The Science of Collapse

[rich]

Despite my skepticism over Pynchon's later focus on off the grid utopias in
Vineland, AtD and IV, I think he isnt as cynical as you say. Smaller-scale
anarchism, rooted to local spaces, where vibrant ecosystems can be fostered
for the betterment of members as well as the local flora, fauna, etc. is
not mentioned for satirization. The more regretful, longing (and at times
quite beautiful) passages in the later books are quite the reflection of
what could/should have been. In some ways, it is rather sad we seem to be
heading towards the conditions by which Pynchon's earlier books were
written.

rich

On Tue, Jan 28, 2020 at 10:58 AM ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:

> Easy target of a P satire, they are Romantics who insist that they
> have a Spiritual relationship to Earth even as they are excited by its
> collapse.  P might make them sexual deviants too. Like the Empty One
> of GR, or addicts, hooked on game shows,  green tea and avocados.
>
> On Sun, Jan 26, 2020 at 5:00 PM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > this has much resonance for Pynchon readers I think
> >
> > *
> https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/01/21/collapsologie-constructing-an-idea-of-how-things-fall-apart/
> > <
> https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/01/21/collapsologie-constructing-an-idea-of-how-things-fall-apart/
> >*
> >
> > *Collapsologie*—or, as Servigne and Stevens define it, the “applied and
> > transdisciplinary science of collapse”—proposes to free environmentalist
> > thought from the linear or progressive understanding of history implicit
> in
> > such faiths as “sustainable development,” “green growth,” or the energy
> > “transition.” The story of human societies, which Servigne and Stevens
> > suggest is ultimately the story of their interactions with their natural
> > environments, is circular. The pendulum of human history swings between
> > moments of our being harmoniously embedded within natural processes and
> > periods of population concentration, political centralization, and an
> urge
> > to transcend the earth’s resource constraints. We develop economies of
> > scale, agglomerate extractive industry on a grand scale, but ultimately
> > overexploit our natural foundations.
> >
> > “We must prepare small-scale, resilient bio-regions,” Cochet told me, on
> > the scale of only a few thousand inhabitants. Economic circuits must be
> > scaled to local ecosystems and resources, eschewing global supply chains.
> > Visions of the good life that are predicated on unlimited mobility and
> > expanding human wants must be replaced by an ethics of rootedness, the
> joy
> > of living and working in a defined space. Our assumption of history as an
> > unending process of centralization and unification—toward the universal
> > state—is running up against an ecological wall
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>