Writing on Water: A Terra Nova Book

Abstract

Review: Writing on Water: A Terra Nova Book Edited by David Rothenberg and Marta Ulvaeus Reviewed by Enzo Ferrara Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale, Italy David Rothenberg and Marta Ulvaeus (Eds.). Writing on Water: A Terra Nova Book. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. 288pp. ISBN 0-262-18211-4 (Hardcover). US $24.95 The Terra Nova project aims to assess the artistic and cultural aspects of environmental issues, provided that they are scientific and political. The second book in the series, Writing on Water, is an effective selection of short works. It covers almost everything about water, from the practice of resource management and protection to the mysteries that water hides. Geology, ecology, chemistry, sociology, economics, myth, and history are included. The book is divided into five sections, with each one devoted to a specific theme. Several questions are posed and analyses of human relationships with water are offered. A scientific and philosophical approach is taken, mainly through introspective debates. Reflections are complemented with black and white photographs. Source and Substance, the pilot chapter, contains a scientific essay on the properties of aqueous solutions, remarking on how our understanding still fails as the investigation gets deeper. Political reflections on watersheds follow, along with poetry celebrating water as the ancestor of life. Teaching of the Flow warns us to respect the environmental equilibrium of water as taught by reflections upon the ancestral odysseys of men and salmon meeting in fisheries, or by the question of the immorality of weather modification proposed about the flood that struck Rapid City in 1972. Self- reflections are suggested when we are asked how much awareness exists in us about some kinds of subtle pollution, unconsciously circulating underground. Diving Deep is on the hidden, profound soul of water. Or, metaphorically, it is about the abyss where humans choose to keep their fears and hopes. An amusing novel here treats the inner conflict of scientific and poetical moods. Different rationales are found, but continue to be sought amid the covert aqueous straits of a mountain lake. Swept Away deals with the cycling rhythm of life, quiet as a shore can be or tumultuous as a swift river. One contribution smartly invokes correspondences