#nora bateson

[protoslacker]

Tripping on Utopia by Benjamin Breen

Nora Bateson in a public letter signed by Sevanne Kassarjian,  Stephen Nachmanovitch, and Phillip Guddemi accuses Breen of promulgating "falsehoods" and "manipulations of history" in his book. So far as I can see Nora Bateson and those associated have provided little evidence of either. The letter demands "accountability." Likewise accountability entails a responsibilty for the accusers to offer evidence for charges of malfeasance against a scholar.

[claudia1829things]

"BLEAK HOUSE" (1959) Review

"BLEAK HOUSE" (1959) Review

I never thought a trip to Great Britain would reveal the existence of many television adaptations of certain Victorian novels. But it did. I took a trip to Europe and discover that the BBC had produced older television adaptations of famous novels - including those written by Charles Dickens.

One of the adaptations I had stumbled across was the 1959 version of Dickens' 1852-1853 novel, "Bleak House". First aired in eleven 30-minute episodes, I had been forced to binge watch the entire miniseries at a friend's house due to a time constraint. Eric Tayler, known for his work with the BBC in Great Britain and the ABC in New Zealand, served as the producer. And Constance Cox, who had a reputation for adapting classic literature for the stage and television, had served as the screenwriter for the five-and-a-half hours production. How did they do?

Before I offer my opinion of the miniseries, allow me to provide a recap of this adaptation of Dickens' story. "BLEAK HOUSE" centered around Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a long-running legal case in the Court of Chancery, due a testator having written several conflicting wills. Among the characters directly affected by Jarndyce and Jarndyce are:

*John Jarndyce - a beneficiary of the case, and benevolent landowner and owner of the Bleak House estate *Richard Castrone - one of Mr. Jarndyce's wards and another beneficiary *Ada Clare - Mr. Jarndyce's other ward and another beneficiary *Esther Sommerson - Mr. Jarndyce's third ward, whom he hired to serve as his housekeeper and Ada's companion *Honoria, Lady Dedlock - the wife of baronet Sir Leicester Dedlock, another beneficiary and Esther's illegitimate mother

Although the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case directly affect some, other characters - like Esther - are indirectly affected by the case:

*Sir Leicester Dedlock- wealthy baronet and Lady Dedlock's husband *Mr. Tulkinghorn - Sir Leicester's solicitor, who becomes aware of Lady Dedlock's past, due to her reaction to the affidavit *Nemo aka James Hawdon - a former British Army officer, Esther's illegitimate father and law writer, whose penmanship of a Jarndyce and Jarndyce affidavit alerts his presence to his former lover, Lady Dedlock *Jo - a poor young street sweeper whom Nemo had befriended *Miss Flyte - an elderly woman, whose family had been destroyed by a long-running Chancery case similar to Jarndyce v Jarndyce, and who befriends Mr. Jarndyce's wards *Krook - a rag and bottle merchant and collector of papers, who is also Miss Flyte and Nemo's landlord

Although Mr. Jarndyce remained unconcerned with the case, Richard develops an obsession over it, an act that leads to his estrangement from his guardian. This estrangement leave both Esther and Ada caught between the pair. Lady Dedlock seemed more concern with the identity of the man who had been hired to write the Jarndyce and Jarndyce affidavit. Her concern is noticed by Mr. Tulkinghorn, who becomes obsessed with connecting the two in an effort to protect Sir Leicester's good name. His search for Nemo's identity and Lady Dedlock's secret end up affecting other characters.

I had expected to dislike this version of "BLEAK HOUSE" . . . or merely express contempt for it. To my surprise, I found myself impressed. Granted, I believe it had its share of flaws, which I will eventually discussed. But overall, "BLEAK HOUSE" proved to be more than a solid adaptation of Dickens' novel. Thanks to Constance Cox's screenplay and the group of directors, the eleven-part miniseries moved at a steady pace that kept me alert and interested in the story. And although Bryan Langley's camera work lacked the artistry and sweep of the two adaptations that followed, I thought he managed to provide some artistic touches in the productions, especially those moments featuring Esther, Richard and Ada's arrival at Bleak House, Esther and Inspector's Bucket's search for the missing Lady Dedlock later in the series, the miniseries' final shot and especially the murder of a major character around the end of the ninth episode. What I find interesting is that many of these "artistic" touches had occurred near the end of an episode.

I noticed that this version of Dickens' novel had removed several supporting characters from the adaptation. Those missing included Mr. Jarndyce's old friend, Lawrence Boythorn; the Jellyby and Turveydrop families; the former servant of Esther's aunt, Mrs. Chadband and her minister husband; Rosa, Lady Dedlock's second maid; Watt Rouncewell, Rosa's intended; and Robert Rouncewell, Watt's industrialist father and the older son of the Dedlocks' housekeeper. This led screenwriter Constance Cox to create another excuse for Lady Dedlock to dismiss her French maid, Madam Hortense. I cannot help but wonder if this was an attempt to portray Lady Dedlock's treatment of her personal servants in a more positive light. There were characters whose roles had been reduced by Cox and producer Eric Tayler. Among them were George Rouncewell's right-hand man, Phil Squod; the memorable, yet malignant moneylender, Joshua Smallweed; and his granddaughter Judy Smallweed. Because of this reduction of Smallweed's character, Lady Dedlock needed another reason to flee Chesney Wold, other than blackmail and the threat of exposure. The elimination of one particular character nearly left a hole in the production - namely Harold Skimpole, the selfish and amoral friend of Mr. Jarndyce, with his penchant for sponging from others.

The lack of Mr. Skimpole proved to be a problem for me. Without his presence, I found Richard Carstone's gradual interest in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case, his growing hostility toward Mr. Jarndyce and his hiring of the greedy Chancery lawyer, Mr. Vholes, less easy to accept. Correct me if I am wrong, but it seemed to me Skimpole had played a major influence in Richard's growing obsession with the Jarndyce case. Without his presence in this production, there were times when Richard's arc seemed rushed. But I had a few more issues with "BLEAK HOUSE", but not as severe as the one surrounding the Skimpole character. The miniseries had failed to explain Miss Flyte's whereabouts, during her landlord Mr. Krook's moment of spontaneous combustion. Where was she? The old lady had already moved to other lodgings in the novel. And in the two adaptations following this one, she had encountered law clerk William Guppy outside of Krook's shop, while returning home. Granted, this adaptation proved to be more faithful regarding the circumstances of Krook's death with the addition of the Tony Jobling character. I just wish it had explained Miss Flyte's whereabouts.

I do have some complaints regarding the production's casting, but I will get to that later. Some have pointed out that this adaptation lacked the sweeping visuals of the 1985 and 2005 versions. I cannot deny this. But this "BLEAK HOUSE" was a television production from the late 1950s. It seemed unrealistic to expect the miniseries to possess the same visual sweeps from the two adaptations that followed. With the exception of the mid-19th century hairstyle worn by actress Elizabeth Shepherd, the other major female cast members had their hair (or wigs) swept into late 1950s beehives. If that was not enough, I also had some issues with the women's costumes. Dickens' novel had been published between 1852 and 1853. The costume designs for the 1985 and 2005 adaptations had reflected this time period. But I had noticed that the women's costume designs for the 1959 adaptation reflected a later period - between the late 1850s and early 1860s - when women's skirts were more wider, due to the innovation of the cage crinoline petticoat in 1856. Had it been the intention of producer Eric Tayler to set this adaptation during the later years of the 1850s?

With the exception of one or two actors, I did not have a problem with the performances featured in "BLEAK HOUSE". I certainly had no problems from the likes of Elizabeth Shepherd, John Phillips, Jerome Willis, Angela Crow, William Mervyn, Wilford Brambell, Richard Pearson, Michael Aldridge, Gerald Cross, Eileen Draycott, Leslie French and Annette Carrell. I especially have to commend Shepherd, Phillips, Aldridge and Carrell for being standouts among the supporting cast. The only reason I could not regard John Phillips' portrayal of the lawyer Mr. Tulkinghorn as among the best of the series is that although I found his performance rather intimidating at times, I thought he had lacked the high level of menace and spite that both Peter Vaughn and Charles Dance had managed to infuse into their portrayals.

There were performances that I found questionable. David Horne's portrayal of the aristocratic Sir Leicester Dedlock struck me as a bit too theatrical or hammy - especially during the miniseries' last two episodes. Terence Soall's performance as the moneylender Mr. Smallweed seemed not only a ghost of Dickens' original character. The malice and sharp temper seemed to be missing in Soall's interpretation of the character, leaving the actor's Mr. Smallweed to be nothing more than a man who resorted to passive-aggressive sniveling to get through life. And to my surprise, I believe he was only featured in one or two episodes. I finally come to Malcolm Knight, who portrayed the impoverished street-crossing sweeper, Jo. I am not claiming that he gave a bad performance. If I must be honest, the actor had given his all to inject as much pathos as possible into the role. But . . . if I must be honest, at the age of 23 or 24 years old, Knight had been too old to portrayed the 10-to-12 years-old Jo. No amount of pathos in his performance could overcome this issue.

For me, the outstanding performances came from six cast members. Although Cox's transcript did not touch upon Esther's bouts insecurity - a product of the emotional abuse she had endured, while being raised by her aunt - I thought Diana Fairfax did an excellent job of conveying Esther's sometime frantic need to be liked. Andrew Cruickshank was equally superb as the warm-hearted landowner, Mr. John Jarndyce, who seemed torn between his efforts to protect his charges and his anguish over Richard's unfounded hostility toward him. I also noticed that both Fairfax and Cruickshank had generated a very strong screen chemistry - which would be repeated by those who had portrayed Esther and Mr. Jarndyce in future adaptations. All of the actors I have seen portray the young Richard Carstones had been first-rate. But I believe Colin Jearvons gave the best portrayal of the fleckless but good-natured ward, transformed over time by the character's growing obsession with the Jarndyce case and his own resentment toward Mr. Jarndyce's disappointment in his failure to find a profession. Ironically, Jeavons had appeared in six Dickens adaptations, including two adaptations of "Great Expectations" and two of "Bleak House". Iris Russell did a first-rate job in infusing a good deal of pathos into the Honoria, Lady Dedlock role without resorting to any hammy acting. This especially seemed to be the case in the one scene in which Lady Dedlock revealed herself as Esther's mother to the latter. I believe Miss Flyte must be one of those roles that prove very difficult not to indulge in theatrical acting. Fortunately for this production, Nora Nicholson had been cast in the role of Miss Flyte, the elderly and eccentric woman who had developed an obsessive in other Chancery cases like Jarndyce and Jarndyce, following the destruction of her own family over a similar case. Nicholson managed to keep her performance under control, while conveying Miss Flyte's eccentric nature. Finally, Timothy Bateson really impressed me in his portrayal of the ambitious, yet very funny law clerk, William Guppy, who worked for Mr. Jarndyce's solicitor. I have to say . . . that man had possessed a superb comic timing that not only suited the character very well., but should have been the envy of many comic actors.

I am not going to pretend that "BLEAK HOUSE" should have been faithful to Dickens' novel. That would have been an impossibility for any television or movie production. Some of the changes made by the screenwriter failed to harm the miniseries. But there were a few changes - namely the exclusion of the Harold Skimpole character - that struck me as minor mistakes. However, I thought Constance Cox did a first-rate job in adapting Dickens' novel. And those who had directed the eleven episodes did an excellent job in maintaining the production's pace and also the narrative's continuity. I believe their work had been ably supported by a first-rate cast led by Diana Fairfax, Andrew Cruickshank, Colin Jeavons and Elizabeth Shepherd. I would gladly watch this miniseries again. Unfortunately, it is currently unavailable in the U.S. and I do not see myself in paying for another trip to the U.K. just to watch it. Hmmmm . . . pity.

[dk-thrive]

A great deal of work often goes into keeping things from coming apart

If we’re paying attention, awe and amazement appear. The experience is, I believe, what happens when a farmer walks into the field one day and is speechless with the beauty of it all. Or a band puts together a beyond-amazing set even though the musicians and the music are, on the surface, the same as they were the week before. As Bateson says, “It’s the unseen coalescence that brings about vitality.”

I know enough to know and also deeply appreciate that others will have experienced the huddle very differently than I did and that there’s great merit to their views as well. But for me, it was pretty magical. It’s possible that it might have even been what Nora Bateson calls aphanipoiesis. Bateson made up the term, because, as she says there was no word to describe it. It is, she says, “a new word for an aspect of a living process.” Aphanipoiesis, as she tells it, describes a “way in which life coalesces toward vitality in unseen ways.” The term is, itself, a coming together of two words: aphanis is from the Greek, meaning “obscured, unseen, unnoticed”; poiesis means “to bring forth, to make.” As I’ve begun to assimilate the idea of aphanipoesis, I’ve come to believe that while it's not impossible to see it, it does require us to look more deeply, to embrace complexity, context, and interrelatedness in ways that most of us have not been trained to do. A great deal of work often goes into keeping things from coming apart, but maybe we would be wise to work positively for the future believing that over time things will come together.

— Ari Weinzweig, from “Sometimes It All Comes Together in a Wonderful Way. Inspiration from those special moments where it all ‘goes right!’” in Zimmerman’s Community of Businesses. (via The Hammock Papers)

[insertawkwardpeacesignshere]

Books Read in 2023

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran // Jan 2nd

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna // Jan 2nd-Jan 4th

The Gift by Daniel Ladinsky // Jan 5th-Jan 8th

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Ellen Forney // Jan 10th-Jan 11th

Drizzle, Dreams, and Lovestruck Things by Maya Prasad // Jan 1st-Jan 12th

Heartstopper Volume 1 by Alice Oseman // Jan 14th (reread)

Heartstopper Volume 2 by Alice Oseman // Jan 15th (reread)

Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life by Sutton Foster // Jan 15th

Lore by Alexandra Bracken // Jan 7th-Jan 16th

Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home by Nora Krug // Jan 16th

Melt With You by Jennifer Dugan // Jan 17th-Jan 18th

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin // Jan 19th-Jan 22nd

The Bad Guys (Episode 1) by Aaron Blabey // Jan 24th (reread)

The Bad Guys (Episode 2): Mission Unpluckable by Aaron Blabey // Jan 24th (reread)

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd // Jan 23rd-Jan 25th

Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana // Jan 26th-Jan 27th

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth // Jan 25th-Jan 27th

Thinking AIDS: The Social Response to the Biological Threat by Mary Catherine Bateson and Richard A. Goldsby // Jan 27th

Answers in the Pages by David Levithan // Jan 27th

Redwood and Ponytail by K.A. Holt // Jan 28th-Jan 29th

The Stonekeeper (Amulet #1) by Kazu Kibuishi // Feb 6th

The Song the Owl God Sang by Chiri Yukie and Benjamin Peterson (Translator) // Feb 7th

Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides // Jan 30th- Feb 12th

The Stonekeeper’s Curse (Amulet #2) by Kazu Kibuishi // Feb 6th-Feb 12th

The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic by Steven Johnson // Feb 10th-Feb 13th

No One Left to Come Looking for You by Sam Lipsyte // Feb 14th-Feb 21st

Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: A Philosophical Tale by Ibn Tufayl and Lenn Evan Goodman (Translator) // Feb 21st-23rd

I Am Quiet: A Story for the Introvert in All of Us by Andie Powers // Feb 24th

[thisisntsustainable]

Symmathesy (n) is an entity of transcontextual mutual learning. Other forms: Symmathesize (v), symmathetic (adj) Symmathesy as a starting place stretches the inquiry into the contexts and detours from the pull of direct correctives. The national health system, for example, may be studied as an institution that needs corrective policies and measures. Still, when the health system is approached as a ‘system learning to be in its world,’ it becomes immediately apparent that the systems of economy, politics, family, education, history, technology, agriculture, and the ecological world are all wound into and combining in the health of a society. The symmathesy offers us another approach that naturally asks for a response of another order. What if the changes to the health system are only possible through changes to education of family habits around food and the shifting of economic and agricultural traditions? In working with living systems, the solution is rarely direct. Attention to this “around-ing” shifts the position from which a response is configuring. If I see a crooked tree, I might be tempted to straighten its branches with string or cut them off, whereas if I see the way that tree is “learning” to be in its world, I will tend to the con‐ texts of that ecological learning. My approach is altered wholly. With a sym‐ mathetic approach, I am not a mechanic. I am an artist; I am listening to all of the instruments in the band, I am in wide-angle receiving mode — taking in the peripheries, the tones, the nuance, responding from another cognition of the situation. As organisms, trees, bacteria, human beings, societies, and forests are always learning, every second is in ecological movement. It follows that the responsiveness to this movement in mutual learning is an attending, not a management or control. This tending is humble and, in every instance, uniquely detailed. As such, these responses generate relationships that generate more relationships. Like a meadow, continuing to be a meadow while changing all the time.

Nora Bateson

[izablogger]

"I imagine uttering the magic words,"I forgive you" -- and proof, pain, and conflict are gone. But forgiveness is not actually something you give, or make, or force. Forgiveness is about something learned. What I have found in the return from my darkest moments is that learning must take place. Not just any learning, but learning that bridges the emotional, intellectual, and physical realms. I am speaking now of learning that lets all of those faculties rest again in a newly found knowing that whatever the nature of the injury, we can find our way back to safety."

Nora Bateson "Small Arcs of Lager Circles"

[arconinternet]

4 Paws of Crab (Classic Mac, Live Oak Multimedia, 1994)

In the 90's, CD-ROMs blew open the definition of not just what a game could be, but what a computer program could be. For example: this multimedia Thai cookbook and ingredient guide (which could print out order forms for harder-to-find ingredients), with added historical and cultural context, the latter through narrated diaries by the program's American director Nora Bateson and Thai author Bancha Leelaguagoon about their experiences in other others' countries.

Instructions: download the .iso file from here, drag it onto the emulated desktop at system7.app (when it starts redirecting to the currently-not-ready infinitemac.org, the system you want is system7.app's current one, System 7.5.3 on a Quadra 650 - mouseovering makes Customize buttons appear), and click the Restart button that will appear in the lower-right corner. A new window will appear. Open Macintosh HD in the upper right, open the System folder, and drag LiveDaFonts from the new folder into the System Folder. Then simply double-click the 4 Paws of Crab icon.

The reviews below are from Electronic Entertainment (Dec 94) and MacUser (Nov 94 and Mar & Sep 95).

[edgeperspectives]

What is Submerging?. Nora Bateson, Jan 2021

Exploring "pre-emergence" in complex systems - great insights from Nora Bateson

[kukkotar]

The ink of interrelationship bleeds across the boundaries between professionalism, academic research, and the banality of daily life. Theory and philosophy are stained with the mundane and both are vis-à-vis. What holds this collection of sightings together? What holds anything together? Glue is superficial, so not that. Thread is better, sewing, mending the torn-apart seams of perception—possibly. It is the right question—what is holding it together?—and the question alone might be the source of inquiry. Surely a search for the elegance in a mess of weighted compensations, and river-washed shapings of the context of life, is enough of a spine. Perhaps?

N. Bateson.

[lqb2quotes]

Evolution is what happens when patterns that used to define survival become deadly.

Nora Bateson

ht curtis ogden

[protoslacker]

One Star Reviews

The wonderful Shrinkrants points to an essay by Nora Bateson, Communication is Sacred: Why changes happens in the spaces between us., which I would normally admire but for the context I cannot.

The essay is hosted as a guest post at Alexander Beiner's Substack, The Bigger Picture. At issue is a objection to a recent book by historian Benjamin Breen entitled, Tripping On Utopia" Margaret Mead, the Cold War and theTroubled Birth of Psychedelic Science, by Nora Bateson, Sevanne Kassarjian(Custodian: Mead's work), and other members of the Bateson Idea Group.

Nora Bateson published an open letter against Benjamin Breen's book. Beiner attempted to mediate the dispute between Bateson and Breen. Bateson apparently felt that responding to Breen's rebutal of her publisehd critique would lead to "an unending rabbit hole of bickering about old documents." So she decided to go "meta" or something in her essay.

Beiner helpfully points to Benjamin Breen's rebutal of Bateson's critique. Breen points to Bateson's critique on a one-star review of his book at GoodReads, as well as to one-star reviews on Amazon. A campaign by one-star reviews is dickishness, or in Bateson-speak, "schismogenetic." Disassociationg the Bateson Idea Group from such dickishness would have provided a different context for Bateson's essay.

Update Feb. 18, 2024:

The Wall Street Journal has published a letter by members of the Bateson Idea group responding to a review of Breen's book by Dominic Green. Both are behind the paywall so I can't see who signed the letter nor read Green's review.

My not being able to afford subscriptions to read the reviews in the WSJ, The New Yorker, and NYT, is good reason to discount anything I have to say about the Bateson Idea Group's negative campaign against Breen's book.

I wonder why I feel so butt-hurt over this affair? Nonetheless I am.

Certainly, I believe Gregory Bateson's and Margaret Mead's works and legacies are important. I also believe that accusing a scholar of falselhoods and manipulation of facts is a serious matter. Ad hominem attacks on Breen in lieu of substantive evidence are insufficient and unethical. It is espcieally strange given that the importance of "relationships" is central to Gregory Bateson's work as well at to Nora Bateson's and Phillip Guddemi's published writing.

It's that breech in that galls me so.

[keirartworks]

Hamilton Residency 10: Manifesto.

Hamilton Residency 10: Manifesto.

Lightning: it’s wise to not provide yourself as a target.

Enlightenment: what you feel as you walk away, unharmed, if you successfully apply this to any dangerous situation.

My Manifesto, then, as informed by the following (incomplete) list of encounters, ideas and experiences:

J.F. Martel, Guy Laramee, Brian Eno, Kate Raworth, Rebecca Solnit, Greta Thurnburg, Werner Herzog, my Masters study of…

[venomous-elegance-2]

‘Is it not an abstraction to pull a person, idea, or organism from the contextual relationships of family, food, culture, feelings, ecology and so on and label them? Is it not more abstract to take a piece of the living world and try to make sense of it without all of the contextual, contributing aspects of its vitality? Can we really understand anything without context?’ - Nora Bateson

[multipleservicelisting]

Mary Catherine Bateson Dies at 82; Anthropologist on Lives of Women

Mary Catherine Bateson, a cultural anthropologist who was the author of quietly groundbreaking books on women’s lives — and who as the only child of Margaret Mead had once been one of the most famous babies in America — died on Jan. 2 in Dartmouth, N.H. She was 81.

Her husband, J. Barkev Kassarjian, confirmed the death, at a hospice facility. He did not specify the cause but said she had suffered a fall earlier that week and experienced brain damage.

Dr. Bateson’s parents, Dr. Mead and Gregory Bateson, an Englishman, were celebrated anthropologists who fell in love in New Guinea while both were studying the cultures there. (Dr. Mead was married to someone else at the time.) They treated their daughter’s arrival almost as more field work, documenting her birth on film — not a typical practice in 1939 — and continuing to record her early childhood with the intention of using the footage not just as home movies but also as educational material. (Dr. Bateson’s first memory of her father was with a Leica camera hanging from his neck.)

Benjamin Spock was her pediatrician — she was Dr. Spock’s first baby, it was often said — and his celebrated books on child care drew from lessons learned by Dr. Mead.

Still, it wasn’t her babyhood, her lineage or her scholarship — an expert on classical Arabic poetry, she was as polymathic as her mother — that brought Dr. Bateson renown; it was her 1989 book “Composing a Life,” an examination of the stop-and-start nature of women’s lives and their adaptive responses — “life as an improvisatory art,” as she wrote.

In the book, Dr. Bateson used her own history and those of four friends as examples of ambitious women at midlife. (She was 50 at the time of its publication.) All five had lived long enough to have experienced loss, the strains of motherhood, sexism, racism, career setbacks and betrayals. In Dr. Bateson’s case, she had been ousted as dean of faculty at Amherst College in Massachusetts in an apparent back-room deal orchestrated by male colleagues. It left her hurt at first; her anger would take years to blossom.

Jane Fonda hailed Dr. Bateson’s 1989  book as an inspiration, as did Hillary Clinton, who as first lady invited Dr. Bateson to advise her.

Written with wry compassion and a behavorial scientist’s sharp eye, the book became in its way an unassumimg blockbuster and a touchstone for feminists. Jane Fonda hailed it as an inspiration, as did Hillary Clinton, who as first lady invited Dr. Bateson to advise her.

“Reading ‘Composing a Life’ made me gnash my teeth and weep,” the author and Ms. magazine co-founder Jane O’Reilly wrote in The New York Times Book Review in 1989. “I scribbled all over the margins, turned down every other page corner and underlined passages with such ferocity that my desk was flecked with broken-off pencil points.”

The insights in the book, Dr. Bateson wrote, “started from a disgruntled reflection on my own life as a sort of desperate improvisation in which I was constantly trying to make something coherent from conflicting elements to fit rapidly changing settings,” as if she were rummaging frantically in the fridge to make a meal for unexpected guests.

dMary Catherine Bateson was born on Dec. 8, 1939, in New York City. Her father was in England at the time; an avowed atheist, he sent his wife a congratulatory telegram instructing, “Do Not Christen.”

Mary Catherine was reared according to the rituals and practices her parents had observed in their fieldwork, including being breastfed on demand; her mother would consult with Dr. Spock. So committed was Dr. Mead to record-keeping that when Mary Catherine was in college and wanted to throw out her childhood artwork, her mother declared that she had no right to do so.

Mary Catherine grew up in Manhattan, mostly in the ground floor apartments of two townhouses in Greenwich Village that Dr. Mead shared in succession with friends who lived on the upper floors. As Dr. Mead was often away from home for work — or, when at home, working full-time — it was a convenient living arrangement: Mary Catherine could be looked after when necessary by a full bench of unofficial siblings and their parents, as well as an English nanny and her adolescent daughter.

Dr. Mead’s housekeeping techniques were also novel: When home, she cooked and ate dinner with her daughter but eschewed dishwashing, so as not to waste time that could be better spent with Mary Catherine or on her work. Day after day, dishes piled up in dizzying verticals “like a Chinese puzzle,” awaiting a maid who would arrive on Mondays, as Dr. Bateson recalled in an earlier book, “With a Daughter’s Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson” (1984).

The memoir is an affectionate yet sober portrait of two very complicated people. “One of the premises of the household in which I grew up,” Dr. Bateson wrote diplomatically, “was that there was no clear line between objectivity and subjectivity, that observation does not preclude involvement.”

In his review of the book in The Times, Anatole Broyard noted that Dr. Bateson had brought “almost as much sophistication to bear on the picture of her childhood and her parents as they did on her.”

“We are used to novelists and poets giving us their highly colored or hyperbolic versions of their fathers and mothers,” he went on, “but Miss Bateson, who was born in 1939, is a behavioral scientist as well as a writer with considerable literary skill.”

Her parents were married for 14 years before divorcing. Dr. Mead died in 1978 at 76. Gregory Batesman died in 1980 at 76.

Mary Catherine attended the private Brearley School in Manhattan. At 16, after accompanying her mother on a trip to Israel for one of Dr. Mead’s lectures, she stayed behind and spent part of that year on a kibbutz, where she learned Hebrew. Over the years she would also learn classical Arabic, Armenian, Turkish, Tagalog, Farsi and Georgian, the latter because she thought it would be fun.

She entered Radcliffe at 17, studied Semitic languages and history, and graduated in two and a half years. She had already met Dr. Kassarjian, a Harvard graduate student at the time, but promised her mother that she would not marry until she finished college. She earned her Ph.D. in linguistics and Middle Eastern languages at Harvard in 1963; her husband earned his there in business administration.

Early in their marriage, she and Dr. Kassarjian lived in the Philippines and then Iran, following his career running Harvard-related graduate institutes in those countries. Dr. Bateson found work as an academic and an anthropologist, learning Tagalog in the Philippines and Farsi in Iran to do so. They lived in Iran for seven years, until they were forced out in the late 1970s by the revolution there, having to leave most of their possessions behind.

Dr. Bateson taught at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brandeis University and Spelman College in Atlanta, among other institutions. At her death, she was professor emerita of anthropology and English at George Mason University in Virginia and a visiting scholar at the Center on Aging & Work at Boston College.

Her husband is a professor emeritus of management at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., and professor emeritus of strategy and organization at the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Dr. Bateson published a number of books on human development, creativity and spirituality, including “Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom” (2010).

In addition to her husband, she is survived by their daughter, Sevanne Kassarjian; her half sister, Nora Bateson; and two grandsons.

At her death, Dr. Bateson was working on a book titled “Love Across Difference,” about how diversity of all stripes — gender, culture and nationality — can be a source of insight, collaboration and creativity.

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[livingcampus-cri]

On Saturday February 29, we had our first Climate Narrative Circle. The workshop series is led by Denise Young and Stina Heikkila, a climate journalist and sustainability professional respectively. It is meant to collectively explore the climate narratives in the mainstream media today, and how different language may affect our emotions and perceptions of the climate crisis and nature.

For this first session, we were a small group of eight. After a simple breakfast, we opened the session with a sharing circle, checking in on how we got here, and contemplating one of Bruno Latour's questions: describe the situation you are in. This reflection created an intimate environment and an understanding of what we shared in common and how our situations differed.

We then took turns to read aloud five different texts from different sources: language ranged from systems theory and scientific news articles, to Greta Thunberg's speech, eco-fiction, and spiritual text.

There was a short discussion before we approached writing. Stina and Denise shared 3 prompts, which we could choose one or go in our own direction. 

A popular prompt was: What would you take with you if your house was on fire?

Participants read out their words, inspiring many of us.

Session 2 will resume on March 14, 2020 at CRI, 10 am to 1 pm. Newcomers are welcome.

If you want to join, or have any questions, please sign up prior through sustainablecampus@cri-paris.org

Readings from Session 1:

Greta Thunberg speech

Climate Tipping Points

Facing an Ecology of Mind, Nora Bateson

The Overstory, Richard Powers