects were on hand to join CEOs and other private-jetsetters whose aim is to turn corporations into knights charging into battle against global economic, political and environmental forces that seem to be out of control.

A video feed from the WEF’s website starred such experts as Al Gore and Bono. “Capitalism is a wild beast that needs to be tamed,” said Bono, who is estimated to have amassed a net worth of US$700 million from selling rock music to the capitalist beast.

But the greatest alarmism came from WEF itself, via its own annual Global Risks publication, assembled for the annual Davos festival of doom by a pair of insurance industry giants. “The world is facing a growing number of complex and interconnected challenges,” said WEF president Borge Brende in the forum’s annual Global Risks report.

Nothing is off the list of threats that are circling the planet this year: climate change, rising urbanization, degrading environments, man-made ecological disasters, food crises, profound social instability, rising cyber dependency, rising sea levels, emotional disruption, monetary populism, deflation, data fraud, aging populations, urban population growth, rising chronic diseases, extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, social instability, rising inequality, increasing nationalism etc., etc., etc.

To hammer home the mind-boggling scale of the risks and all their spine-tingling interconnectedness, the WEF report produced a dramatic if incoherent Graphic of Gloom, which is reprinted here (see accompanying graphic).  “Is the world sleepwalking into a crisis?” the report asks. “Global risks are intensifying but the collective will to tackle them appears to be lacking.”

Enough. Next year the World Economic Forum should invite Pinker to reset the organization’s compass. His Enlightenment Now is an encyclopedia of data and analysis that demolishes most of the Davosian portrayal of a world in a perpetual state of crisis brought on by human action.

Despite the fact that human life expectancy has risen, diseases have been eliminated, terrorism deaths have declined, income distribution has risen, and the world is a better place than it ever has been, a sense of dystopian doom pervades Davos. Another book Davosians could benefit from is Population Bombed! Exploding the Link Between Overpopulation and Climate Change by two Toronto academics, Pierre Desrochers and Joanna Szurmak. They also dissect the Davos myths that the world is going to a hell in a handbasket of overpopulation and never-ending crises.

Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore delivers a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Pinker has many explanations for the rise of doomism, including this reference. “Starting in the 1970s,” he writes, “the mainstream environmental movement latched onto a quasi-religious ideology, greenism, which can be found in the manifestos of activists as diverse as Al Gore, the Unabomber and Pope Francis.” Pinker quotes the 2015 Papal encyclical, which sounds like a line from an Attenborough documentary script: “Our common home is like a sister with whom we share a life… (who) now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her.”

At Davos, everything is a panicky crisis, with one point of risk piled on top of others, from the economy in China to Brexit, to the risks of recession and trade wars, population growth and the rise of nationalism and populism.

In the opening words of Enlightenment Now, Pinker outlines his theme, which is “the historical sweep of progress.” We may not be living in a perfect world. But neither are we living the nightmare that the Davos conclave portrays every January, when the real world is filled with great achievement and even greater opportunity.

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Methods Used in Environmental Philosophy and Ethics

The ethical and political presupposition of modernity is that nature is external to humans. Human beings regard it as their environment, as if things of nature were designed for the sole purpose of serving them. This is the origin of the ecological crisis of our time: the political and technical project of enslaving a fantasized nature dedicated to satisfying our needs. As for its valorization, it is reduced to the capitalist commodification of its resources. Our modern State and Being are therefore the results of an alleged right to organize the struggle against nature rather than a life in harmony with the latter. We must disqualify the political and moral foundations of our ways of thinking and acting, and replace natural law with a biotic law allowing a radical reform of the relationship between the city of men and nature[1]. De facto, the crisis is not ecological but political: it is that of the essential foundations of the city as πόλις / pólis. To what extent can environmental ethics revolutionize our anthropocene modernity? What are our duties towards future generations?

If thinking in terms of ecological footprint allows us to emphasize that our way of life is unsustainable — not sustainable ecologically and morally unjustifiable — it does not shed light on the aporia mentioned above. In particular, this does not explain why a reasonable being — the Homo sapiens — tends to live less and less in reasonable ways. We are utterly unable to articulate rationally our conduct and our knowledge. This lack is specifically modern, all traditional societies had the capacity to articulate in a κόσμος / kósmos their representations of nature and their moral rules[2]. We have lost this capacity from the moment when things have become morally neutral objects, ontologically distinct from the moral subjects that we are. This dualism has resulted in what Heidegger has denounced as an alienating loss[3]. Such duality negates the sine qua non condition of an environmental ethic. Indeed, moral rules can only apply to self-conscious subjects. We cannot reasonably expect them to be applied to objects, nor even as to the relations of subjects with objects.

In the search for intrinsic value, two environmental ethics emerged. The first considers that every living entity, whatever it may be, deploys, in order to maintain itself in existence and to reproduce itself, complex strategies: it instrumentalizes its environment for its own benefit, and as such, deserves respect. As this ethics gives moral value to every living entity, it is said to be biocentric. The second considers that it is because we are part of the same community of living beings, or of the same biotic community, that we have duties as much towards its members as of the community as a whole. It is called ecocentric. It finds its roots in the reflection recorded by the American forester, Aldo Leopold. He exposes his Land Ethic, and formulates it as such: « A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise »[4].

Violence against animals is a source of increasing moral concern. This ethical concern is not recent, it has been questioning philosophers since Antiquity. Nevertheless, the evolution of the legal status of the animal is the surest sign of a change in mentalities. The Old Testament evokes in particular the community of destiny that brings together, as mortals, men and animals. The biblical text also includes a number of prescriptions protecting working animals. But it is Greek thought that formulates this problem in truly moral terms. In fact, Pythagoreanism and Orphism condemn sacrifice and advocate vegetarianism. Moreover, the skeptical tradition seeks to reduce the distance between man and animals, by emphasizing their ability to reason. Porphyry, in his treatise On abstinence from animal food, elaborates a critique of the arguments justifying the animal sacrifices. We find this theme with Plutarch, especially in his On the eating of flesh, where the refusal of foods from the killing is appreciated for moral reasons. In That Brute Beasts Have Use of Reason, Plutarch asks the major question: must one be endowed with reason to be recognized a moral status?

The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778) 

The moral question takes, with the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a crucial turn thanks to the concept of pity, this ability to identify with every suffering being, whether human or animate[5]. By placing sensibility at the source of natural rights, it includes all beings that may suffer in the moral community. Since animals are beings capable of feeling pleasure and pain, inflicting pain on them is not a morally neutral act. Whatever the limits and derogations that some wish to oppose to this principle, any honest and worthy reflection will lead to the conclusion that it is not indifferent to inflict suffering.

This static vision is now very much in question. It has been replaced by a conception of biodiversity that no longer confines itself to the classification of species alone, but concerns all levels of life, from genes to the biosphere. Biodiversity can be understood as a system in the making, situated in the dynamics of evolution and appreciated in its functions: biological diversity seems to be a factor of adaptability of life, which guarantees the continuation of evolutionary processes[6]. To consider biodiversity in a dynamic perspective is to understand that people are also able to maintain and even improve biodiversity: the tropical forest is the result of a long coevolution between indigenous populations and their natural environment. Biological diversity and the diversification of societies are therefore closely linked, and the biological diversity of a region is part of the cultural identity of a human society.

The protection of biological diversity and the maintenance of cultural diversity therefore go hand in hand. Just as one cannot protect a species without protecting the ecosystem that houses it, it is difficult to conceive the continuation of human history regardless of the natural environment in which societies have developed plurality of their cultural forms. It is this insertion of the man into his environment, and the tasks that it involves if it is to be continued, that allows to appreciate an ecocentric ethics like that of A. Leopold.

Al Gore declares : « Just as we are both wave and particle, we are both a part of the web of life and separate from it. [...] It is possible to hold in one's mind two divergent ideas simultaneously, and my notion of our relationship to the rest of the web of life is based on two divergent ideas that are, in my opinion, both true. »[7] We thus discover that many issues, which involve the protection of nature, and which are presented as a conflict between man and nature, actually involve choices between a plurality of forms of human life. This is the case with the wolf in Alaska. The presence of wolves does not mean the death of herds, let alone that of men, but it encourages a change of lifestyle, to accept that the space where men live is not uniformly and solely human, but leaves room to other forms of life[8]. The uniform world is anthropocentric, but it is not certain that it is humanistic.

Extract from the Brundtland Report. Source : Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: note. New York: UN, 1987.

There is therefore no need to oppose ethics of man and ethics of nature. The Rio Convention on Biodiversity combines the concern for nature with that of justice. With sustainable development, the concern for justice, equitable allocation of rights and access to resources is extended to future generations. Concern for the environment and concern for future generations go hand in hand as well. They appear at the same time, one bearing the other, as at the Stockholm Conference, in 1972, where the UN Declaration established the principle that the protection of nature and its reserves management must benefit to present and future generations, or in the 1987 Brundtland Report, where the introduction of the term "sustainable development" accompanies the reference to future generations. Thus, according to Teilhard de Chardin : « The fate of mankind, as well as of religion, depends upon the emergence of a new faith in future. »[9]

Questions

In the light of the synthesis formulated by Al Gore, must the environmental cause, to progress, emancipate itself from impervious classifications? Is transcending those philosophical categories the only way to promote ecological pragmatism?

De facto, conservation and its media coverage are currently focused on mammals, closer to Homo Sapiens in their behavior and structures. Are we condemned to preserve primarily the species in which our identity is reflected? What place does the narcissism of our species hold in the future of biodiversity?

Word Count : 1602

Bibliography

Augustine, and Marcus Dods. The city of God. New York: Hafner Pub. Co., 1948.

Hughes, J. Donald. "Artemis: Goddess of Conservation." Forest & Conservation History 34, no. 4 (1990): 191-97.

Heidegger, Martin, John Macquarrie, and Edward Robinson. Being and time. Malden: Blackwell, 2013.

Leopold, Aldo Starker. A sand country almanac: and sketches here and there. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes. Paris: Éditions sociales, 1971.

The Sustainable Man. YouTube. February 13, 2014. Accessed February 12, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q&t=5s.

Fisher-Smith, Jordan. "Environmentalist of the Spirit: An Interview with Senator Al Gore." Orion, July 1992. Accessed February 12, 2018.

Defenders of wild life. YouTube. September 19, 2007. Accessed February 13, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mu_rqmFpL8&=&list=TLUSvQqiBjvRJIB1akl6TD7oiUdXZ3om0C.

Chardin, Pierre Teilhard de. The Future of Man. New York: Image Books/Doubleday, 2004.

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OBITUARY from the late 80s

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𝔒𝔟𝔦𝔱𝔲𝔞𝔯𝔶 - ℭ𝔞𝔲𝔰𝔢 𝔬𝔣 𝔇𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔥 (յգգօ)

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Obituary - Redneck Stomp

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𝔒𝔟𝔦𝔱𝔲𝔞𝔯𝔶

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Obituary - Turned Inside Out

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Obituary  -  Cause Of Death

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Obituary  -  Chopped In Half