[-empyre-] Hurricane Sandy

[Timothy Morton]

Hi all,

In answer to Cynthia, there are lots of reasons. During Katrina some people stayed to look after their pets, for instance. 

But in general, humans seem reluctant to admit the scope of the nonhuman forces they have unleashed since the late eighteenth century. 

I'd go not with facing down demons, but more in the direction of hunkering down in a minimal world, since world as such does not exist--evaporating since 1780 ish, as Sandy only underlines that fact.

Yours, Tim

Tim Morton
Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English
Rice University

http://www.ecologywithoutnature.blogspot.com

On Oct 29, 2012, at 10:26 PM, Cynthia Beth Rubin <cbr at cbrubin.net> wrote:

> As long as we are talking about the hurricane, those of us in Connecticut just saw a very distressed Governor on television.  Apparently there are a significant number of people who refused to leave their homes despite mandatory evacuations for those on the shoreline.  The water now surrounds their homes.  They cannot be easily reached, they no longer can leave, and the worst of the water surge is yet to come.  In other words, they face serious danger.
> 
> What makes people refuse to leave their home?  Is there a deeper sense of belonging to place that defies logic?   Or do they want to face down the hurricane like a demon?
> 
> Cynthia
> 
> ps - I live 1.5 miles uphill from the water - so fairly safe here
> 
> 
> 
> On Oct 29, 2012, at 10:36 PM, Jon Lebkowsky wrote:
> 
>> Relieved that you're okay. Those sound files brought it home to us.
>> 
>> On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 9:34 PM, Alan Sondheim <sondheim at panix.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> The roaring's from the wind rumbling over the tarps; we repaired the skylights with shower curtains, tarps, duct tape, gorilla tape, and bungee cords - and it's still holding. But we went out walking for a half hour, just got back, and it was like a JG Ballard novel, huge metal advertising signs crumpled and all over the avenue, moving everywhere in pieces at high speed, we had to be careful we didn't get hit. And the sound of clanging scraping metal everywhere. It was fantastic. Meanwhile elsewhere in the area, already deaths, flooding tunnels, etc. We've been lucky so far.
>>> 
>>> - Alan
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Mon, 29 Oct 2012, Maria Damon wrote:
>>> 
>>>> what is the roaring inside your building? you write as if from inside a sinking ship, as in Edgar Allen Poe's short story...
>>>> 
>>>> On 10/29/12 8:04 PM, Alan Sondheim wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Everyone I know is documenting the storm and putting it up online. The reality as such is troubling; listening to the police radio gives an idea of the degree people are in trouble. At the moment the situatio is more severe, small explosions, more fires, flooding everywhere. So far we're okay but the roaring inside our place is almost 80 db consistently. Is this the Singularity come early?
>>>>> 
>>>>> - Alan
>>>>> 
>>>>> Hurricane Sandy
>>>>> 
>>>>> some audio files - sounds from inside our place from the skylights; playing nepalese sarangi and sarangi with the sounds; police radio - note the stranded cars with water rising, fires, etc.; a few shots from our excursion out with Gary Wiebke holding the piece of wallboard that almost killed me, and a tree around the corner which has split and killed a smaller ginko next to it as well. The buoy videos fascinate me, taken from a Brooklyn waterfront pier yesterday as the storm approached.
>>>>> 
>>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/sandyh1.mp3
>>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/sandyh2.mp3
>>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/sandyh3.mp3
>>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/sandyh4.mp3
>>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/sandyh5.mp3
>>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/sandyh6.mp3
>>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/sandyh07.jpg
>>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/sandyh08.jpg
>>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/sandyh09.jpg
>>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/sandyh10.jpg
>>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/sandyh11.jpg
>>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/sandyh12.jpg
>>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/buoy2.mp4
>>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/buoy1.mp4
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> 
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>>> 
>>> ==
>>> blog: http://nikuko.blogspot.com/ (main blog)
>>> email archive http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/
>>> web http://www.alansondheim.org / cell 347-383-8552
>>> music: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/
>>> current text http://www.alansondheim.org/rq.txt
>>> ==
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Jon Lebkowsky (@jonl)
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