Petrified: Living During a Rupture of Life on Earth (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9783111381732)

A rupture of life on Earth is currently unfolding. What, then, does this rupture signify, not only in terms of being alive during such an upheaval, but also in terms of being alive to upheaval itself? Petrified: Living During a Rupture of Life on Earth offers a novel and startling comprehension of what it means to be alive both to this rupture and during this rupture, by reframing the current human-induced ecological crisis in the context of just how volatile life on this planet actually is.

This comprehension is formulated through two transitive states: being petrified, which refers to the everyday sensation of being alive to the rupture; and becoming petrified, meaning the fossilisation of species becoming extinct due to the rupture. Bringing these two states into dialogue with one another, Petrified embeds the current crisis within an expansive view of life that embraces - rather than braces for - impact. This worldview neither negates nor dismisses human culpability with regards to the rupture unfolding, but rather seeks an honest path forward into the crisis, rather than a path around or through it.

Petrified aims to provide a new worldview for a new world coming, creating a present-day fable about achieving fidelity to the vicissitudes of the cosmos. Wherein, the book asks: if desperate times call for desperate measures, how can the reply be measured against its only true correlate - the cosmos?