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Is an anthropomorphization of the oceans possible? And, why bother to do so? How are we to grasp the magnitude of what is going on in Ocean ecologies as urban dwellers seem far removed from such concerns? The following essay is an attempt to draw our species relationship to the Oceans closer by addressing several dimensions of existential life that enables us to "feel" and be affected by lifting a veil of disregard toward the silent scream that is now ringing throughout its depths. I start with its pain, which, as Nietzsche reminds us: "In pain there is as much wisdom as in pleasure: like the latter it is one of the best self preservations of a species" (1974, Aphorism # 318). To answer this "pain," I then turn to its wonder so that we may recognize what is being lost as the beauty of its diversity disappears. From there I raise the specter of its wild, evoking aspects of the new animism of personhood that has emerged, and I end on a hopeful note, calling on the artist as sorcerer to open a way for a future yet-to-come.

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/734654

Anthropomorphising The Ocean