Inhospitable world : cinema in the time of the anthropocene

Author / Creator

Fay, Jennifer, author

Available as

Physical

Summary

"Film, like the anthropocene, is a product of the industrial revolution, but arises out of a desire to preserve life and master time and space. It also calls for the creation (and destruction) of a...

"Film, like the anthropocene, is a product of the industrial revolution, but arises out of a desire to preserve life and master time and space. It also calls for the creation (and destruction) of artificial worlds, unnatural weather, and deadly environments for entertainment, and even for scientific study or devising military strategy. In other words, it mimics the forces that are apparently driving us toward this new planetary age and so holds the promise of serving as a philosophical, political, and perhaps even logistical example of how we can adapt to it. Whereas standard environmental thought attends to the environmental crisis as an unraveling of our natural state, this book looks to film (from Buster Keaton, to Jia Zhangke, to films of atomic testing and early polar exploration) to consider what they can reflect to us about the creation and destruction of human environments. What are the implications of ecological inhospitality? What role might cinema and film theory play in challenging our presumed right to occupy and populate the world? Her main point is that we need to be open to the prospect of the anthropocene if for no other reason than the planet (and the Enlightenment human subject) may already be in decline"--

Show More