Monstrosity

 

I am a spider plant, a decoration standing on a shelf of a living room. I sit there and often observe my owner laying on the couch and watching TV. I would like to tell you about what I saw and how I felt the other day.

It was a cold Sunday afternoon outside. A pleasant heat was coming from the fire place, where chopped wood was slowly vanishing into dust. At first, I didn’t especially enjoy the scary show happening on the screen: a terrifying monster, too much cruelty, too much destruction. I by far preferred the background of cracking, sparkling and smoking that emanated from the fire place.

But then she changed chain. It looked like a documentary, we were virtually flying over a stunning scenery. It was so green, so fresh, so broad, so beautiful and yet in pain. I recognized instantly that place, which I originally come from. It was the Congo basin rainforest.

I have to admit that I was equally frightened by this second chain my owner picked. Because here, I could see monsters too. I saw monsters because I saw destruction. I won’t teach you anything new when I claim that destruction is everywhere on the planet. We are heading towards a future in which only monsters can survive.

It is past the time when we used to be considered as individuals. We know now, as established in my previous writings, that life is an entanglement of units, a « co-making of living things ». Nevertheless, we also know that each ecosystem that ever existed on the planet host monsters and therefore carries destruction. This is the reason why life is a vulnerable concept.

In this documentary and in so many others, it is a common mean of communication to highlight the different monsters in the planetary destruction in order to trigger fear and guilt. While wood metaphorically died into fire next to her, my owner witnessed the consequences of monstrosity on her own web of life.

Romane Nanchen

Advertisement