Audition_of_History

8/7/2019 Audition_of_History

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TheAuditionofHistoryandtheVocationofMan:Reflectionson

ExtinctionandHumanDestiny

A swish ing wind does not out last the morn ing; pe l t ing ra in does not

out last the day . What makes these th ings but heavenandearth? I f

heavenandearth cannot ma inta in themfor long , howcan man?

Laotzu , TaoTeChing

Humans l i ved here once; i t becamesacred on ly whenthey went away .

Adr ienneR i ch , Shoot ing Sc r ipt

In After Man: AZoologyof theFuture , Douga l D ixon presents a taxonomy,

wr i t ten as i f by a sc ient i f i c emissary to the future , of the fauna of a "post homic ,"

abandonedEarth . The humanspec ies , wed i scover , i s gone, and so , too, a re near ly a l l

those c reatures weakenedby excess ive contact wi th humank ind in the present day .

The future Earth ' s dominant an imal s have evolved out of what a re nowonly

per iphera l c reatures : ra ts , bats , and rabbi ts . Rats , for example , have becomef ierce

predators the s i ze of l a rge dogs; bats have takenmany newforms, inc lud ing the

book 's most fearsomemonster , the N ight Sta lker , a f i ve foot ta l l , b l ind , extremely

v i c ious carn ivore thath runs on i ts h ind feet ; and rabbi ts have becomeRabbucks ,

deer l i ke c reatures a lmost seven feet ta l l a t the shoulder . Th i s future wor ld ' s zoology

should not surpr i se us , D ixon remarks . Af ter a l l , mammals , today 's dominant an imal s ,

wa i ted in the wings for near ly one hundredmi l l ion years before r i s ing to

prominence.

D ixon 's v i s ion i s no mere whimsy ; i t i s met i cu lous ly thoughtout and based on

sc ient i f i c pro jec t ions f romcurrent eco log i ca l , geo log i ca l , and genet i c knowledge. Yet

the rea l future wi l l no doubt prove far s t ranger , as D ixon read i l y admi ts , for he has

not a t temptedto c reate anyth ing rad ica l l y new, nor cou ld he . In h i s c rysta l ba l l h i s

fancy has mere ly seen the t remendous var iety of present l i fe forms, invent ions , and

adaptat ions rad ica l l y rearranged; the rea l future , of course , w i l l have no such

l imi tat ion. (Truth , as Mark Twa in , once qu ipped, i s a lways s t ranger than f i c t ion , for

f i c t ion i s ob l i ged to s t i ck to poss ib i l i t i es , whi le t ruth i s not . )

Interest ing ly , D ixon 's best ia ry for an Earth f i f ty mi l l ion years f romnowdoes

not rea l l y exp la in the d i sappearance of the wor ld ' s present dominant spec ies .

Humank ind 's ext inc t ion i s taken for granted by D ixon andattr ibuted to our


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The Col lected Works of David Lavery 3

Before the d i scovery of evo lut ion , humank ind 's r i ght to "mul t ip ly and subdue

the Earth" was l a rge ly unquest ionedanduncontestedat least in the modern per iod.

Mytholog i ca l and re l i g ious concept ions of eschato logy , i t i s t rue , had once reminded

us there might be an endto t ime ( the Norse myth of Ragnarok , for example , in which

the death of the gods br ings about the endof a l l l i fe on Midgard as wel lthough i t i s

eventua l l y reborn into a go ldenage) . But a f ter the Rena i ssance our preeminence

over nature hardened into a conservat i ve andse l f congratu la tory anthropocentr i c i sm

that occ ludedany rea l g l impse of the end.

As a recent , cop ious ly documentedstudy , Ke i th Thomas's ManandtheNatural

World: History of theModernSensib i l i ty , demonstrates , "Man's ascendancy over the

an imal and vegetab le wor ld . . . has beena bas i c precondi t ion of humanh i story ,

f i rmly grounded, theolog i ca l l y and soc io log i ca l l y ." In the s i xteenth andseventeenth

centur ies , however , such an a tt i tude had v i r tua l l y becomea dogma, as Thomas,

c i t ing contemporary author i t ies :

Manwas the endof a l l God's works , dec lared Jeremiah Burroughes in 1657;

'He madeothers for man, and man for h imse l f . ' 'A l l th ings , ' agreedR i chard

Bent ley in 1692 , were c reated 'pr inc ipa l l y for the benef i t and p leasure of

man. ' 'Man, i f we look to f ina l causes , may be regardedas the centre of the

wor ld , ' musedFranc i s Bacon, ' in so muchthat i f manwere takenaway f rom

the wor ld , the rest would seemto be a l l astray , w i thout a imor purpose. '

Somed iv ines thought that a f ter the Day of Judgment the wor ld would be

annih i l a ted; i t had beenmadeon ly to accommodate humani ty and would have

no further use" (18) .

The poss ib i l i ty that wemight becomeext inc t was v i r tua l l y unth inkable throughthe

e ighteenth century . In fac t , in the preDarwin ian schemeof th ingsLovejoy ' s "great

cha in of be ing"no ind iv idua l be ing , l e t a lone humanbe ings , cou ld d i sappear f rom

the sca la naturae. S ince each was be l ieved to be a mani festat ion , an overf low, an

aspect of God's perfec t ion governedby the "pr inc ip le of p len i tude," the idea of

ext inc t ion was tantamount to b lasphemy: howcould a perfec t de i ty c reate a

t rans ient , fa i l ed formof l i fe? Under th i s parad igm, i t s imply madenosense to speak

of ext inc t ion.

The unth inkableness of ext inc t ion was governedby psycholog i ca l fac tors as

wel l as theolog i ca l ones . Only a century and a ha l f ago, as Loren E i se ley exp la ins in


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"HowDeath BecameNatura l " in TheF i rmamentof T ime , "The h int of ext inc t ion in the

geolog i ca l past was l i ke a co ld wind out of a dark ce l l a r . I t ch i l l ed men's sou l s ." I t

was humi l i a t ing . " I t brought wi th i t doubts of the ra t iona l wor ld menhadenv i saged

on the bas i s of the i r ownmind. I t brought susp ic ions as to the nature of the cozy

best of a l l poss ib le wor lds which had beenc reated espec ia l l y for men" (37) .

Af ter a per iod of inte l lec tua l s t rugg le , the rea l i za t ion that spec ies d id in fac t

becomeext inc t , as the foss i l record conf i rmed, f ina l l y ga ined c redence. Even a f ter

th i s rea l i za t ion , someth inkers , anx ious to ma inta in our preeminence, resorted to a

l ast formof ra t iona l i za t ion , a rgu ing that t ime's a rrowst i l l po inted toward humank ind

as i t s log i ca l cu lminat ion, even i f the f ie ld was l i t tered wi th the bodies of the

unsuccessfu l dead. However , aga inst the pu lver i z ing assau l t of the a l l consuming

modern quest for ob jec t i v i tyevenabout our own ins ign i f i cancethi s formof

cogn i t i ve d i ssonance cou ld not and d id not long endure , thoughcontemporary

c reat ion i sts have aga in sought to rev ive i t .

D i sp laced, dethroned, d imin i shed, i t i s not surpr i s ing that the humanmind,

desp i te our fa i th in sc ience, nowf inds l i t t le comfort in the newwor ldv iewthat

French Nobel l aureate Jacques Monodof fers in h i s Chance and Necess i ty a s both the

log i ca l conc lus ion to be drawn f romthe study of evo lut ion andas the prerequi s i te to

a l l future sc ient i f i c progress (which he takes to be equa l to humanprogress) .

Manmust a t l ast wake out of h i s mi l l enary dream;1and in do ing so , wake to

h i s tota l so l i tude, h i s fundamenta l i so la t ion. Nowdoes he a t l ast rea l i ze that ,

l i ke a gypsy , he l i ves on the boundary of an a l ien wor ld . A wor ld that i s deaf

to h i s mus i c , just as ind i f ferent to h i s hopes as i t i s to h i s suf fer ing or h i s

c r imes.

The anc ient covenant i s in p ieces ; manknowsat l ast that he i s a lone in

the un iverse ' s unfee l ing immensi ty , out of which he emergedon ly by chance.

(17273 , 180)

1 The "mi l lenary dream," Monod expla ins, is essent ia l ly the hope of

l iv ing in a wor ld of meaning. I t is, according to Monod's reduct ion ist ic

th inking, the result of an innate tendency toward animism: our "project ioninto inanimate nature of man's awareness of the intensely te leonomic

funct ion ing of h is own centra l nervous system. I t is, in other words, thehypothesis that natura l phenomena can and must be expla ined in the same

manner, by the same ' laws, ' as subject ive human act iv i ty, conscious andpurposive" (170).


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Ad i st inc t l y contemporary vo i ce , Monod i s ask ing us to be rea l i s t i c about our

meaning lessnessas imple request! JeanPaul Sartre , Monod's contemporary Jean

Paul Sartre conc ludes h i s Be ing andNoth ingness wi th the rea l i za t ion that "man i s a

use less pass ion" (784) , and Monodagrees , l end ing sc ient i f i c c red ib i l i ty to the

ph i losopher ' s conjec ture . And i f Homosapiens happenedon the sceneby chance, we

may very wel l pass away wi th no great consternat ion andwi thout any just cause

except evo lut ion 's necess i ty . Af ter a l l , no "anc ient covenant" can protect us .

Ac tua l l y , evo lut ion , and the d iminut ion of man f romthe "centre , of the

wor ld" to a "gypsy" l i v ing on " the boundary of an a l ien wor ld" which fo l lowed in i t s

wake, were a natura l outgrowth of an o lder and more un iversa l human inte l lec tua l

quest , born in the Copern ican Revolut ion, which HannahArendt descr ibed as the

search for the Arch imedeanpoint :

Wi thout as yet ac tua l l y occupy ing the point where Arch imedes had wishedto

s tand, wehave founda way to ac t on the earth as thoughwed i sposedof

terrestr ia l nature f romouts ide , f romthe point of E inste in ' s "observer f ree ly

po i sed in space." I f we look downf romth i s po int a t what i s go ing on on earth

anduponthe var ious ac t i v i t ies of men, that i s , i f we apply the Arch imedean

point to ourse lves , then these ac t i v i t ies wi l l i ndeedappear to ourse lves as no

more than "overt behav ior , " which wecan study wi th the samemethods we

use to s tudy the behav ior of ra ts .

On ly f romsuch a perspect i ve , outs ide the "booming, buzz ing confus ion" of

earth ly l i fe , beyondthe present ly humandominated p lanet , do our evo lut ionary

ach ievements becomea matter of re la t i v i ty . The Psa lmist might ask of God, "When I

cons ider thy heavens , the work of thy f ingers , the moonandthe stars , which thou

hast orda ined;/What i s man, that thouart mindfu l of h im?" andst i l l fee l rea l wonder

a t the phenomenonof mank ind. The chorus in Ant igone cou ld exc la im in awe: "Many

are the marve lous th ings ; but nonethat can be/More of a marve l than man!" But

hav ing h imse l f a t ta ined an Arch imedean, semi d iv ine point of v iews ince the

Copern ican revolut ion andthe r i se of modern sc ience, Godbecomesnot so mindfu l

of us , not so fu l l o f wonder or admirat ion.

Instead, as Arendt has shown, man, indeedeveryth ing human, comes to seem

mere ly natura l :


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Seen f roma suf f i c ient d i s tance the cars in which wet rave l and which weknow

webu i l t ourse lves . . . l ook as thoughthey were , as He i senberg once put i t ,

' a s inescapable a part of ourse lves as the sna i l ' s she l l i s to i t s occupant . ' "

Consequent ly , Arendt ins i s ts , " the overv iewef fec t" decreases humanstature :

"A l l our pr ide in what wecan do . . . d i sappears into somek ind of mutat ion of

the humanrace; the whole of technology , seen f romth i s po int , in fac t no

longer appears as the resu l t of a consc ious humanef fort to extendman's

mater ia l power , but ra ther as a l a rgesca le b io log i ca l process . ( "Man's

Conquest" 540)

Subsumedby th i s process , the mind not on ly comes to accept mans ext inc t ion but

even to env i s ion va lue=free accounts of a post homic Earth . After Man i s a message

f romthe Arch imedeanPoint .

The evolut ionary Weltanschauung thus awokemank ind f romwhat Miche l

Foucaul t ca l l s the "anthropolog i ca l s leep" of Western cu l ture , opening our eyes to

our owncont ingency . Humank ind cou ld no longer take i t s ex i s tence for granted; our

dest iny cou ld no longer be assumedto be equa l to the wor ld ' s . By 1873 , N ietzsche

(by h i s ownadmiss ion a "posthumousman" but a l so a "post homic" one) , wr i t ing "On

Truth andL ie in an Extra Mora l Sense ," fe l t certa in enoughabout the nature and

dest iny of the humanto conc lude, w i th def in i t i ve Arch imedeanrea l i sm, that wehave

great l y exaggerated our own importance:

In someremote corner of the un iverse , poured out and g l i t ter ing in

innumerable so lar systemsthere was a s tar on which c lever an imal s invented

knowledge. That was the haught iest and most mendac ious minute of "wor ld

h i s tory"yet on ly a minute . Af ter nature had drawna fewbreaths the star

grewco ld , and the c lever an imal s had to d ie .

Onemight invent such a fab le and st i l l not have i l l ustrated suf f i c ient l y

howwretched, howshadowyand f l i ghty , howa imless and arb i t rary , the

human inte l lec t appears in nature . There have beenetern i t ies when i t d id not

ex i s t ; and when i t i s done for aga in , noth ing wi l l have happened. For th i s

inte l lec t has no further miss ion that would lead beyondhuman l i fe . I t i s

humanrather , and on ly i t s owner andproducer g i ves i t such importance, as i f

the wor ld p ivoted around i t . (42 ; my emphas i s )


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By the 20th Century i t had becomeevenmore rout ine to th ink the prev ious ly

unth inkable . In George Bernard Shaw's Back to Methuse lah, for example , we f ind a

s ta tement l i ke the fo l lowing f rom i ts Lamarck ian author : "The power that produced

Manwhenthe monkey was not up to the mark , can produce a h igher c reature than

Man i f Man i s not up to the mark" (xv i i ) . The sto i c acceptance of evo lut ionary log i c in

Shaw's "Metabio log i ca l Pentateuch" ident i f i es h imas d i s t inc t l y contemporary ,

thoughborn in the middle of the V i c tor ian era .

Yet even N ietzsche 's and Shaw's refusa l to accept the "descent of man" as

evo lut ion 's te los seemspos i t i ve , even opt imist i c , comparedwi th the medi tat ions of

younger contemporar ies l i ke the poets Sara Teasda le and Robinson Jef fers , who in

the i r " inhumanist" verse p i c tured the endof humank ind andwel l n igh ce lebrated the

resumpt ion of the Earth ' s natura l evo lut ionary order wi thout the human.

Teasdale s There wi l l ComeSoft Ra ins , for example , descr ibes wi th great beauty a

s i l ent spr ingsi lent because mern andnot the b i rds have d i sappearedafter an

u l t imate war . ( I qu i te the 1920 poem in i t s ent i rety . )

There wi l l comesof t ra ins and the smel l o f the ground,

Andswa l lowsc i rc l ing wi th the i r sh immer ing sound;

And f rogs in the pool s s ing ing a t n ight ,

Andwi ld p lumtrees in t remulous whi te ;

Robins wi l l wear the i r feathery f i re ,

Whist l ing the i r whimson a lowfencewi re ;

Andnot one wi l l knowof the war , not one

Wi l l care a t l ast when i t i s done.

Not one would mind, ne i ther b i rd nor t ree ,

I f mank ind per i shedutter l y ;

AndSpr ing herse l f , whenshe wokeat dawn

Would scarce ly knowthat wewere gone.


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Teasda le s v i s ion i s remarkable in i t s peacefu lness : a k ind of w i shfu l th ink ing , the

poemseemsnot a t a l l bothered by those rhetor i ca l (and so l ips i s t i c ) quest ions

R i chard Wi lbur i ron ica l l y proposes in the l ines quoted as ep igraphto th i s sec t ion. To

Teasda le , i t seemson ly natura l to dreamof th i s p lace wi thout us , to a l lowEarth in

i t s noumena l sp lendor to endure untroubled about us .

And the i conoc last and radica lmisanthrope Je f ferswhocast igated h i s spec ies f rom

h i s s tone tower a t B ig Sur , whothought of us as " the contag ion of consc iousness that

in fec ts th i s corner of space" andpred ic ted that "a day wi l l comewhenthe Earth wi l l

sc ratch herse l f and smi le and rub of f humani ty"imagined ( in poems l i ke "The Truce

andthe Peace" [1918] ) the Earth wi thout us a t ta in ing a t ranqui l i ty that i s hers by

r i ght , thoughour presence has temporar i l y b l i ghted andobscured i t .

Howcan she d ie , she i s the b loodunborn,

The energy in earth ' s a r ter ies beat ing red,

The wor ld wi l l f l amewi th her in somegreat morn,

The whole great wor ld f l amewi th her , and webe dead.

Here in the west i t g rowsby gr imdegrees ,

In the east f l ashedandwi l l f l ameterror and l i ght .

Peace nowpoor earth , peace to that ho l ier peace.

Deep in the sou l he ld secret f roma l l s i ght

That c rysta l , the pure home, the hol ier peace,

F i res f l awnot , scars the c rudest cannot c rease .

Shaw's , Teasda le ' s , and Jef fers ' s imag in ings of a post homic Earth were a l l a f fec ted,

d i rec t l y or ind i rec t l y , by the samepost Wor ld War I loss of fa i th in a human future

that producedthe Lost Generat ion andDada i sm, but the subsequent h i s tory of th i s

century , terror i zed by yet another wor ld war and the contemporary twin threats of

nuc lear ho locaust and eco log i ca l ca tastrophe, has guaranteedsuccessors to th i s

essent ia l l y inhumanist t rad i t ion andto fu l ler Space Age imag in ing of , even theor i z ing

about , the erad icat ion of humank ind.

Kurt Vonnegut , J r . has suggested that wr i ters a re "spec ia l i zed ce l l s in the

soc ia l organ i sm," "evolut ionary ce l l s" that funct ion as a la rmsystems, as a k ind of


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di stant ear l y warn ing systema lert ing us to per i l s which l i e ahead (238) . In the

medi tat ions of l a ter twent iethcentury th inkers and wr i ters , i t would seem, the

spec ies has nowbegun fu l l y to imag inein a t imewhenthe quest ion of ext inc t ion

has becomeexponent ia l l y more rea l to usits ownend, as i f i t s susta in ing fa i th l ay

in the reso lut ion (espousedby ThomasHardy) that " i f a way to the better there be , i t

l i es in tak ing a fu l l l ook a t the worst ." In these imag inat ions of d i saster , mank ind

contemplateswith great ser iousness and, s t range ly , rea l ob jec t i v i tyanabandoned

Earth , abandonedbecause of i t s owndemise , and imagines i t so fu l l y , in fac t , that

the o ld chestnut once pondered by ph i losophica l idea l i sm"If a t ree fa l l s in the

forest and noone i s there to hear i t , w i l l i t make a no i se?"has become instead the

humi l i a t ing quest ion: " I f we fa l l , w i l l the Earth hear us?" The fo l lowing sec t ion wi l l

present a sampl ing of these d iverse prophec ies .

I I

Mankind, which in Homer 's t imewas an ob jec t of contemplat ion for

the Olympian gods , now i s one for i t se l f . I t s se l f a l i enat ion has

reachedsuch a degree that i t can exper ience i t s owndestruct ion as an

aesthet i c p leasure of the f i r s t order . . . .

Wa l ter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age

of Mechanica l Reproduct ion"

In a modernday c reat ion myth, "A Womanas Great as the Wor ld ,"

anthropolog i st Jacquetta Hawkes of fers a reverseang le vers ion of Watson 's "Letter

f romGod" that a t tempts to account fu l l y for the evolut ion of the Earth and

humani ty ' s p lace wi th in i tbut th i s t ime f romf romthe Earth ' s po int of v iew. For the

womanas great as the wor ld in Hawkes ' s modern myth i s the wor ld ; she i s the

Earthwhat the anc ient Greeks once ca l led Gaea .

Hawkes te l l s how in the beg inn ing th i s womanwas "of p lac id d i spos i t ion , and,

knowing everyth ing , had nocares ." Complete in herse l f , unconsc ious of her meaning ,

she i s , l i ke Watson 's god, unaware of her own f inest qua l i t i es , unt i l d i s turbedby the

mascu l ine Wind (a k ind of Hege l ian Sp i r i t , consc iousness) that beg ins to v i s i t her ,

eventua l l y insp i r ing her ownevolut ion. The presence of the Windcauses the mind of

the womanto "be f i l l ed . . . w i th images of herse l f which hung before her and

seemedby the i r presence to demandan exp lanat ion."


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The Collected Works of David Lavery 10

Somet imes, the fab le exp la ins , the wind demands that the womany ie ld to h i s

sexua l des i re for her . Impregnated by h im, she br ings forth a p lethora of c reatures

which , thoughthey revea l " in every part the endless invent iveness , the immeasurab ly

powerfu l imag inat ion of the generat ing Wind," neverthe less a l so fu l f i l l the woman,

" increas ing her beauty l i ke a f ine garment ." But then one day the Wind, a f ter hav ing

beenaway for a long t ime, returns and, w i thout her inv i ta t ion , assau l ts the woman.

Pregnant aga in wi th new l i fe f romth i s rape, the woman fee l s s t i r r ing wi th in her a

newk ind of awareness ; she f inds herse l f c loser than ever before to comprehending

her ownsecret l i fe , her owns ign i f i cance. Her progeny , however , which she had

expected to be the most sp lendid c reatures yet born f romher womb, d i sappoint her :

for the product of the Wind 's rape of Earth i s our spec ies .

Andyet the "ug ly l i t t le mommets whowa lk c lumsi l y on two legs" surpr i se the

womanat f i r s t . Humans, she f inds , a re the Wind in min ia ture ; as they moveabout

her sur face she fee l s throughthema "newd i sturb ing th ing , a pers i s tent se l f

consc iousness as thoughthe Windwere a lways wi th her , as thoughhe were present

amongthe t i ssues of her body ." (Weare remindedof the newfoundegot i s t i ca l

awareness of god in Watson 's "Letter ." ) Th ink ing wi th a newc la r i ty , Earth even

dreamsof r i va l ing the Wind in c leverness and imaginat ion. She beg ins to cha l lenge

the Wind 's author i ty , combat ing h imwi th log i c .

The womanbecomes jea lous , however , whenshe d i scovers that the Wind

speaks pr i vate ly wi th the newcreatures behind her back andt reats themas spec ia l

ch i ldren. The mommets beg in to t rouble her , to i r r i ta te her phys i ca l be ing : "They

tormentedher sk in and f lesh in a hundred ways by the i r rest less ac t i v i ty ; they were

spoi l ing her phys i ca l beauty evenwhi le they were destroy ing her age long peace of

mind." Dec id ing wi th femin i st conv ic t ion that "her body was her ownandhers the

completeness of be ing ," she expunges the mommets f romher and returns to a s ta te

of qu iescence; "knowing everyth ing andcar ing not a t a l l , " she rests content ,

sa t i s f ied even i f the Windshould never return , even i f she should never aga in be

se l f consc ious .

Hawkes ' s fab le i s o f course a wonderfu l capsu le h i s tory of human/Earth

coevolut ion; but i t i s a l so a pred ic t ion . Humank ind br ings to the woman, to Earth , a

mascu l ine , yang l i ke completeness in which she somehow incorporates the ear l ier

processes of her ownbecoming andthe f ru i ts of the awareness the Windandthe

mommets have g iven her into a h igher unconsc iousness and se l f suf f i c ient be ing . Her

v i s i tants , th i s fab le ' s harsh t ruth i s te l l ing us , a re instrumenta l to her se l f perfec t ion.


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Yet they are a t the samet imea pest , an in festat ion , and once her metamorphos i s i s

complete , she s imply does not needthem.

Hawkes ' s v i s ion i s not , o f course , un ique. Such a concept ion of our p lace on

Earth was , in fac t , someth ing of a romant i c commonplace , as can be seen in the

Germanpoet Nova l i s ' s vat i c pronouncement , "Man i s the mess iah of nature ." And i t

owes muchas wel l to Te i lhard de Chard in ' s idea of the "homin i zat ion" of Earth . But

whi le acknowledg ing that humank ind may be for a t imethe p lanet ' s means of see ing

i t se l f , o f ra i s ing i t s consc iousness , Hawkes does not agree that the Womanas Great

as the Wor ld wi l l a lways needher eyes . Nor does Hawkes see the mommets escap ing

the i r earth ly doomthroughthe escapehatch of outer space. To accept Hawkes ' s

message requi res us to v iewthe destruct ion of the spec ies as mere ly a phase in an

evolut ion vaster than wecan comprehend, in which wemay wel l be denied ac tua l

part i c ipat ion. Andher vo i ce i s on ly one in a swel l ing contemporary chorus .

" I t ' s on ly us that wants us to surv ive ," the l a te Gregory Batesonremarked in a

1978 interv iew. "Nodoubt the rest of the wor ld would g i ve a s i gh of re l ie f to see us

go. A fewtapewormsmight say , 'Oh, my God, what wi l l we donow? ' But the rest of

the wor ld would sett le into a newequi l ibr ium" ("Break ing Out" 47) . Accord ing to

Bateson 's understanding of the "eco logy of mind," the Earth , and Earth ' s natura l

"mind" (which Batesonca l l s "Creatura") , may requi re such a peace as a s tage in a

natura l , an eco log i ca l process . L i ke Freud in h i s concept ion of the "death inst inc t" in

BeyondtheP leasurePr incip le , Bateson, perhaps the f i r s t fu l l f l edgedtheoret i c ian of

humanext inc t ion , sees l i fe , and the consc iousness that per iod ica l l y emerges f rom i t ,

forever pu l led back toward the "qu iescence of the inorgan ic wor ld" as part of the

housekeeping of the Womanas Great as the Wor ld housekeeping , the eco log i ca l l y

governed"se l f hea l ing" dr i f t toward stab i l i ty (or " tauto logy ," as Batesonca l l s i t

[Mind andNature 208] ) , in which "ug ly l i t t le mommets" wi l l be erased andthe Earth

can aga in repose in a l l the "completeness of be ing ," w i th t rue peace of mind.

Andcerta in ly i f humank ind d ies , Bateson ins i s ts , wecannot say that wehave

not asked for i t , that wehave not brought i t on ourse lves . The a tt i tudes and

assumpt ions that wi l l br ing about our doom, as Steps to anEcologyof Mind shows,

have beenwi th us a t l east s ince the beg inn ing of Western h i s tory :

I f you put Godouts ide andandset h imv i s a v i s h i s c reat ion and i f you have

the idea that you are c reated in h i s image, you wi l l l og i ca l l y and natura l l y see

yourse l f as outs ide andaga inst the th ings a roundyou. Andas you arrogate a l l


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mindto yourse l f , you wi l l see the wor ld aroundyouas mindless and therefore

not ent i t led to mora l or eth i ca l cons iderat ion. The env i ronment wi l l seemto

be yours to exp lo i t . Your surv iva l un i t w i l l be you andyour conspec i f i c s

aga inst the env i ronment of other soc ia l un i ts , other races and the brutes and

vegetab les .

I f th i s i s your est imate of your re la t ion to nature andyouhave an

advancedtechnology , your l i ke l ihoodof surv iva l w i l l be that of a snowba l l in

he l l . You wi l l d ie e i ther of the tox i c by products of your ownownhate , or ,

s imply , o f overpopulat ion andovergraz ing . The rawmater ia l s of the wor ld are

f in i te . (462)

In Bateson 's vo i ce wehear the k ind of acceptance Kubler Ross counse l s us to seek as

wecometo see death as " the f ina l s tage of growth." And i t i s interest ing to note

that in the interv iewf romwhich I have quoted, which was conducted soonbefore

Bateson 's owndeath f romcancer , he express ly drawsana log ies betweenpersona l

death (which he compares to eras ing an overf i l l ed b lackboard) and the eco log i ca l l y

natura l w ip ing out of the human.

In the c los ing l ines of TheOrder of Things , Miche l Foucaul t of fers a

s t ructura l i s t v i s ion of the erasure of mank ind.

I f those arrangements [which a l lowedthe f i gure of "man" to emerge in the

modern age] were to d i sappear as they appeared, i f somevent which wecan

a t the moment do nomore than sense the poss ib i l i tywithout knowing e i ther

what i t s formwi l l be or what i t promiseswere to cause themto c rumble , as

the groundof C lass i ca l thought d id , a t the endof the e ighteenth century ,

then one can certa in ly wager that manwould be erased, l i ke a face drawn in

sandat the edge of the sea . (387)

By erasurethi s passage makes c leartheFrench archaeolog i st of knowledge

does not have in mind phys i ca l ext inc t ion , thoughhe does not ru le out the

poss ib i l i ty . H i s sober ing ref lec t ions on the fa te of the humanstem, ra ther , f roma

growing conv ic t ion , he ld by other s i gnf i cant modern th inkers ( inc lud ing Heidegger

and Lev i Strauss) , that the t rad i t ion of thought knownas humanism i s a h i s tor i ca l

aberrat ion andoverva luat ion that has served as the wel l spr ing of muchof the


13/24


madness of the modern age, and that wi th i t s now l i ke ly ex i t f romthe stage of

h i s tory , humank ind as weknow i t w i l l be erased.

To Foucaul t , humane levat ion to the rank of " tyrant of Be ing" ( the phrase i s

He idegger ' s ) , our se l f proc la imedomnipotency over the "d i scourse" of the wor ld (or ,

as Batesonwould say , our a rrogat ion of a l l mind to ourse lves) , ushered in an age not

just of the death of GodasN ietzsche announcedbut an age that"hera lds . . . the

endof h i s murderer" : " the exp los ion of man's face in l aughter , and the return of

masks ; . . . the scatter ing of the profoundstreamof t imeby which he fe l t h imse l f

carr ied a long andwhose presence he suspected in the very be ing of th ings . . . the

ident i ty of the Return of the Samewi th the abso lute d i spers ion of man" (385 ; my

emphas i s ) .

ThoughFoucaul t a rr i ves a t the "Return of the Same" v ia typ i ca l l y French,

turg id , a lmost tortured thought , a f ter profoundandyet recondi te excurs ions into the

or ig in of the modern "ep i steme" in ph i losophy , soc io logy , l i ngu i st i c s , and indeedthe

whole "archeology of the humansc iences ," in the endweare de l i vered over to the

samewor ld the v i s ions of D ixon, Teasda le , Hawkes, and Batesonof fer us : a wor ld

wi thout us , devoid any longer of our ident i ty , a wor ld wecannot know, except in

zoolog ies of the future , except throughthe imag inat ion.

Eschato log i ca l prophec ies nowappear in qu i te unexpected s i tuat ions . In Lou i s

Mal le ' s f i lmMyDinnerwith Andre (1981) , for example , a p laywr ight (Wal lace Shawn)

andan exper imenta l theater d i rec tor (Andre ' Gregory ) speak of the endof

humank ind dur ing an evening of fabu lous conversat ion in an e legant NewYork

restaurant . Over a f ter d inner dr inks , Gregory , whose ta lk has b lendedtota l despa i r

w i th the search for a v i s ionary neworder , g i ves vo i ce to h i s darkest fear .

I t seemsto mequ i te poss ib le that the n ineteens i xt ies represented the l ast

burst of the humanbe ing before he was ext ingu i shed. Andthat th i s i s the

beg inn ing of the rest of the future , now, and that f romnowonthere wi l l

s imply be a l l these robots running around, fee l ing noth ing , th ink ing noth ing .

Andthere wi l l be noth ing le f t a lmost to remindthemthere was a spec ies

ca l led a humanbe ing , w i th fee l ings and thoughts . Andthat h i s tory and

memory are r i ght nowbe ing erased, and soonnoone wi l l remember that l i fe

ex i s ted on the p lanet . (ShawnandGregory 9394)


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Wal ly , SanchoPanza to Andre 's apoca lypt i c DonQuixote , rep l ies to th i s notvery

conduc iveto thed igest ion monologuewi th a dumbfounded"Uhhuh." Later he

confesses that he doesn ' t rea l l y knowwhat h i s f r iend i s ta l k ing about . Tak ing refuge

in s imple p leasureshis read ing of Char l ton Heston 's autobiography , a cup of co ld

cof fee wa i t ing for h im in the morn ing wi th no cockroach in i tWal ly has no des i re to

learn to l i ve wi th ext inc t ion , whi le Andre 's more encompass ing mind, tak ing a " fu l l

l ook a t the worst , " in somestrange fash ion draws insp i ra t ion f rom i t .

Wecan today evenhear NewWaverock andro l l vers ions of our doom. In a

song ca l led "Walk ing in Your Footsteps" by the Po l i ce , in the ear l y 1980s one of the

wor ld ' s most popular groups, we f ind a paeanto the d inosaurin part i cu lar the

Brontosaurus ( "bu i l t three stor ies h igh/They say you would not hurt a f l y" )in which

the lead s inger , St ing , speak ing in d i rec t address to another former ru l ing an imal ,

ident i f i es wi th i t s ro le :

F i f ty mi l l ion years ago

Youwa lked uponthe p lanet so ,

Lord of a l l that you cou ld see

just a l i t t le b i t l i ke me.

Walk ing in your footsteps .

Thus he f inds i t s i ron ic end instruct i ve , conta in ing a " lesson for us" : "Youwere God's

favor i te c reature/But you d idn ' t have a future ." Who, the song asks , w i l l be seen as

the stup ider be ing , the d inosaur or the human, should the l a t ter destroy i t se l f in a

nuc lear war? At a Po l i ce concert , thousands of fans might be seenenthra l led by such

a song, mesmer i zed by the music , perhaps s ing ing the words a long wi th sexsymbol

St ingsing ing of our ext inc t ion! Imag ine, i f you wi l l , preDarwin ians brought in a

t imemachine to a ttendsuch a performance. What would thehmakeof the prospect ,

i f i ndeedthey cou ld comprehend i t a t a l l ?

Wea l so f ind angry ande loquent minor i ty vo i ces contemplat ing , w i th a certa in

r i ghteousness , humank ind 's erad icat ionor a t l east the erad icat ion of Western ,

whi te , ma le c i v i l i za t ion. I w i l l c i te but twoexamples .

In "Nuc lear Exorc i sm: BeyondCurs ing the Day WeWere Born," A l i ce Walker

expresses shamefor her spec ies wi th unequa led v i tuperat ion andpass ion. In the

context of a cons iderat ion of a terr ib le "curseprayer" co l lec ted by Zora Nea le

Hurston in the 1920s , a p lea to " the ManGod" to br ing to the speaker ' s enemies


15/24


absolute havocbl indness , barrenness , d i sease , poverty , c rop fa i lure , s tarvat ion,

exposure to the e lements , fa i lure of the i r l anguage, pest i l ence, death , and more

Walker , certa in that the curse ' s speaker i s a womanand inc l ined to imag ine her to be

a co lored woman, th inks "wi th aston i shment , that the curseprayer of th i s co lored

womanstarved, ens laved, humi l i a ted, and care less l y t rampled to death over

centur ies , i s coming to pass . Indeed, l i ke anc ient peoples of co lor the wor ld over ,

whohave t r ied to te l l the whi te manof the destruct ion that would inev i tab ly fo l low

f romthe uran iummin ing p lunder of the i r sacred lands , th i s womanalong wi th

mi l l ions and b i l l i ons of ob l i terated s i s ters , brothers , and ch i ldrenseemsto have put

such enormous energy into her hope for revenge, that her curse seemsc lose to

br ing ing i t about . B r ing ing i t about , that i s , not for her spec i f i c enemies , but for the

humanspec ies ."

AndWalker f inds herse l f sore ly temptedto shout the curse wi th her

predecessor , to pray i t in un i son:

When I have cons idered the enormi ty of the whi te man's c r imes aga inst

humani ty . Aga inst women. Aga inst every l i v ing person of co lor . Aga inst the

poor . Aga inst my mother and my fa ther . Aga inst me. . . . When I cons ider that

he i s , they are , a rea l and present threat to my l i fe and the l i fe of my

daughter , my people , I th inkin perfec t harmony wi th my s i s ter of long ago:

Let the Earth mar inate in po i sons . Let the bombscover the ground l i ke ra in .

For noth ing short of tota l destruct ion wi l l ever teach themanyth ing . (341)

She contemplates as wel l the poss ib i l i ty that " i t would be good, perhaps , to put an

endto the spec ies in any case , ra ther than let whi te mencont inue to subjugate i t

and cont inue the i r lust to dominate , exp lo i t and despoi l not just our p lanet but the

rest of the un iverse ." Andshe of fers , as a propos i t ion that " requi res ser ious thought

f romevery one of us ," the d i re prospect that " fa ta l l y i r rad ia t ing ourse lves may in

fac t be the on ly way to save others f romwhat Earth has a l ready become."

Walker , i t i s t rue , does go on to qua l i fy her b i t terness and to part ia l l y annul

her curse because of the rea l i za t ion that "accept ing our demise as a p lanet as a

s imple and just preventat i ve medic ine admin i stered to the un iverse" would br ing

doomto " the godly and the ungodly a l i ke ," and so the " thought of ext inc t ion pure ly

for the assumedsat i s fac t ion offromthe graveachievedrevenge" cannot long be


16/24


enterta ined. That she contemplates i t a t a l l must s tand, however , as a d i s t inc t

l andmark in the deve lop ing imag inat ion of ext inc t ion andthe abandonedEarth .

Wi th the rage of the oppressed, the Nat ive Amer i can mi l i tant Russe l l Means

l i kewise warns "Europeanman" that "humans do not have the r i ght to degrade

Mother Earth ," and, reminding us , l i ke Bateson, of the eco log i ca l t ru i smthat a l l

c reatures "must be in harmony wi th a l l re la t ions or the re la t ions wi l l eventua l l y

e l iminate the d i sharmony," he of fers a prophecy of the inev i tab le destruct ion of the

mommets (whomhe ident i f i es as so le ly the product of a Europeanc i v i l i za t ion that ,

in i t s a rrogance, behaves as though i t "were beyondthe nature of a l l re la ted

th ings" ) : "Mother Earth has beenabused, the powers have beenabused, and th i s

cannot go on forever . The natura l order wi l l w in out and the of fenders wi l l d ie back ,

the way deer d ie whenthey of fendthe harmony by overpopulat ing a g i ven reg ion.

There i s no need for a revo lut ionary theory to br ing th i s about , i t ' s beyondhuman

contro l " (23) .

Apoca lypt i c imag in ings a re , of course , a l so a s tap le of sc ience f i c t ion . In

"Catac lysmsandDooms," J . G . Ba l l a rd , the Br i t i sh master of the d i saster nove l , has

even goneso fa r as to c la imthat the genre i s " i t se l f no more than a minor of fshoot

of the catac lysmic ta le ," the h i s tory of which st retches back as fa r as G i l gamesh

(130) . Though i t would be poss ib le to c i te hundreds of short s tor ies and nove l s

( inc lud ing Ba l l a rd ' s own) concernedwi th the ext inc t ion or near ext inc t ion of mank ind

in sc ience f i c t ion , I w i l l l imi t myse l f here to twoshort s tor ies by James T iptree , J r .

( the pseudonymof Dr . A l i ce She ldon) .

In T iptree s "The Last F l i ght of Doctor A in ," we f ind a humanbe ing seek ing to

he lp the Earth rub of f humani ty . T iptree imag ines a wor ldrenownedsc ient i s t who

seeks to commit spec iesc ide by introduc ing into the b iosphere a genet i ca l l y

redes igned, inc red ib ly l etha l l eukemia v i rus , one that i s unstoppable because i t

ut i l i zes the humanbody 's immunesystemas part of i t s own l i fe cyc le , and a l though

weare never exp l i c i t l y to ld what h i s mot ives a re , wedo learn than Doctor A in has

enacted h i s f i end i sh p lan on the beha l f o f a woman, a "wounded, dy ing woman," wi th

whomhe i s obsessed, even on h i s owndeathbed. Af ter a rrest for h i s ac t , A in ta lks to

h imse l f o f h i s love andac t ions on her beha l f , and we f ina l l y beg in to grasp the

nature of h i s sacr i f i ce .

B lue , b lue greenunt i l you see the wound. Ohmyg i r l , Oh beaut i fu l , you won' t

d ie . I won' t l e t you d ie . I te l l you g i r l , i t ' s over . . . . Lustrous eyes , look a t me,


17/24


l e t mesee you a l i ve! Great queen, my sweet body , my g i r l , have I saved you? .

. . Oh terr ib le to know, and noble , Chaos ' ch i ld greenrobed in b lue andgo lden

l i ght . . . the thrownandsp inn ing ba l l o f l i fe a lone in space. . . . Have I saved

you? (67)

In h i s further mus ing A in revea l s h i s be loved 's name: "Gaea G lor ia tr i x . . . Gaea g i r l ,

queen. . . . " He asks quest ions of the womanas great as the wor ld , part l y as a lover

might , part l y as a cur ious sc ient i s t , "What d id you doabout the d inosaurs? . . . D id

they annoy you? Howd id you f i x them?" Andwi th the " l i ght c lear vo i ce of a lover

p lanning a summer p i cn i c , " he suggests before he h imse l f d ies that in her next

evo lut ionary exper iment she might t ry us ing bears as her veh ic le for the further

deve lopment of consc iousness (68) .

A in ' s ass i s tance in h i s spec ies ' erad icat ion i s , to h i s owneyes a t l east ,

necessary , as the story makes c lear . Lef t to our ownpace, our se l f destruct ion , A in

be l ieves , would have takenGaea downa long wi th the humanrace . I t i s thus essent ia l

that he inter fere : "Our death would have beenyour death too," he ins i s ts . "Noneed

for that , no need" (68) .

In another T iptree ta le , "The Screwf ly So lut ion ," the humanrace i s l i tera l l y

exterminated by an a l ien race interested in acqui r ing the Earth as a newp iece of rea l

estate . Us ing a complex, sh i f t ing po int of v iewandmak ing use of l e t ters and reports

as part of her narrat i ve , T iptree te l l s o f a wor ldwide ep idemic of sexua l v io lence

aga inst womenthat i s rap id ly destroy ing the reproduct i ve capabi l i ty of Homo

sap iens . "A potent ia l d i f f i cu l ty for our spec ies ," a sc ient i s t in the story exp la ins , "had

a lways been impl i c i t in the c lose l inkage betweenthe behav iora l express ions of

aggress ion/predat ion andsexua l reproduct ion in the male" (69) .

In T iptree 's short s tory , th i s d i f f i cu l ty becomes fa ta l to our ongoing ex i s tence.

Male sexua l aggress ion i s t ransformed into homic ide , ra t iona l i zed by a wor ld re l i g ion

that teaches that ma les must g i ve up the o ld way of perpetuat ing the i r k ind in

preparat ion for a newreve la t ion. "Manmust pur i fy and showGoda c lean wor ld . . . .

a s long as mandepends on the o ld f i l thy an imal way Godwon' t he lp h im. Whenman

gets r id of h i s an imal part which i s woman, th i s i s the s i gna l God i s awa i t ing . Then

Godwi l l revea l the newtrue c lean way , maybeange l s w i l l comebr ing ing newsoul s ,

or maybewewi l l l i ve forever , but i t i s not our p lace to specu late , on ly to obey" (59) .

Ange l s of a sort do arr i ve , but on ly Dr . AnneA l ste in , poss ib ly the l ast woman in the

wor ld , h id ing out in the wi lds of Canada d i sgu i sed as a boy , perce ives the i rony of


18/24


the i r annunc ia t ion. For the "ange l " she comeson in the woods near HudsonBay i s , in

fac t , not an ange l a t a l l but a " rea l estate agent ."

I th ink they 've donewhatever i t i s to us [Dr . A l s te in rea l i zes] . Madeus k i l l

ourse lves of f .

Why? Wel l , i t i s a n i ce p lace , i f i t wasn ' t for the people . Howdoyou

get r id of people? Bombs, death raysal l very pr imi t i ve . Leave a b ig mess .

Destroy everyth ing , c ra ters , rad ioact i v i ty , ru in the p lace .

Th i s way there ' s no muss , no fuss . Just l i ke what wed id to the

sc rewf ly . P inpoint the weak l ink , wa i t a b i t , whi le wedo i t for them. Only a

fewbones around; makegood fert i l i zer . (75 )

As in the f i r s t of the Star Trek f i lms, in which humank ind appears to be on ly a

"carbonbased in festat ion" of Earth , so our spec ies seemsto th i s h igher race not a

c reature made in the imageof Godbut a mere annoy ing pest , capable of , and

deserv ing , destruct ion throughmanipu lat ion of breeding pract i ces . "As f l i es to

wantonboys are weto the gods ," G loucester ins i s ts in KingLear . "They k i l l us for

the i r sport ." In "The Screwf ly So lut ion , such a surmise becomesqu i te a b i t more

than a s imi le .

In c lasses over the l ast fewyears I have asked students to cons ider these gr im

anddepress ing v i s ions , my intent ions part l y exper imenta l , and they have most of ten

respondedwi th someth ing l i ke revu l s ion. Many , I th ink , have takenmeto be a k ind

of spec iesqu i s l ing because of my t ra i torous fasc inat ion wi th andadmirat ion for

them. But my students have misread the intent of these authors and of the i r teacher ;

they have misconstruedthe tone in which these prophec ies were of fered. They were

insp i red, I would judge, by someth ing more profoundthan misanthropy , and they

represent more than a s tep beyondthe requi s i te acceptance of death as a fa te , more

than a long ing ( in Shakespeare ' s words) "To rush into the secret house of death ,/Ere

death dare cometo us ." They prove, in fac t , the va l id i ty of Santayana 's perp lex ing

suggest ion that " the on ly t rue d ign i ty of man i s h i s capac i ty to desp i se h imse l f . " Not

just ind ignat ion but d ign i ty sh ines throughthem, a d ign i ty no mere su i c ide note

would show; a d ign i ty which accompanies a l l unf l inch ing contemplat ion of what I

would l i ke to ca l l the audi t ion of h i s tory and the vocat ion of man.

I I I


19/24


Westandat a c rossroads in the h i s tory of our spec ies . In a spec ia l way

i t i s l i ke that c rossroads a t which the pr imate stoodwhenhe was

compel led to leave h i s t ree ex i s tence. Andyet i t i s a l so qu i te un l i ke

any prev ious exper ience of the spec ies . Whi le the c reature whohad

beendr i ven f romh i s home in the t rees had mi l l ions of years in which

to ad just to newanddanger f i l l ed surroundings , wehave beenthrown

by v io lent l y acce lerated technolog i ca l deve lopment into a s i tuat ion in

which wemust makeour choice wi th the utmost qu ickness and must

choose de l iberate ly , not haphazard ly as a lways before . I t was dur ing

the l ast generat ion that our c i v i l i za t ion reachedthe c r i t i ca l threshold .

Wemay have but a s ing le generat ion in which to ga in contro l over our

co l lec t i ve conduct and to keepour wor ld f rombecoming one of those whose evolut ion tested the poss ib i l i t i es of mindand fa i led .

Ro l f Edberg , At theFootof theTree

hat humank ind ca l l s h i s tory , Edberg seemsto imply , i s in fac t our audi t ion: "a

p lanetary test" to determine whether wedeserve to have the lead ing ro le on Earth .

Once, there seemedto be no quest ion of our preeminence, Hadnot Genes i s

to ld us that " the fear of you andthe dread of you sha l l be uponevery beast of the

Earth , and uponevery fowl of the a i r , upona l l that moveth uponthe Earth andupon

a l l the f i shes of the sea : into your hands are they de l i vered"? Hadwenot then gone

on to deve lop the k ind of psyche that would make these words seem l i ke a se l f

fu l f i l l i ng prophecy? Hadnot our exa l ted andse l f congratu la tory humanism in i t s

obsessed modern formcometo conv ince humank ind into " th ink ing that weare

ac tua l l y l earn ing howto steer the p lanet in i t s orb i t" (Ehrenfe ld , Arrogance16 )?

D ixon, Hawkes, Bateson, Foucaul t , and the rest see humank ind accept ing the

fa i lure of i t s aud i t ion wi th equanimi ty . But wemay not choose to do so . Upto th i s

po int in h i s tory wehave certa in ly not behavedas thoughthe Earth would one day

not be ours . Rather , as Edgar Quinet observes in LaCreation , i n the course of i t s

evo lut ion Homosap iens has managedto conv ince i t se l f that i t "had so thoroughly

taken possess ion of the Earth , that i t cou ld nowbe long on ly to h im." Thus wehave

cometo env i s ion the Earth wi thout us as meaning less , an "orphaned . . . sepulchre . .

. i n perpetua l mourn ing for van i shedman." Andth i s conv ic t ion , Quinet s t resses ,

cannot be eas i l y erased. A c reature wi th in f in i te presumpt ion, weare not and never

W


20/24


wi l l be "oneof those k ings whosurv ive the i r dethronement" ; wewi l l never accept a

secondary ro le , w i l l never accept a successor to the throne; w i l l not be an

understudy (quoted in Rostand9495) . L i ke the " insupportab le in fante gate" weare

( the phrase i s Lev i Strauss ' s ; see Huck le 388) , wemay respondto the inab i l i ty to

have our way wi th the Earth by t ry ing to ensure that there wi l l be no p lay a t a l l i f we

cannot have the lead. I f humani ty must go down in defeat , Quinet impl ies , wemay

wel l dec ide to take the Earth downwi th us .

In "The Sabbath ," W. I I . Audenof fers a v i s ion of a seeming ly fa i l ed audi t ion

andof nature ' s "newequi l ibr ium"once man i s gonewhich , on the sur face , resembles

Teasda le ' s but which of fers an i ron ic twi st a t the poem's endthat makes h i s v i s ion of

man's end consonant wi th Quinet ' s grave reminders about man's obst inacy . "The

Sabbath" Audendescr ibes i s the "Seventh Day of Creat ion" which f ina l l y a rr i ves a f ter

man's apparent demise . In the poem's f i r s t twostanzas Audente l l s of Earth ' s

c reatures as they d i scover our d i sappearance:

Wak ing on the Seventh Day of Creat ion,

They caut ious ly sn i f fed the a i r :

The most fast id ious nostr i l amongthemadmitted

That fe l lowwas no longer there .

Scouts a re sent out in search of "h i s presence," but they f ind noth ing except what he

le f t beh ind, h i s eco log i ca l l egacy : "holes in the earth , /Beaches covered wi th

tar . /Ru ins and meta l l i c rubbi sh in p lenty . . . . " Th ink ing of " that fe l low's"

d i sappearance, the an imal wor ld conc ludes , as Audenexp la ins , becoming the i r

co l lec t i ve vo i ce , he "had never rea l l y smel led/L ike a c reature whowould surv ive ."

H i s "b i r th on the S i xth had madeof that day/Anunnecessary inter im." But in

retrospect they rea l i ze that h i s tenure as ru ler must have been just a temporary ,

unnatura l h ia tus , and they are content to return to "a natura l economy" a t l ast , now

that "Hi s Impudence" i s gone. Fur now i t i s t ru ly ' ' The Sabbath ," now, Auden

exp la ins , "Look ing exact l y l i ke what i t was ,/The Seventh Day went on,/ Beaut i fu l ,

happy , perfec t l y po int less , " and the earnest expectat ions of the c reatures no longer

seem inc l ined to wa i t for the mani festat ions of the se l f proc la imedsons of God.

But then, out of nowhere, manreturns , and in character i s t i c fash ion; as i f f romthe

grave, "A r i f l e ' s r ing ing c rack/Sp l i t the i r Arcad ia wide open, cut/Thei r Sabbath

nonsense short ." Af ter a l l , Audenasks rhetor i ca l l y in the poem's l ast s tanza , "For


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whomd id they [ the wor ld ' s c reatures] th ink they had beenc reated?" Hadthey not

been"de l i vered" into man's hands as part of an anc ient covenant? Andthe an imal s '

answer to Auden's query i s , o f course , yes . "That fe l lowwas back ,/More b loody

mindedthan they remembered,/More godl i ke than they thought ." Born aga in f rom

out of h i s seeming ext inc t ion , man, in Auden's v i s ion , l earns noth ing f romh i s c lose

ca l l w i th death . I t on ly makes h imthat muchmore of a fanat i c ( fanat i c s be ing , as

Santayana sa id , those whoredouble the i r e f forts whenthey have forgotten the i r

goa l ) .

But i s i t not poss ib le to imag ine mansurv iv ing h i s brush wi th death as a

c reature less ty rannica l , l ess "b loody minded" than "Hi s Impudence"? Might not such

an encounter insp i re a revocat ion i n which man's supremacy i s revokedbut

t ransformed?

The proverb ia l w i sdomof Ch inese Taoi smteaches that whenan ord inary man

atta ins se l f knowledge he becomesa sage, but whena sage ach ieves en l i ghtenment

he becomesan ord inary man. Can there be an evolut ionary equiva lent to th i s c i rcu lar

progress ion, but in the mind andheart of a spec ies? I s i t poss ib le that a c reature l i ke

man, a f ter hav ing deve loped in the course of h i s emergence f romthe natura l wor ld a

powerfu l , master fu l , a lmost unnatura l inte l l i gence, might surmount i t not through

the further acce lerat ion of inte l l i gence, but f roma wi se submiss ion to the natura l

and the earth ly? "Man's l i fe i s thought ," Wi l l i amBut ler Yeats wrote in "Meru,"

prophesy ing on our fa te , "Andhe, desp i te the terror , cannot cease/ Ravening

throughcentury a f ter century ,/Ravening , rag ing , and uproot ing that he may

come/ Into thedesolationof real i ty" (my emphas i s ) .

In a t l east one contemporary imag inat ion of d i saster , the endof mangu ides

h imtoward th is deso la t ion , toward a l i fe in death in which he can endure , i ron ica l l y

succeeding in h i s aud i t ion , on ly as an adapted be ing , accommodatedat l ast to

c reature l iness , vu lnerab i l i ty , f in i teness , to h i s p lace on earth .

IV

The day i s not fa r d i s tant whenhumani ty wi l l rea l i ze that b io log i ca l l y

i s i s faced wi th a choice betweensu i c ide andadorat ion.

P ierre Te i lhard de Chard in , TheDiv ineMi l ieu


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Faust ian characters as weare , wecannot imag ine " rest , " "N i rvana ,"

"etern i ty ," except as a cessat ion of a l l ac t i v i ty in other words , as

death . What our a rgument i s reach ing for i s not death ra ther than l i fe

but a reconc i l i a t ion of l i fe and death . Wehave therefore to susta in the

poss ib i l i ty of ac t i v i ty ( l i fe ) which i s a l so a t rest .

NormanO. B rown, L i fe Aga inst Death

The very t i t l e of Wendel l Berry ' s "Song in a Year of Catastrophe" (Co l lected

Poems 11718 ; wr i t ten in 1968) announces i t s re levance for any cons iderat ion of the

audi t ion of mank ind. But the t i t l e a l so ra i ses an immediate quest ion: howcan a poet

makea song out of catastrophe? Hecan doso on ly i f the apoca lypse he confronts i s

( in the root meaning of the word) a t the samet imea reve la t ion about h i s ownsou l ' s

path andthe human journey for which he stands as spokesman. Berry ' s song i s

indeedsuch a reve la t ion.

Haunted by an ominous vo i ce , the poet learnsis forewarnedthat " I t can ' t

l ast" and s ince Berry , as wehave seen, has long beenoneof modern i ty ' s most

search ing ande loquent c r i t i c s , wehave no doubt what h i s seeming ly vaguepronoun

refers to : he i s th ink ing of the reck less , care less , Arch imedean, " let themeat the

future" (Unsett l ing 59) s ty le of modern l i fe and the arrogance of a spec ies for which

shame i s " the respons ib i l i ty of an honest person."2The vo i ce warns Berry that he

must "harden" h imse l f aga inst the coming end, that he must prepare to lose a l l that

he thought he loved, adv i s ing that he must beg in to " l i ve c lose to the ground" andto

" learn the darkness ." For the future of which i t warns wi l l requi re , i t seems, the

ref inement of earth iness and dark , intu i t i ve , nonrat iona l , y in l i ke powers , not the

abstrac t ion , ra t iona l i ty , luc id i ty , and Faust ian ac t i v i ty so cher i shedby the wor ld

about to d ie ; i t w i l l requi re the powers of the Womanas Great as the Wor ld , not

those of the Wind.

The poet obeys , and wi th near ly mi racu lous resu l ts . Immersed in the Earth

and in the leaves which cover i t in th i s "autumnof catastrophe," he d i scovers other

vo i ces , not l i ke the portentous one that beg ins h i s t ransformat ion, but earth ly

2 To be ashamed of one's species is a strange and s ickening emot ion,

Berry wr i tes in The Unforeseen Wilderness . I t goes aga inst inst incts of

k insh ip and sel f-regard. And yet i t is an emot ion that I and I th ink a greatmany others have to contend with more and more often. . . . I would try to

get r id of such emot ions i f I d id not recognize their truth. In these t imes theyare part of the responsib i l i ty of an honest person. I bel ieve that I would be a

dangerous person i f I d id not feel them.


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presences that , he te l l s us , "had beendead/ in my tongueyears before my b i r th" :

dead, that i s , i n h i s l anguage i tse l f which , in an age of sc ience andobjec t i v i ty ,

cannot eas i l y g i ve express ion to the sense of mystery a t the heart of our be ing in

thewor ld andh i s re la t ion to the wor ld ' s s imple , autochthonous th ings . These

vo i ces , once heeded in our audi t ion , aga in have the i r say in the poet ' s hear ing .

But the vo i ce of warn ing st i l l p lagues h im, mocks h imthat he has "not yet comec lose

enough," not yet t ru ly accepted the Earth for which i t serves as spokesman. I t o f fers

to h immodel s for behav ior in the woodcock andthe qua i l and the molecreatures

a lmost ind i st ingu i shable in the i r feathers and coats f romthe i r surroundings . I t

suggests that he , too, b lend in wi th h i s wor ldthat he no longer concern h imse l f

w i th s tanding out . I t instructs h imto makeh i s very l i fe a mimicry of the p lace in

which he l i ves .

For the fa rmer sha l l wear

the greenery andthe furrows

of h i s f i e lds , and bear

the long standing of the woods.

Such a ro le has se ldomappea led to us , o f course; a tonement wi th the Earth ,

cessat ion of perpetua l ac t i v i ty , an endto our perpetua l long ing , have a lways seemed

a humi l i a t ing prospect , equ iva lent , in fac t , to deathas the poet recogni zes :

And I asked, 'You meandeath then? '"

But i t i s a v i c tor ious death , br ing ing wi th i t the promise of a reb i r th , as the vo i ce

dec lares , instruct ing the poet to

Die into what theEarth requiresof you .

Lett ing "go a l l ho lds ," h i s be ing andthe Earth ' s co inc ide; h i s w i l l , f ina l l y adapted,

becomes i ts w i l l as he s inks into i t s she l ter ing whole " l i ke a hopeless swimmer," in

fu l l possess ion now, for the f i r s t t ime, of h i s t rue humani ty , fee l ing h imse l f come

fu l l y into the ease

andthe joy of that p lace ,


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a l l my lost ones return ing .

Only in defeat , on ly in humi l i a t ion , Berry ' s "Song" proc la ims, does h i s aud i t ion

becomeacute enoughto a lert h imto the poss ib i l i ty of a newvocat ion. For wi th the

longed for ro le as Earth ' s master revoked, man, i t seems, can perhaps accept

revocat ion, becoming a c reature whov iews i tse l f not as lord of a l l i t surveys but ( in

George Ste iner ' s words , paraphras ing Mart in He idegger) as "a pr i v i l eged l i s tener and

respondent to ex i s tence" in "a re la t ion of aud i t ion" to the Earth , "a re la t ion of

extremerespons ib i l i ty , custod iansh ip to and for" (3132) . I t remains to be seen i f our

k ind can learn enoughwisdomto wi l l ing ly accept such a part .

Wehave met the enemyandhe i s us , not the womanas great as the wor ld ,

not T iptree s rea l estate agent . I f our chances of surv iva l a re to be more than a

snowmal l s in he l l , then our v i v id imag in ing of the ext inc t ion of manmust br ing wi th

i t such psycholog i ca l ins ight but seen f roma eco log i ca l and evolut ionary perspect i ve :

the rea l i za t ion that , in the words of another poet i c l i s tener , Robert Frost .

Someth ing wewere wi thhold ing madeus weak

Unt i l we foundout that i t was ourse lves

Wewere wi thhold ing f romour l and of l i v ing

And forthwi th foundsa lvat ion in surrender .

Audition_of_History

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