The Resource Against purity : living ethically in compromised times, Alexis Shotwell
Against purity : living ethically in compromised times, Alexis Shotwell
Resource Information
The item Against purity : living ethically in compromised times, Alexis Shotwell represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Austin Public Library.This item is available to borrow from 1 library branch.
Resource Information
The item Against purity : living ethically in compromised times, Alexis Shotwell represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Austin Public Library.
This item is available to borrow from 1 library branch.
- Summary
- "The world is in a terrible mess. It is toxic, irradiated, and full of injustice. Aiming to stand aside from the mess can produce a seemingly satisfying self-righteousness in the scant moments we achieve it, but since it is ultimately impossible, individual purity will always disappoint. Might it be better to understand complexity and, indeed, our own complicity in much of what we think of as bad, as fundamental to our lives? Against Purity argues that the only answer--if we are to have any hope of tackling the past, present, and future of colonialism, disease, pollution, and climate change--is a resounding yes. Proposing a powerful new conception of social movements as custodians for the past and incubators for liberated futures, Against Purity undertakes an analysis that draws on theories of race, disability, gender, and animal ethics as a foundation for an innovative approach to the politics and ethics of responding to systemic problems. Being against purity means that there is no primordial state we can recover, no Eden we have desecrated, no pretoxic body we might uncover through enough chia seeds and kombucha. There is no preracial state we could access, no erasing histories of slavery, forced labor, colonialism, genocide, and their concomitant responsibilities and requirements. There is no food we can eat, clothes we can buy, or energy we can use without deepening our ties to complex webbings of suffering. So, what happens if we start from there? Alexis Shotwell shows the importance of critical memory practices to addressing the full implications of living on colonized land; how activism led to the official reclassification of AIDS; why we might worry about studying amphibians when we try to fight industrial contamination; and that we are all affected by nuclear reactor meltdowns. The slate has never been clean, she reminds us, and we can't wipe off the surface to start fresh--there's no fresh to start. But, Shotwell argues, hope found in a kind of distributed ethics, in collective activist work, and in speculative fiction writing for gender and disability liberation that opens new futures."--
- Language
- eng
- Extent
- 236 pages
- Contents
-
- Complexity and complicity : an introduction to constitutive impurity
- Part I. Reckoning with a fraught past. Remembering for the future : reckoning with an unjust past
- "Women don't get AIDS, they just die from it" : memory, classification, and the campaign to change the definition of AIDS
- Part II. Living in an interdependent present. Shimmering presences : frog, toad, and toxic interdependencies
- Consuming suffering : eating, energy, and embodied ethics
- Part III. Shaping unforeseeable futures. Practicing freedom : disability and gender transformation
- Worlds to come : imagining speculative disability futures
- Conclusion : the point, however, is to change it
- Isbn
- 9780816698646
- Label
- Against purity : living ethically in compromised times
- Title
- Against purity
- Title remainder
- living ethically in compromised times
- Statement of responsibility
- Alexis Shotwell
- Language
- eng
- Summary
- "The world is in a terrible mess. It is toxic, irradiated, and full of injustice. Aiming to stand aside from the mess can produce a seemingly satisfying self-righteousness in the scant moments we achieve it, but since it is ultimately impossible, individual purity will always disappoint. Might it be better to understand complexity and, indeed, our own complicity in much of what we think of as bad, as fundamental to our lives? Against Purity argues that the only answer--if we are to have any hope of tackling the past, present, and future of colonialism, disease, pollution, and climate change--is a resounding yes. Proposing a powerful new conception of social movements as custodians for the past and incubators for liberated futures, Against Purity undertakes an analysis that draws on theories of race, disability, gender, and animal ethics as a foundation for an innovative approach to the politics and ethics of responding to systemic problems. Being against purity means that there is no primordial state we can recover, no Eden we have desecrated, no pretoxic body we might uncover through enough chia seeds and kombucha. There is no preracial state we could access, no erasing histories of slavery, forced labor, colonialism, genocide, and their concomitant responsibilities and requirements. There is no food we can eat, clothes we can buy, or energy we can use without deepening our ties to complex webbings of suffering. So, what happens if we start from there? Alexis Shotwell shows the importance of critical memory practices to addressing the full implications of living on colonized land; how activism led to the official reclassification of AIDS; why we might worry about studying amphibians when we try to fight industrial contamination; and that we are all affected by nuclear reactor meltdowns. The slate has never been clean, she reminds us, and we can't wipe off the surface to start fresh--there's no fresh to start. But, Shotwell argues, hope found in a kind of distributed ethics, in collective activist work, and in speculative fiction writing for gender and disability liberation that opens new futures."--
- Assigning source
- From Amazon
- Cataloging source
- DLC
- http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
- 1974-
- http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
- Shotwell, Alexis
- Dewey number
- 170
- Index
- index present
- Literary form
- non fiction
- Nature of contents
- bibliography
- http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
-
- Purity (Ethics)
- Purity (Philosophy)
- Conduct of life
- Civilization, Modern
- Civilization, Modern
- Conduct of life
- Purity (Ethics)
- Purity (Philosophy)
- Label
- Against purity : living ethically in compromised times, Alexis Shotwell
- Bibliography note
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-228) and index
- Carrier category
- volume
- Carrier category code
-
- nc
- Carrier MARC source
- rdacarrier
- Content category
- text
- Content type code
-
- txt
- Content type MARC source
- rdacontent
- Contents
- Complexity and complicity : an introduction to constitutive impurity -- Part I. Reckoning with a fraught past. Remembering for the future : reckoning with an unjust past -- "Women don't get AIDS, they just die from it" : memory, classification, and the campaign to change the definition of AIDS -- Part II. Living in an interdependent present. Shimmering presences : frog, toad, and toxic interdependencies -- Consuming suffering : eating, energy, and embodied ethics -- Part III. Shaping unforeseeable futures. Practicing freedom : disability and gender transformation -- Worlds to come : imagining speculative disability futures -- Conclusion : the point, however, is to change it
- Control code
- 1728564
- Dimensions
- 22 cm
- Extent
- 236 pages
- Isbn
- 9780816698646
- Lccn
- 2016008376
- Media category
- unmediated
- Media MARC source
- rdamedia
- Media type code
-
- n
- System control number
-
- (Sirsi) i9780816698646
- (OCoLC)951157646
- Label
- Against purity : living ethically in compromised times, Alexis Shotwell
- Bibliography note
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-228) and index
- Carrier category
- volume
- Carrier category code
-
- nc
- Carrier MARC source
- rdacarrier
- Content category
- text
- Content type code
-
- txt
- Content type MARC source
- rdacontent
- Contents
- Complexity and complicity : an introduction to constitutive impurity -- Part I. Reckoning with a fraught past. Remembering for the future : reckoning with an unjust past -- "Women don't get AIDS, they just die from it" : memory, classification, and the campaign to change the definition of AIDS -- Part II. Living in an interdependent present. Shimmering presences : frog, toad, and toxic interdependencies -- Consuming suffering : eating, energy, and embodied ethics -- Part III. Shaping unforeseeable futures. Practicing freedom : disability and gender transformation -- Worlds to come : imagining speculative disability futures -- Conclusion : the point, however, is to change it
- Control code
- 1728564
- Dimensions
- 22 cm
- Extent
- 236 pages
- Isbn
- 9780816698646
- Lccn
- 2016008376
- Media category
- unmediated
- Media MARC source
- rdamedia
- Media type code
-
- n
- System control number
-
- (Sirsi) i9780816698646
- (OCoLC)951157646
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<div class="citation" vocab="http://schema.org/"><i class="fa fa-external-link-square fa-fw"></i> Data from <span resource="http://link.library.austintexas.gov/portal/Against-purity--living-ethically-in-compromised/4a5BTCnix5U/" typeof="Book http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/Item"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a href="http://link.library.austintexas.gov/portal/Against-purity--living-ethically-in-compromised/4a5BTCnix5U/">Against purity : living ethically in compromised times, Alexis Shotwell</a></span> - <span property="potentialAction" typeOf="OrganizeAction"><span property="agent" typeof="LibrarySystem http://library.link/vocab/LibrarySystem" resource="http://link.library.austintexas.gov/"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a property="url" href="http://link.library.austintexas.gov/">Austin Public Library</a></span></span></span></span></div>
