This book.

I don't know how to write about this book, exactly. At first, I felt as if I were immersed in my summer doctoral classes (Post-Humanism and Dark Ecology), and to be honest, I wish I'd read this book before I'd taken those classes--it would have set the stage for so many smart things we discussed and would have helped boost me a bit in terms of the swirl of jargon that occurs in these courses.

Wilk's book is not aswirl in jargon, but it just as smart, if not more so, as sitting in on these classes. Each essay is a self-contained object and the whole sequence pings against each other in a kind of beautiful rhythm that deeply resonated with me, from the dark exploration of our climate catastrophe to the many ways we get generate material to the awful toll trauma takes on our bodies.

I found myself cheering when she resurrected a book or film or author I loved and making a list of all the material I needed to read / consume because most of what I was familiar with, I love. I appreciated reading these, as if listening to a valuable lecture on a topic I didn't fully know I'd love to consider. I thought so much reading this book, and if I didn't feel the need to quickly get a review out (because it just came out this week, so please, go get a copy!), I would have savored it more.

So: I loved this book so much, I ordered it, even though I was able to read it for free in exchange for a review via NetGalley. I will now get to savor it by reading it again. It's on its way and will live on my shelves, and if you know me, you know that I live with lots of books, but it's precious real estate. This is worth keeping and re-reading for certain. I'm excited to re-read it in a few years when the pandemic is a more distant memory and see how the epilogue sits. I'm excited to see if I've made my own progress in my own work too--productiveness is a great theme of this book, and I have some catching up to do.

I want more like this. Please tell me another is coming soon. I am feeling greedy.

This book also appeared in my Instagram stories on 7/21/22 and will likely appear on the grid again when the physical copy arrives.

Death by Landscape is fascinating, reflective, and thoughtful work. I appreciate the way the author draws on source materials with analysis to think through larger questions.