In this week's reading, we read " Slow Violence" by Rob Nixon and the first few pages of the book "Ceremony" by Leslie Marmon Silko. In "Slow Violence" the article starts by talking about this idea of the long-term effects that can be categorized as slow violence to nature and humankind. This article tells us to emphasize the temporal dispersion of slow
violence and how it can change the way see and react to social crises. In "Ceremony", this story focuses on the healing process of the main character Tayo. Silko addresses the philosophical equality between the beings of nature, this includes humans. This book exposes the violence and deserted environment and atmosphere caused by human beings. It seems as if her purpose is to make an ecological and fair environment where there is no violence or domination of one species.
When I read "Slow Violence" I was stunned by this idea of slow violence being silent but deadly. These things that are said to be "Violence" are usually not visible to the public eye and cause other dangers to the environment. This passage stood out to me:
"We are accustomed to conceiving violence as immediate and explosive, erupting into instant, concentrated visibility. But we need to revisit our assumptions and consider the relative invisibility of slow violence. I mean a violence that is neither spectacular nor instantaneous but instead incremental, whose calamitous repercussions are postponed for years or decades or centuries."
This suggests that societies (environments) have grown accustomed to violence because they are surrounded by it and it can be seen or underlying everywhere. Environmental issues are those stated here as "slow violence". They are called this because most of these issues move slowly. The effects of living in a world with constant violence blind you to those that are right in front of you and we forget of the slow term damage to nature.
In the "Ceremony", the book starts telling the tale of a young native American named Tayo who survived WWII. His road to curing post-traumatic stress is done through this healing called a ceremony. The first person who attempts to heal Tayo the traditional way fails (he vomits the medicine). Tayo's illness is symbolic of the damage done to the pueblo people through the theft and destruction of their land by the "white man". Destruction is seen in the war and was accepted by the white society as something they sign up for. The damage done to these veterans is parallel to the destruction the "white men" have done to the land. Tayo's illness and detachment interest me and this can be seen in this passage:
"For a long time, he had been white smoke. He did not realize that until he left the hospital, because white smoke had no consciousness of itself. It faded into the white world of their bedsheets and walls; it was sucked away by the words of doctors who tried to talk to the invisible scattered smoke... They saw his outline but they did not realize it was hollow inside." (14)
Tayo's post-traumatic stress isn't only a cloud of smoke but a "white smoke". White smoke in Indigenous cultures plays a role in the community and ceremonies. This ties back to this idea of violence being slow and there for the public to see but they're accustom to the violence.
How do the poems and legends that are talked about in Silko's text influence your reading of the novel? Why do you think this book isn't separated into chapters? How does Silko transition? What are forms of "slow violence" that we seen nowadays?
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