Nature and Embodiment in This Weird Estate

Abstract

In an essay entitled ‘Pathologies’ Jamie reflects on the role of the microscopic other in endangering human wellbeing and continuing life. This ‘inner natural world’ is both complex and contingent however; developments at the interface between creativity and technology have for some time problematized the concept of the body as singularly ‘human’ in character. Jamie’s engagement with the intricacy of bodily experience and representation, in particular with notions of the ‘other within’, is explored in a new way in a short sequence of poems published as This Weird Estate in 2007. These poems were written in response to anatomical representations of the early 19th century, several of which relate specifically to reproductive disease; they consider this most proximate of encounters—that of the child in the womb with the body of the mother—as a site within which other forms of nature exert an invisible yet powerful force. This chapter situates these poems at the interface of the poet’s engagement with generational change and ecological responsibility.