Writing the World: On Globalization Essays

270 Pages·2005·1.92 MB·English

by  David Rothenberg

47697RothenbergForRRD 12/15/05 7:01 AM Page 1
David Rothenberg is Professor of Philosophy at the New Jersey environment/literature w writing the world writing the world
Institute of Technology and founder of the Terra Novabook
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series. He is the author or editor of many books, including Sud-
i On Globalization
den Music and Why Birds Sing. Wandee J. Pryor is former manag- t (cid:2)
On Globalization
ing editor of Terra Nova projects at the New Jersey Institute of i
Technology. n edited by David Rothenberg and Wandee J. Pryor
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A Terra Nova Book “There is no gainsaying this book’s effectiveness in showing how the global has infiltrated the residences and This collection of essays, memoirs, poems, stories, and artwork
interiorities of almost all lives on the planet. The personal narratives that comprise so many of the pieces e looks at globalization as a worldwide exchange of art and ideas.
gathered here bring the global very close to ‘home,’ to the domain of individual lives and daily experience, Writing the Worldfocuses on the cultural realities of globalism—
even when the reference is to places very distant, such as Zambia, Bangladesh, or New Guinea.” —Giles w the opportunities it provides to learn from other cultures. This
Gunn, Professor of English and of Global and International Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara knowledge, argue David Rothenberg and Wandee Pryor in their
o
introduction, can be power: “When all of us learn enough about
“This volume provides a fresh approach to globalization by viewing it through the diverse lens of prose and r our differences to respect the diversity that exists, we will be
l
poetry from around the world. We can actually see ourselves as part of a global village as we wind our way unable to pretend we are the same. We will never accept the
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through the literary alleys of north and south, east and west. A contribution indeed, one that can be read with old innocence and ignorance bred by oppression and exploitation.”
profit both by those in the halls of power and those outside.” —Mary Evelyn Tucker, Professor of Religion, For the contributors to Writing the World, to dream of the global
Bucknell University village is to see the world not as a vast market but as a place of
shared values and linked wonder.
“It is time to listen to the many literate voices the world
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o speaks,” say Rothenberg and Pryor. The voices of Writing the World
th range from Arundhati Roy on the “colonization of knowledge” in
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her essay “The Ladies Have Feelings, So . . . Shall We Leave It to
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b the Experts?” to Naomi Klein’s meditation on fences, ownership,
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r and property. They include Bill McKibben on women farmers in
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Bangladesh, Hannes Westberg’s account of being shot by
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n Swedish police at a demonstration, James Barilla on invading
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and indigenous plant species in “The Aliens in the Garden,” and
P
r many other vivid, compelling, and provocative writings that
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o celebrate—and illustrate—“the poetry of cultural contact.”
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, Artists and photographers whose work appears in the book
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d include Adam Clayman, Jenny Matthews, Richard Robinson, and
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t Arpita Singh.
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0-262-18245-9
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Cover art: Masumi Hayashi, The Saint in the Market Place, Meenakshi Temple,
Madurai, India, ©2002, 23″x 72″, Panoramic Photo Collage. The MIT Press Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge,Massachusetts 02142 http://mitpress.mit.edu A Terra Nova Book edited by David Rothenberg and Wandee J. Pryor
Writing the World
Terra Nova Books aim to show how environmental and cultural issues have
artistic components, in addition to the scientific and political. Combining essays,
reportage,fiction, art, and poetry, Terra Nova Books reveal the complex and
paradoxical ways the natural and the human are continually redefining each other.
Other Terra Nova books:
Writing the Future: Progress and Evolution
Writing on Air
Writing on Water
The New Earth Reader
The World and the Wild
The Book of Music and Nature
Terra Nova
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Newark, NJ 07102
973 596 3289
[email protected]
www.terranovabooks.org
Writing the World
On Globalization
edited by David Rothenberg and Wandee J. Pryor
A Terra Nova Book
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means
(including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from
the publisher.
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information, please e-mail [email protected] or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press,
5 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142.
This book was set in Berkeley Old Style Book by Graphic Composition, Inc., using Quark XPress, and was
printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Writing the world : on globalization / edited by David Rothenberg and Wandee J. Pryor.
p. cm.
“A Terra nova book.”
ISBN 0-262-18245-9 (hard.: alk. paper)
1.Literature—Collections. I.Rothenberg, David, 1962– II.Pryor, Wandee J.
PN6014.W75 2005
808.8—dc22
2004062530
Printed on recycled paper.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
The World as We Found It xi
David Rothenberg and Wandee J. Pryor
Why We Sing (Por que cantamos) 2
Mario Benedetti
Translated by D’Arcy Martin
The Ladies Have Feelings, So ... Shall We Leave It to the Experts? 7
Arundhati Roy
Systems 23
Tim Parks
Ghost of a Full-Contact Commute 30
Mark Rudman
We Better Collect the Birds’ Nests before the Outsiders Get Here 35
Paul Spencer Sochaczewski
The Aliens in the Garden 50
James Barilla
Furbi 59
Edie Meidav
vi Contents
Civilizations 76
Inna Mattei
The Engagement 79
Daniel E. Weinbaum
Roadblocks and Bridges 92
Roberta Levitow
Monika, Before Reunification 102
Ingrid Wendt
El Halloween and the Día de Muertos 105
C. M. Mayo
Is This What Democracy Looks Like? 123
Hannes Westberg
Global Reorganization: Conference Proceedings, Santo Domingo,
1991 134
Frederick Buell
Fetishes and Rarities 139
Alphonso Lingis
Honey, Sugar, and Rose 150
Lorrinda Khan
In the Village 160
Jan Clausen
The Snow in Ghana 165
Ryszard Kapus´cin´ski
Two Women, Two Worlds 170
Audrey McCollum
At Eden’s Edge 190
Ellen Dissanayake
Fences of Enclosure, Windows of Possibility 195
Naomi Klein
Contents vii
Waltzing Matilda 203
Najem Wali
Translated by Marilyn Booth
Black Tea 218
Kathleen L. Housley
An Alternative to Progress 220
Bill McKibben
The Globalization of Evil: Words from Baghdad and Belgrade 231
Nuha al Radi and Jasmina Tesanovic
You Tell Us What to Do 242
Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Translated by Agha Shahid Ali
Contributors 245
Sources 251

Illustrations
Arpita Singh, For Anjum,2002 6
Adam Clayman, Calcutta Office Foyer 22
Carol Van Houten, The Powerhouse, New Jersey 34
Richard Robinson,Bird, Billboard and Fountain, Roma,2002 58
Arpita Singh, For Anjum,2002 78
Richard Robinson, Monks’ Portrait (White House), Washington, D.C.,1991 104
William T. Ayton, Depleted Human,2003 122
Kerry Stuart Coppin, Untitled: Women Braiding Hair/ African Home/ Dakar, Senegal 160
Ibra Ibrahimovic, Untitled 164
Robert McCollum, A traditional highland woman in Papua New Guinea suckles a piglet 177
Robert McCollum, Wearing traditional garb, Kuma women plant kau-kau
(sweet potato), the staple food, in a new garden 182
Jenny Matthews, Beach Camp, Gaza, October 25th, 2000 194
Kerry Stuart Coppin, Untitled: Gathering of Women/ Courtyard/ Dakar, Senegal 202
Jenny Matthews, Kabul, Afghanistan, December 5th, 2001 230
Sally Grizzell Larson, Untitled (Number 51) 242