How much do you truly love the earth? Like everything else, you can measure your love today on the Internet through an Eco-Depth Gauge. Choices range from “superficial” (we should take care of our planet) and “shallow” (we should protect the earth for future generations) to “radically deep” (human extinction now before it’s too late to save the planet) and “abysmally deep” (humans should be immediately annihilated with a painful and fatal disease). I mention the Eco-Depth Gauge because The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood, features a group called God’s Gardeners that is preparing for the impending destruction of the world. The cataclysm will come not by the hand of God, but by human disregard for the environment. The Gardeners learn to survive without technology: everything they have is recycled, scavenged, gleaned, grown, or stolen in order to create the new Eden.
Not surprisingly, the Gardeners are vegans, though they learn how to find protein in the wild—from maggots to rakunks—for the day of apocalypse. But they are not eco-terrorists: those are the MaddAdams, who develop biological weapons such as asphalt-eating bacteria, and who are not averse to shedding human blood. The Gardeners are also a religious group, observing various saints days and festivals: Saint Dian Fossey, Saint Euell Gibbons, Saint Jacques Cousteau. They live the life they believe God intended for humans, that is, lightly on the earth. Atwood wrote a number of amazing hymns which the fictional Gardeners sing on their saints’ days. “The Earth forgives the Miner’s blast / That rends her crust and burns her skin; / The centuries bring Trees again / And water, and the Fish therein.” The hymns have actually been put to music. You can watch Atwood singing the Mole Hymn (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1ehL9cJ8ho) or to listen to the Hymn of Forgiveness on Youtube. You can also buy the CD (www.yearoftheflood.com). While the Gardeners are called cultists by some of the characters in the book, their total commitment to living as one with the earth and its creatures is praiseworthy, in my opinion. They are not romantic about the law of tooth and claw, seeing it instead as the cycle of life: what is food for one animal eventually becomes food for another. They even observe a “Predator Day” in honor of lions and tigers and bears. Without getting mawkish, I can identify with the sorrow the Gardeners feel for the loss of various species of animals and plants. The children in the Gardeners’ school memorize the names of the species that have gone extinct. Because the book is set in the future, panda, elephant, platypus and chimpazee appear along with the pterosaurus and the dodo on the list of the vanished. I don’t want to give away too much more about this compelling book except to note that Atwood appears not to have given up on the human race. I’m not so sure about myself some days, though, especially after seeing such documentaries as The Great Invisible, by Margaret Brown, about BP’s Deep Water Horizon oil disaster. Margaret Atwood. The Year of the Flood. Doubleday, 2009.
Shelley L Chase
4/11/2016 05:50:19 pm
This looks like an interesting book. I often become sick inside when I see such a lack of stewardship of our earth. I feel such a surge of excitement when I see examples of those who are doing their small part -- or even making gigantic inroads into the problems of saving the earth. I want to spread the good news -- then find I seem to be the only one in my small circle really excited about this. I also get quite confused, as when Obama called for an Earth Climate Conference to join with other nations to stop pollution. Then I see he has OK'd more drilling in the Alaska wilderness (if, this was correct information) and approves the TPP, which can eventually hurt our planet even more. (Thanks to activist and actor Mark Ruffalo for his actions to prevent this from going forward.) I will be looking for the above named book so I can bring myself a little hope and humor concerning the efforts of those who are doing their best to preserve our ecology. And, I LOVE celebrating St..Rachel Carson Day, et. al. Those are saints I can relate to!! Comments are closed.
|
Author Rebecca Moore is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at San Diego State University. She is currently Reviews Editor for Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions and Co-Director of The Jonestown Institute. Archives
December 2021
CategoriesContact:
[email protected] |