Shakespeare and the

Metabolic RiftRevised version

What is the metabolic rift?

• Metabolic rift is a shorthand expression introduced by John Bellamy Foster to refer to Karl Marx’s notion of the "irreparable rift in the interdependent process of social metabolism,"[1]—Marx's key conception of ecological crisis tendencies under capitalism. Marx theorized a rupture in the metabolic interaction between humanity and the rest of nature emanating from capitalist production and the growing division between town and country. This concept has been widely used in recent years in various environmental discussions, particularly on the left.

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• The concept of a metabolic rift, according to Foster, is the development of Marx’s earlier work in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts on species-being and the relationship between humans and nature. Metabolism is Marx’s "mature analysis of the alienation of nature,"[2] and presents "a more solid—and scientific—way in which to depict the complex, dynamic interchange between human beings and nature, resulting from human labor."[3]

What caused the metabolic rift?

• Marx doesn’t say that the metabolic rift is due to fossil fuels. But other scholars have pointed out that the metabolic rift was and is caused by fossil fuels, which allowed people to temporarily ignore the energy from the sun.

Where did the metabolic rift start?

• Coal production intensified in the late 1500s in England and by 1603 coal was the primary fuel for the nation. England was the first, but not the last, country to leave the solar budget.

• Coal smoke and coal consumption were most intense in London at this time.

Was anyone paying attention to this at the time?

• My theory, which has been called radical, is that the first two lines of Romeo and Juliet point to a hermetic topic: coal vs. the sun.

Sampson: Gregory, on my word, we won’t carry coalsGregory: No, for then we should be colliers.

‘words have two meanings’

• The lines are very interesting; they seem like casual statements, but read in another way, they can also show us a future when we “won’t carry coals”---when their production will cease to be economic----and that will be when the metabolic rift closes .

• The playwright says this is “on his word”.• Indeed!!

These first two lines do something else as well: they point to the

existence of a secret play in Romeo and Juliet!

It concerns the historical relationship between Man and the Sun (the metabolic rift)

Romeo and Juliet share 4 scenes, and these are the most famous scenes in

the play

• 1) The Party scene • 2) The Balcony scene• 3) The Farewell scene • 4) The Tomb scene

Act I, scene vAt the House of the Capulets, Romeo meets Juliet• Romeo: If I profane with my unworthiest

hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this, my lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss

• They use the language of worship when they meet, and their speech is crowded with words of worship “profane”, “sin”, “pilgrims”, “saints”, “holy palmers”, “pray’r”, “faith”

“O she doth teach the torches to burn bright!”

• The scene where the lovers meet is human’s pagan past. We worshipped the sun and felt close to the sun.

• Probably, nature rituals were outside, not in churches, so we were close to nature for religious practice.

Act II, scene ii: The Balcony scene

Romeo: But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Shakespeare has given away the secret identity of Juliet here! Shortly thereafter, in the same speech, Romeo uses words like “lamp” “daylight”, “stars”, “heaven”, “airy region” and “bright” to further describe Juliet and subtly imprint upon the minds of listeners her identity in the parallel play.Romeo is Man embracing an agricultural era. In such an economy, everything is from the sun in one way or another. The metabolic rift was yet to arrive!

Juliet: My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee The more I have, for both are infinite.In a sun economy, everything comes from the sun. All the flows of matter and energy that we need to stay alive and keep warm, our food, our water, shoes, clothes and the tools to make them…..all comes from the sun.

On the balcony, Juliet is now a bit removed from Romeo

• Juliet is a bit removed from Romeo. Christianity moved worship into churches and direct sun worship was also, obviously, not part of the plan.

• So Juliet, on the balcony, is away from Romeo now. He can see her. But there is a separation.

Act III, scene vRomeo bids farewell to Juliet

Juliet: Wilt thou be gone?......Romeo: I must be gone and live---or stay and die.

• The metabolic rift had begun…..and was only to widen more and more, for centuries.

But not forever…

• The scientific work of Giordano Bruno, executed for heresy in 1600, was sufficient for Shakespeare to have deduced that the metabolic rift would one day close.

• Giordano Bruno postulated an early thermodynamic model of a heliocentric solar system. The sun, he said, ultimately powered the earth.

The tomb scene, Act 5, scene iii

• Romeo keeps saying that Juliet looks like she is alive. “Ah, dear Juliet, Why art thou yet so fair?”

• The sun shines just as brightly, but we have gotten away from the economic connection with the sun, and this phenomenon is, in a nutshell, the metabolic rift.