Recommended Reads: Summer '17

Summer is finally upon us, and it seems like hot weather is hitting everywhere pretty hard. To beat the heat, why not stretch out somewhere with air conditioning and enjoy our summer selection of alterhuman recommended reads?

Available for sale here

Young Adult Fiction: Unnatural Creatures

Unnatural Creatures is an anthology of short stories compiled and occasionally written by Neil Gaiman. From girls who can talk to snakes, mysterious museum specimens, and a nazi-fighting werewolf; these delightful tales blur the line between fact and fiction, human and non. Intended primarily for a young adult audience, but entertaining for older readers as well.

Light horror cw overall; sexual harassment cw for The Smile on the Face.

Nonfiction: The Universe of Things

Available for sale here

The Universe of Things: On Speculative Realism is Steven Shaviro's review and constructive critique of a fairly new type of philosophy called speculative realism. Philosophers of speculative realism seek to move away from the idea of mind/matter dualism, as well as anthropocentrism. Things need not be human, sapient, or even conscious to be imbued with vitality, and even thought. Shaviro presents us with a conception of a lively universe that is accessible yet infinitely complex; as subjects and objects, actors and events all interact with and influence each other across scales small and large.

Sound complicated? I found this book to be difficult to get through, but someone with more of a background in philosophy might have an easier time than me. Though it takes some effort to get into and understand, I want to recommend this book for its almost radical - yet, in my opinion, ultimately positive and life-affirming- anti-anthropocentric perspective on existence in the universe. Grab a cup of (iced) coffee and take your time; the ideas in this book are worth it.

Adult Fiction: Fifteen Dogs

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There aren't many books that make me cry, but Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis is one of those few. Humorous, tragic, noble, and crude all at once; this book is a short and bittersweet story of fifteen dogs staying together by chance at a vet's office overnight. That night, they are given "human intelligence" by two gods, to settle a bet between them.

I think Alexis handles this anthropomorpization deftly- the dogs may now have human-like ways of reasoning, but their interests, desires, fears, and perspectives remain dog-like. Or do they? For these dogs are not quite dogs at all anymore, yet neither are they human; and this new, in-between status is something the dogs must come to terms with. Fifteen Dogs is a deeply existential story about mind, mortality, and the meaning of happiness; and if you're prepared to have your heartstrings pulled, I can't recommend it enough.

Strong cw for animal injury, animal death, and sexual themes throughout. 



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"Machine Subjectivity:" The Life and Times of Internet Bots

 

Internet bots are ubiquitous, from algorithm-run Twitter accounts to chat server assistants and web crawlers racking up page-views. We are more or less familiar with what they do- performing basic tasks online. But have we stopped to really consider what they are? Last year, experts gathered at a Data Society workshop to do just that.

Their conclusions? Bots aren't just inert programming carrying out functions; they have a rich societal context, and even a unique umwelt, or way of experiencing and interacting with their world. Given that so much discussion of artificial intelligence seems to focus on how robots measure up to humans, this series of articles was a nice change of pace; trying to understand bots in their own contexts, as non-human actors with "lives" all their own.

How to Think About Bots

This "Botifesto" by multiple authors focuses on the moral and legal implications of bots' semi-autonomous nature.

What is it like to be a bot?

Samantha Shorey considers the enchantment of human actions, and the worldview of bots.

On Paying Attention: How to Think about Bots as Social Actors

When is a speed bump like a bot? When they both affect social behavior, m.c. elish suggests.

Our friends, the bots?

Bot-creator Alexis Lloyd encourages us to think about the uniqueness of "machine subjectivity."

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Overcoming Anthropodenial: Tear Down That Wall

Anthropocentrism is unfortunately prevalent in Western society. According to this view, humans are accepted as having uniquely complex mental and emotional abilities. This might not initially seem like much of an issue- humans certainly are intelligent, creative, and expressive beings. The problem arises when anthropocentrism is taken to its inevitable conclusion: Since humans are complex, they are unique; and therefore separate from and even superior to all other animals.

Franz de Waal tackles the problem of anthropocentrism in a Discover magazine article titled Are We in Anthropodenial? Anthropodenial, de Waal proposes, is the flip-side of anthropocentrism: Because only humans may have complex mental lives, non-human animals are denied this complexity, despite numerous studies and observations suggesting intuition, emotion, and reasoning in animals.

De Waal suggests that we question the human exceptionalism that has become the norm; and allow ourselves a worldview of productive anthropomorphism. This isn't anthropomorphism in the sense of assuming animals have the same minds and motivations as humans; but rather allowing ourselves to see that our human traits aren't so unique after all, a rediscovery of the 'human' in the non-human.

The full article can be read at the link below:

Are We in Anthropodenial? By Franz de Waal

 

Image sources for article graphic: X, X, X

Recommended Reads - Spring Edition

Spring is finally here, and bringing flowers and warmer weather with it. Alt+H would like to bring you something too: A short list of recommended reads for your alterhuman needs. Content warnings have been given where applicable, just as a heads-up. If you have any questions or concerns about content, feel free to ask.

Available for sale at Amazon.com

Fiction: Shifting Hearts

Shifting Hearts is an anthology of otherkin romance short stories, and one of the few books I have ever encountered that deal with the subject of otherkin directly. While the writing style of some stories can feel a bit unpolished, I greatly enjoyed what this book has to offer. Very few published stories contain any actual otherkin representation, and I found some of these to be relatable to my own everyday feelings of being nonhuman. A short and engaging read; I finished the whole book in a single day. Follow the journeys of human and nonhuman protagonists as they discover themselves, learn from each other, and maybe even fall in love.


Tokophobia cw for Ch. 1 (light) and Ch. 2.

Available for sale at Amazon.com

Nonfiction: Staying with the Trouble

Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene is Donna Haraway's latest book, and one that I have reviewed in the past. Haraway calls human exceptionalism into question, which is important from an ecological and ethical point of view, and also from an alterhuman one: To be strictly 'human' is less important than to "live and die well" with our fellow critters. Her closing chapter contains a work of speculative fabulation, in which some humans are genetically modified to contain the genes and express the traits of chosen critters, as part of an effort to restore balance between human and nonhuman nature. An intriguing read from start to finish, and largely straight-forward without much jargon, just a few novel uses of words.

Cw for some mentions of  human rights abuses (mainly ch. 3), animal abuse/neglect/death (mainly ch. 3 & 5), and light tokophobia cw (mainly ch. 5). 

Print books available for sale on Storenvy

Webcomic: Skin Deep

Skin Deep is a webcomic by Kory Bing about ordinary college kids who are also mythical creatures. They are able to shift between human and nonhuman form by the magic contained in medallions. Michelle Jocasta- unaware that she is not as human as she thinks- is given one such medallion by a stranger, unlocking her ability to shift. She is suddenly thrown into a tumultuous and fantastical world where monsters walk among us, and wars fought long ago still haunt the present. Overall, Skin Deep is an intriguing and unique comic that is ten years old and still ongoing, and can be read for free at the link below:

http://www.skindeepcomic.com/archive/issue-1-cover/




Have feedback about our recommended reads? Want to suggest content for our next list? Contact us and share your thoughts! 

To Live and Die Well Together- A Review of Staying with the Trouble by Donna Haraway

Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene is Donna Haraway’s latest book, and a great read for humans and non-humans alike. Accessible and interesting, it revolves around the inter-relatedness of everything on Earth, and our “response-ability”- ability to respond to and be responsible for- as part of the ongoing story of life on this planet. Using the metaphor of string-figure games that intertwine many individuals, linking them and their actions together; as well as other “SF” words like Science Fiction and Speculative Fabulation (a type of fantasy writing, often feminist), Haraway deftly exposes human exceptionalism, colonialist oppression, and environmental exploitation as different but related burdens upon the earth and its panoply of critters.

A word on ‘critters.’ Haraway uses this word to include “microbes, plants, animals, humans and nonhumans, and sometimes even to machines.” (p. 169) In mixing humans in with all non-human nature, Haraway immediately calls ideas of human exceptionalism into question, leveling the field of existence so that all earthlings can begin to play well together.

Multispecies Cat’s Cradle, by Nasser Mufti- an illustration from the book

So, how can all critters live, play, and die well together on an increasingly damaged Earth? Haraway proposes ‘sympoesis’- which means “becoming with.” Humans- and alterhumans- must learn from “ongoing pasts” to work and become with other critters in “thick presents and still possible futures” (p. 133).

It is well enough to be “with,” but what must we “become?” Instead of being humans, lofty and above all the rest of nature, Homo sapiens must become chthonic, earthly. Instead of humans, we must be humus. This is not to say that humans must all die and decompose for the Earth to heal, to become literal compost. No, to become humus, or compost, is to become richly intermixed with all of life, to perform sympoesis and “become-with” the other critters living, taking, giving, and dying together on Earth. To enrich the earth, and Earth, again, compost we must.

These are the deeply interwoven thoughts that Haraway encourages us to think our thoughts with; and stories of sympoesis are what should inspire other stories. It matters what inspires us, what informs our worldviews, where our ideas and thoughts come from. And think we must! It is no secret that our planet is imperiled by uncritical exploitation by humans- of other humans, of other critters, of resources and habitats. To heal, we must heal together; becoming whole again with our fellow critters on Earth.

Haraway ends her book with some speculative fabulation of her own, a tale of a possible future in which humans come together as humus in Communities of Compost, working to voluntarily reduce human numbers to a sustainable number though lowered birth rates, and to further make “humusity” response-able to the world by making some of their children “symbionts” with imperiled critters.

With stories and thoughts like these, humans and alterhumans can fill our bags with tools for creating and becoming-with a present and future that is habitable for all critters. Instead of the old tale of exploitation, extraction, and inevitable ‘progress,’ we must tell a new story of symbiosis, sympoesis, and multi-species string figures. It matters how we approach change, and change we must.