Stone: An Ecology of the Inhuman

“Stone: an ecology of the inhuman” examines the relationship of humans to stone for the purpose of encouraging a perspective that is not human centered. It points out, for instance, that viewed from the perspective of the short lifespan of a human being, stone is inert, stationary, unchanging, but from the perspective of geologic time it is none of those things. It uses the examples of monuments such as Stonehenge to suggest that stone can be seen as collaborating with humans to carry messages into the future for us, but also as performing their own kind of slow dance that one needs a sense of geologic time to appreciate. And it uses medieval lapidaries, or studies of the different kinds of stone and their properties, to show that although phrases like “Dead as a stone” were already in use, people in medieval times had a sense of stone as being much more lively, if not actually alive, than we do today.

This book is fascinating and fun to read, but dense. I could usually only read a few pages at a time. It is full of metaphoric, allusive and even playful language. Several times I laughed at what seemed to be puns that were meant seriously.
I recommend this for an intellectual workout.