Walking on Lava: Selected Works for Uncivilised Times

by The Dark Mountain Project

Overview

The Dark Mountain Project began with a manifesto published in 2009 by two English writers—Dougald Hine and Paul Kingsnorth—who felt that literature was not responding honestly to the crises of our time.

In a world in which the climate is being altered by human activities; in which global ecosystems are being destroyed by the advance of industrial civilisation; and in which the dominant economic and cultural assumptions of the West are visibly crumbling, Dark Mountain asked: where are the writers and the artists? Why are the mainstream cultural forms of our society still behaving as if this were the twentieth century—or even the nineteenth?

Dark Mountain’s call for writers, thinkers and artists willing to face the depth of the mess we are in has made it a gathering point for a growing international network. Rooted in place, time and nature, their work finds a home in the pages of the Dark Mountain books, with two new volumes published every year.

Walking on Lava brings together the best of the first ten volumes, along with the original manifesto. This collection of essays, fiction, poetry, interviews and artwork introduces The Dark Mountain Project’s groundbreaking work to a wider audience in search of ‘the hope beyond hope, the paths which lead to the unknown world ahead of us.’

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781603587419
Publisher:	Chelsea Green Publishing
Publication date:	08/04/2017
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

The Dark Mountain Project is run by a collective of writers who were drawn together by a shared sense that the stories our culture tells itself are broken. Walking on Lava has been edited by four members of that collective: Charlotte Du Cann, Dougald Hine, Nick Hunt and Paul Kingsnorth.

Table of Contents

The Time 1 Shot the Iliad Christos Galanis vii

Uncentring Our Minds: An Introduction to This Book 1

Uncivilisation: The Dark Mountain Manifesto 5

1

Adobe Farmhouse Ron Hagg 26

Early Knowledge Anita Sullivan 27

Loss Soup Nick Hunt 29

The Falling Years John Michael Greer 36

A Present That Can Exist Akshay Ahuja in conversation Dmitry Orlov 47

On This Site of Loss Hannah Lewis 56

2

Sun from Incident Energy Marne Lucas Jacob Pander 70

The Shuttle Exchanged for the Sword Warren Draper 71

Confessions of a Neo-Luddite Tom Smith in conversation Chellis Glendinning 86

Prospecting for Equanimity Jason Benton 95

3

Extinction Cabinet Nicholas Kahn Richard Selesnick 108

Travelling Man Kim Goldberg 109

Strange Children Akshay Ahuja 111

Openings Tim Fox 128

4

Feeding from the Fire Below Kate Walters 134

The Unconscious and the Dead John Rember 135

Small Gods Martin Shaw 148

The Seven Coats Charlotte Du Cann 150

Wet Sage and Horse Shit Eric Robertson 159

5

Remembrance Day for Lost Species 2014 - Memorial to the Passenger Pigeon Emily Laurens 166

On the Centenary of the Death of Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon Persephone Pearl 167

Dispatches from Bastar Narendra 170

How Wolves Change Rivers Kim Moore 175

Rampant Rainbows and the Blackened Sun Carla Stang 176

Squirrel David Schuman 185

6

Roe Deer in May Birch Thomas Keyes 192

Dark Matter Ian Hill 193

October Black Isle Pheasant Stew Thomas Keyes 197

Genuine California Almonds Sarah Rea 200

Visitors Book Gregory Norminton 202

Crawling Home Robert Leaver 205

No More Words for Snow Nancy Campbell 209

7

From Calvert End to Little Dun Fell Lionel Playford 218

Prognosis Glyn Hughes 219

Osiris Sylvia V. Linsteadt 220

A Poem Before Breakfast Em Strang 231

The Song of Ea Steve Wheeler 232

8

Emerging - from 'The Immersion Project' Bruce Hooke 240

Remember the Future? Dougald Hine 241

Protest Poem Cate Chapman 252

Hostage Maria Stadtmueller 253

Shikataganai Florence Caplow 257

Death and the Human Condition Vinay Gupta 264

'New countries will grow up', Ostend Wall Piece Robert Montgomery 269

Mountaineers 270

Editorial Reviews

06/26/2017
Dark Mountain Project cofounders Dougald Hine and Paul Kingsnorth pull together more than 40 pieces of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, interviews, and artwork from the journal Dark Mountain in this diverse but uneven collection. Feeling “the force of a storm blowing through history, upending expectations as it passed through,” the group took stock of the progress it had made in confronting human civilization’s impact on the Earth over its eight-year existence. The collection is divided into eight sections, with each based on a principle from the group’s original manifesto, “The Eight Principles of Uncivilisation.” In “A Present That Can Exist,” for example, Akshay Ahuja and Dmitry Orlov engage in an enlightening discussion about potential transitions to a deindustrialized society. David Schuman’s short piece “Squirrel,” about an encounter with the animal, proves to be witty and entertaining. However, other pieces in the volume are less captivating. John Michael Greer’s “The Falling Years: An Inhumanist Vision” looks to poet Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962) for perspective on the anthropocentrism that suffuses environmentalism, yet fails to offer much workable substance. Carla Stang’s “Rampant Rainbows and the Blackened Sun” poses a challenge to anthropologists working with indigenous peoples, but is too narrow and theoretical for nonspecialists. The Dark Mountain Project set itself an ambitious goal of altering anthroecological relations through writing, but the work on display here is underwhelming. B&w photos. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

In a world of disintegrating certainties, the vacuum left behind is terrifying. Yet the Dark Mountain Project insists on exploring this space, which the mainstream bids us ignore. For that alone it is invaluable. And when we are brave enough to open our eyes, Walking on Lava reveals that we are not alone. What new stories might we tell, together?”—Shaun Chamberlin, author of The Transition Timeline; editor of Lean Logic and Surviving the Future

“The Dark Mountain Project has at last arrived in the United States with this splendidly ecological book, one to which Rachel Carson, Ed Abbey, and Aldo Leopold would have been proud to contribute. Urgently recommended!”—Lawrence Millman, author of At the End of the World

“It’s wonderful that with this book an outsider can finally see all the things the Dark Mountain Project has been doing all these years. Probably won’t avert civilization’s collapse, but it’s good to have.”—Kirkpatrick Sale, author of Human Scale Revisited

“In a culture killing the planet, and in a culture based on denial, I am grateful that the authors in this volume acknowledge the horrors we face. I hope that people will read this book, and armed with its important analysis, they will then act decisively to protect the planet that is our only home.”—Derrick Jensen, author of A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, Endgame, and many other books

“This medley of entrancing, soul-enhancing, exciting stories will stir your creaturely blood from the very depths of our sainted Earth. You will feel enlivened in ways you had forgotten; you will breathe in the wildness of the world; a holy wind will heal you. You will journey to your wider Self—to Great Gaia, Mother of All. This Dark Mountain book will do all this for you, and more. When you’ve read it, its words coursing through your veins, more animal now, more alive—go and do something wholesome for the more-than-youness that you’ve discovered, and, at last, come home.”—Dr. Stephan Harding, resident ecologist, Schumacher College; author of Animate Earth

“Dark Mountain’s call to uncivilisation is not about unravelling the survival structures of our society. It is something much deeper, putting new survival structures in place by calling back the soul. I hope that this anthology will thrill you on that journey.”—Alastair McIntosh, PhD, author of Spiritual Activism and Poacher’s Pilgrimage

“A collection by turns magical, brave, earnest, and mournful but truthful throughout. The authors point the way down a faint but still visible trail beyond domination and back to our once and future place as humble animals in love with our world.”—Lierre Keith, author of The Vegetarian Myth; coauthor of Deep Green Resistance

“We humans are in trouble, and because of us, most of our fellow species are also in trouble. All of the planet’s life-support systems are under stress or collapsing because of our unchecked appetites and swelling population. To find our way through the ruins and beyond, we need more than clever technology and magical markets. We need an alternative to the industrial mindset, which views Earth as raw material for human consumption and as a dump for our waste. We need the kind of diverse, clear-eyed, ecologically wise imagining gathered in this book. A bow of gratitude to the denizens of Dark Mountain.”—Scott Russell Sanders, author of Dancing in Dreamtime

“This book changed my life. It puts into words the sense of utter hopelessness I feel about the fate of the world as we have known it. And yet, miraculously, it gives me ‘hope beyond hope’ for what lies ahead. The Dark Mountaineers are blazing new trails into, and through, the hot lava of our uncertain future.”—Eric Utne, founder of Utne Reader

“Don’t read this book if you’re not willing to be shaken and unsettled. Unflinching and unafraid!”—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

From the Publisher

2017-07-12
Selections from the 10 volumes published by the Dark Mountain Project give readers a taste of the organization's mission: "to play host to voices seeking honest engagement with questions that might be intractable."In 2008, two British writers, Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine, put together a manifesto calling for the "uncivilisation" of the Earth, with the idea that the roots of the "social, economic and ecological unravelling" prevalent in the world today "lie in the stories we have been telling ourselves." Attracting like-minded writers and artists, they began putting out a series of hardcover journals with what they considered alternate stories to the conventional ones. The majority of the contributors are British; a strong minority are American. To general readers, many of these contributions will feel like relatively conventional academic essays. The essayists sing the praises of the Luddites and of "inhumanist" American poet Robinson Jeffers, whose vision of the centrality of nature and the marginality of humans resonates with that of the Project. The book also includes poems; photographs and reproductions of artworks with commentary; interviews with a Soviet economist and a "neo-Luddite"; a memoir of growing up in Appalachian coal country; and experimental fiction. The fiction and poetry tend toward the mythological, and very little of it includes people other than the author or central narrator. One of the most intriguing pieces, John Rember's "The Unconscious and the Dead," succeeds by revealing two very different people, a professor and his dying student, to bring a personal side to what could have been an abstract topic. A few pieces add welcome touches of humor in what is often a bombastic and overly earnest anthology. Worth sampling if not ingesting in one sitting, the collection provides a comprehensive introduction to a provocative vision of the contemporary state of human connection to—and disconnection from—nature.

Kirkus Reviews