In his latest contribution to Emergence Magazine, titled "Strange New World" author Roy Scranton—an Associate Professor and Director of the Environmental Humanities Initiative—delves beneath the apparent "Cartesian plane" of the American Midwest. He seeks to uncover the deep, restless ecological and geological histories hidden just below the surface. After moving from the vertical, chaotic dynamism of New York, Scranton initially dismissed northern Indiana as nothing more than a blank surface, a space entirely paved over by industrial agriculture. However, he soon challenges this reductive view. Through the simple yet profound lens of a local hiking trail and the evocative words of an early botanist, Scranton argues that the region is anything but flat. Ultimately, he urges readers to peer beyond the superficial monotony to truly grasp the vast, ancient, and "restless maze" of ecological, geological, and even cosmological dimensions that ultimately define a place.
Link to the full article can be found here.