COLLIDING WITH PHYSICAL REALITY

 “At some point, a false belief collides with physical reality”

Al Gore, commenting on his book The Assault of Reason and the current media ecology in a recent interview for PBS (March 14, 2017), quoted the above statement by George Orwell.

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« I had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe that about the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity– an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the grey wall, and the silent tarn–a pestilent and mystic vapour, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued.

Shaking off from my spririt what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. The discoloration of ages had been great. Minute fungi over-spread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the eaves. Yet all this was apart from any extraordinary dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen, and there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the individual stones. In this there was much that reminded me of the specious totality of old wood-work which has rotted for long years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance from the breath of the external air. Beyond this indication of extensive decay, however, the fabric gave little token of instaility. Perhaps the eye of a scrutinising observer might have discovered a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn. »

E. A. Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher

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“THE WOOD WIDE WEB”…WHISPERING TREES

 “What both teams discovered was nothing less than a vast underground netwook … in which fungi connect trees of different species by passing chemical and electrical signals among the trees’roots. It was an arboreal Internet—christened the ‘wood wide web.’. Trees could actually communicate by exchanging carbon through their root. The exchange offered mutual support. Carbon is the food of trees, created by photosynthesis, using the leaves as solar panels. Sometimes one tree would act as mother to its neighbors, giving them more carbon than it received in return. Later the debt would be repaid as the roles were reversed.

As the subtleties of this underground network were explored, it became clear to scientists that trees not only benefited by mutual exchange of food. They  exchanged vital information, warning their neighbors (and children) of threats and advising them of opportunities to seize”.

Thomas Pakenham. “What the Trees Say”. New York Review of Books (December 8, 2016), p. 46. Reviewing Peter Wohlleben’s book The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World.

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« Vents, soufflez à crever vos joues, vents, faites rage!
Et vous, tornades et cataractes, jaillissez
Jusqu’à noyer nos clochers et leurs coqs!
Feux sulfureux, plus prompts que la pensée,
Avant-courriers de la foudre qui fend les chênes,
Brûlez ma tête blanche! Et toi, et toi,
Ô tonnerre, ébranleur de tout ce qui est,
Aplatis de ton choc l’énorme sphère du monde,
Brise les moules de la Nature, détruis d’un coup
Les germes qui produisent cet homme ingrat. »

Shakespeare, Le Roi Lear, III,2 (trad. Y. Bonnefoy)

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A few thoughts from some human members of its family

Leaves of grass, as they were once called….

Stalks sprouting from a common bulb of artistic imaginings

The act of looking at these fragile and fleeting natural elements through the literary or filmic lens:

To become aware of the vulnerability of our human “material”,
of the tenuous yet necessary bond between us and others.

To look more closely at our companions in the real world.

An invitation to cast the net wider.
A day at a time
For the next 8 days
And every day after

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