Category Archives: Ecology

Storytelling and Ecology: Empathy, Enchantment, and Emergence in the Use of Oral Narratives

Posted on September 3, 2021 by jananson

Storytelling and Ecology, from Bloomsbury Academic, is my first academic monograph. The writing of it – the second draft in particular – was quite an intense experience, since it coincided with the first five months of the pandemic. The concept … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, Mythology, Storytelling | Tagged Anthony Nanson, Bloomsbury, connection, Ecology, monograph, Storytelling, Storytelling and Ecology | Leave a comment

Arran Stibbe – Ecolinguistics – Review

Posted on July 7, 2019 by jananson

Arran Stibbe is the founder of the International Ecolinguistics Association. On this subject of ecolinguistics he, quite literally, wrote the book. The subject, and this superb book, is all about applying the tools of linguistics to the service of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, Literary criticism, Review | Tagged Arran Stibbe, ecolinguistics, ecosophy | 1 Comment

Alida Gersie’s Earthtales (review)

Posted on February 6, 2019 by jananson

Alida Gersie’s celebrated Earthtales is, in large part, a collection of traditional tales that have to do with the earth and its creatures. Most are from cultures that have been endangered by the imperialism of Western modernity, which by the … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, Mythology, Storytelling | Tagged Alida Gersie, arts therapist, Earthtales, groupwork, storymaking, Storytelling, traditional tales | Leave a comment

Valerian and Laureline and the Dream of Paradise

Posted on August 7, 2017 by jananson

I was wrong to think that the guy and the girl always had equal billing in the title of the original comic series: Valérian et Laureline was for most of its history Valérian, agent spatio-temporel. But I still reckon the … Continue reading →

Posted in Comics, Ecology, film, science fiction | Tagged indigenous peoples, Luc Besson, Orientalism, Paradise, Valérian et Laureline, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets | Leave a comment

Kim Stanley Robinson’s Forty Signs of Rain

Posted on April 27, 2017 by jananson

Having tackled the environmental politics of Mars and Antarctica, Kim Stanley Robinson took on the challenge of global warming. Forty Signs of Rain is the first instalment of a trilogy and should not be judged as a stand-alone novel. Most of it … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, Fiction, science fiction | Tagged climate change, Forty Signs of Rain, global warming, Kim Stanley Robinson | Leave a comment

A Prehistoric Giant African Weasel

Posted on March 22, 2017 by jananson

When I was a boy I got interested in the mammals of the world – including a particular affection for the Mustelidae, or weasel family. I guess that’s why it struck a chord when I found out about a large … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, Prehistory | Tagged Africa, Deep Time, Ekorus, Evolving Eden, mammals, Mustelidae | 2 Comments

Jean Hegland’s Into the Forest

Posted on January 6, 2017 by jananson

I first heard about Jean Hegland’s novel Into the Forest in an Interzone review by David Pringle in 1998, two years after the book was published. Hegland is a West Coast author and Pringle positioned her novel in a subgenre … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, Fiction, science fiction | Tagged California SF, David Pringle, dystopia, Into the Forest, Jean Hegland, Ursula Le Guin, utopia | Leave a comment

Review: Words of Re-Enchantment by Anthony Nanson – by Lorna Smithers

Posted on October 20, 2016 by jananson

Originally posted on GODS & RADICALS:
Anthony Nanson is a storyteller and writer based in Stroud. He currently runs Awen Publications. Words of Re-Enchantment: Writings on Storytelling, Myth and Ecological Desire is a collection of essays originally written for various…

Posted in Ecology, Mythology, Storytelling | Leave a comment

Cycling Back to the South Pacific

Posted on August 23, 2016 by jananson

One thing I always intended to blog about was my field research for Deep Time. I’ve done a post about the trip to Gabon, but not yet about the one to New Caledonia – and now I’m about to return … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, Travel | Tagged Cretaceous, cycling, Deep Time, flora, New Caledonia, novel, prehistoric, trees | 3 Comments

Richard Kerridge’s Cold Blood

Posted on June 4, 2016 by jananson

There are not too many dinosaurs in Britain today, unless you count the birds. And as a kid with my animal books I was underwhelmed by the slender list of living reptiles this country boasts: three kinds of snake and … Continue reading →