Becoming Animal AN EARTHLY COSMOLOGY David AbramINTRODUCTION Between the Body and che Breathing Earth ning up to being en anna, a reture of earth. Tuning ‘oar animal senses tothe senile teran: Mending out skin withthe ain-sppted surface of vers, mingling out ‘ats with the ehunder and the thruring of frogs. and ou eyes. withthe molten sky Feeling he polychythmic ple ofthis place — this huge windswept body of water an stone This vexed beng ia whose lsh we'e entangled ‘Becoming earth. Becoming aia, Becoming i his manne, filly tan, . This isa book sbout becoming swo-lgged animal entirely apart, of the animate world whose lie swells within and unfolds all around us. It seeks 2 new way of speaking, one that enacts our interbeing withthe eat rahe than blinding us oA language that stirs a new huniy in relation to ther eathboen beings, whether spiders or obsidian outcrop or spruce limbs ben low by fhe clamped snow A syle of speech thit opens our senses 0 the sensuous inal ts maledorm strangeness “The chapters that follow seve to discern and pethaps vo pra: cea cutis kind of thought. away of caf election thst nolonger tarsus ont ofthe world of direct experience in order 0 represent, but that binds us ever more deeply into the thick of that world Away of inking enacted as much by che body as by ‘theming, formed by the humid rand the wil and the quality of cour breathing by dhe intent of our contact withthe ocherbodies hac surround "er words are human anit, ate che not? Suey to speak, or to think in wondy, is cesar to ep back oa the wos pes ence into a purely human sphese of flection? Such, pecsely has been our civilized assumption But what if meaning speech is soe an eacsively uma possession? What if the very langage wwe ow epeak are fist in response to an animate, expressive world as astutering reply nat justo others of our species but to aibenigaticcomnos that aleeady pote tus ina myriad of tongues? ‘Whatif tought i not bor within the human sal bats auitypropes tothe body a a whole, aitng spontaneously fom the slippage between an organism and dhesolding teeain that it ‘wanders? What ifthe curious curve of though is engendered by theedificult ros aad tension between our flesh an the Nesh ofthe ark « {sie possible to grow a worthy cosmlogy by atecing closely ro ‘our encounters with other eratures, an with the elemental tex tures and contours of out locale? We ae by now 0 accion the cl of expects thatthe very notion of honoring a paving Ine to our divectly fel experience of things—of insects and ‘wooden floors, of broken-down cars pesked apples and the aceasssing from the soil—seems odd and somewhat ss ‘ded sea way to find out whaes worch knowing, According sumptions long held by che ciation inwhich ve been raised the deepest rtf things is concealed behind the appearances, ia climensions intecessible ro our senses, A thousand yess ago these slimensions wer viewed it spiritual terms the sensuous world was ‘fallen, derivative rely hat could be understood only by ele. nce to heavenly reins hidden beyond the stare Sine the powert resingin such reales were concealed fom common perception, ‘hey had to be medited forthe general populace by priests who might inerced wih those celestial agencies on our hale In recent centuries, an abundance of dacoveties and remark able inventions have transformed this cult’ general conception ‘of things—and yee the baie duparagement of sensuous eealsy remaing Like an oi, collective habit very dificult to kick the ieely sensed word is sil explained by reference to realms hidden beyond our imumedint experince Such real, for exam le isthe microscopic domain of sons and dendrites, nd newt transmitters washing ars neuronal synapses —a dimension eizely concealed from direct apprehension, ye which premabl precip tates or gives rte to evry aspect oF our expevence, Another such al hidden within the nace of out ese the intricately folding srande of DNA. and RNA that ostensibly code and perhaps even “aut” che behavior ofliving things. Alternatively the deepest source ad uh ofthe apparent world is somernes held o exis in the subatomic realm fof quar, mesons, and gluons (or the wll more theoretical word of vibeting ten-dimensional strings). or perhaps in the inital breaking of symmetry inthe commologieal "big bang” an eveat slmostaconeeiably dissin time and apace. Everyone of these arcane dimensions radiclly transcends the seach ofourunsidedsenes Since we have no ordinary experience ofthese seals, the esenial tthe to be found tse must be mediated for us by expen, by those who have acces ro che high powered instruments and she inordinately expensive technologies (Ge electron microscopes, fnetional MRI scanners, radio tele seopes, and supercodes) tha might offer a momentary glimpse into these dimensions, Here, a before, the sensuous workl—the creaturely woed directly encountered by our animal senser—is ‘onmoalyasumedto bea secondary derivative lity understood only by reference to more primary domsine that exit elsewhere, behind the eens, T do not deny the importance of those ote ses oe dime sions, nor he alue of dhe various rahe chiemsy be found tect.deny only hat ths shadowed, earthly wocd of der tacks and ross is somehow ess worthy. less REAL, than those abstract Aimensions, Irs more palpable to my skin, more substan omy faring nowt, more precious infinitely more precious—to the hare dumning within my chest, “This ditty experienced era, ip and scoured by deride, the very. ing wich cricket shythe am saw most eaaged by the spreading consequences ofour disregard. Many log standingand lousy abits have enabled ous callous treatment of surrounding ature, empowering us wo dear-eu, dam up mine, develop, po! soo sip destroy so much of what quietly wustains as Yee few se as deep-roted and damaging a he habitual tendency to view fhe sensuous earth s a subordinate space— whether as «sink plane riddled with temptation, ceding to be transcended and left hind: or a menacing region neading to be besten and bent to ‘ur wll or simply a vaguely disturbing dimension tobe avoided, superieded, and explained away. Corporcl life is indeed difcale TS idemsy with the sheee Diysicity of ones flesh may well seem hati “The buy isa ‘perfec and brealable entity vulnerable ro 2 thowsand and one insuls—to sar and the scor of others, ro disease, decay. sal death. And the material world tht ou by inhabits s hardly a arnt place. The dhuddesing beauy ofthis biosphere is beistling ith hoon: generosity and abundance ofen seem scan ngeed ‘nts compared wit the prevalence of predation sudden pa and ‘aching loss Carally embeded in the depts of thiscacophonons profusion of forms, we commonly can't even predict just wat’ lurking behind the nea boulder, le alone get enough distance fathom and figure out al the workings of this woeld. We simply cai get ie under our conto: We're lor hearing in one er the ‘other ings ikea falen spoon. Our spose fal in ove with some ce ele, while our young child comes dawn with a bone-rating fever that no doctor seems able to diagnose ‘There ate things out and about tac can ea us, and uliatey wil Small wonder then hat we prefer eo abueact utslveswhenerer we cam maging ‘ourselves into theoretical spaces less fnight wit insecurity con Imtsiaction — 7 jung dimensions more amenable to calculation and control We slip blisfuly nro machine-mediated sxpes, fei ourselves up ‘0 any technology that promises ro enhance the mdr cast tie of our given flesh. And sure, now ad then wel engage this carthen world a well, 2 og we iow ht a ime, Dg 8 we've convinced tat were not stack here. Even among ecologists and environmental activins, there's @ lace sense tat wed beter not lt our awareness come t00 cose to our crearuely sensations, thet weid best keep out arguments sined with statics and our thoughts bueressed with abt tion, lest we succums © an overwhelming pref—a bor of our axjanism'sinsinctive eipathy with te living land and is cascading lasses Lest we be bowled over and broken by ou dismay athe relentless devastation ofthe biosphere, Ths do we sheter oars fom the haveing vloeebiiy bodied existence. Bur by the same gesture we als insulate furslies from the deepest wellpeings of oy. We eu our lives off from the necessary nourishment of contat and interchange with ‘other shapes of if, from antler an loop tailed and amber