Turn The Compost
“…we are compost, not posthuman; we inhabit the humusities, not the humanities. Philosophically and materially, I am a compostist, not a posthumanist.” (Haraway 97)
Walk with me to the compost bin, and let’s give it a turn. In gardening, compost is decaying plant matter that can be used as fertilizer. Compost is composed by letting wet organic matter sit with itself, disturbed ever so often by things like worms, fungi, and manual aeration, until it breaks down into dark, nutrient rich humus. As the organic matter breaks down, it does not just change form, it also heats up.
“My conception of the universal is that of a universal enriched by all that is particular, a universal enriched by every particular: the deepening and coexistence of all particulars.” (Césaire 152) [from his letter to Maurice Thorez, resigning from the Communist Party]
“Transaesthetics makes possible the survival of a posthuman imaginary over knowledge-power…” (Stallings 12)
“By developing a posthumanist intersectional analysis, my goal is not to “diffuse” social justice projects but rather to argue for politics in which environmental struggles are part of the social justice efforts.” (Górska 109)
“Conducting posthumanist analysis, therefore, allows for a telling of scientific, political, environmental etc. stories otherwise. Such storytelling transforms understandings of human, natural, cultural, social, economic and environmental relationality and, hence, allows for different forms of engagements and transformations.” (Górska 140)
“In a posthuman account the cutting is important as the cut also defines the temporary division between what is an object and what is a subject. Making cuts is a result of an artificial boundary made my me, the researcher.” (Svedmark 59)
Entanglement: “There is a reality, but its pattern is always produced by its components.” (Svedmark 150)
