Essays by Larry Barnett
By the time official word of Jacques Lehmann’s death reaches Pierre, he’s already known for a week. Jacques’ son Leon let’s Pierre know within hours of his father’s death. Jacques and Pierre, childhood friends in a Montreal community of French Jews, moved to Halifax and even roomed together… Read the rest
So much about American life seems crazy right now, the gun fetish, the QAnon conspiracies, the rabid left and right, the science deniers. It seems like many people in this country have simply gone mad as an air of unreality has taken hold. What the hell is going on?
Well, the notion of what constitutes reality… Read the rest
When the days begin to lengthen once again, the botanicus tribe prepares to return to the other side of the valley. The void created by the death of Karma is quickly filled by three new infants, two females who are named Crisp Leaf and Shiny Pebble and one male named Hot Wind. The smallest children,… Read the rest
There are many parallels between the craziness of modern society and individual craziness. Before I continue, let’s define craziness first.
Craziness is the experience of the world as fragmented and incoherent, disordered, bereft of belonging or the logic of cause and effect, and appearing as inauthentic… Read the rest
Another decade passes; life in Halifax for Pierre and Len has settled down to a predictable, daily routine. Halifax has settled down too, as its population is halved by aging, disease and the limits of medicine. The smaller demand on unstable resources like energy, food, and housing, however,… Read the rest
We live in a consumer society that underpins the world economy; money, it’s said, makes the world go ‘round. I could spend a entire column decrying this fact, how consumerism is gutting our planet, destroying habitat, driving species extinction and fueling climate change, but we all know that. Instead,… Read the rest
The short autumn season passes into winter quickly; the hours of sunlight shorten and the botanicus family spends many of its hours in dormancy. Because they rely upon photosynthesis for energy production, nighttime naturally prompts sleep, their diurnal pattern of wakefulness and sleep… Read the rest
Like any physical object used regularly, human bodies wear out; joints lose cartilage, cataracts develop, muscles get weaker, organs lose efficiency, healing happens slower, bones get more brittle, and memory…oh yes, memory gets worse. Now I remember.
The Watcher, the self-conscious “I” that … Read the rest
“I thought I’d find you here, Len,” says Pierre, walking into the library. “What are you reading?” “‘King Lear’, father. Have you read it?” Len replies. “A long time ago, but yes,” Pierre nods and plops himself into a cushioned chair across from Len. “Well, what do you think of it?” he … Read the rest
In statistics, ‘reversion to the mean’ is a term used to describe that observation of the extreme is followed by observation of the less extreme, or one might say, a more normal average. In other words, no matter how wild results may appear, over time they return closer to normal. The same may be said of … Read the rest
Recent rains transform the landscape. Wildflowers suddenly cover the hillsides of the valley and grasses surge in the meadows; dormant during the dry weather but now come back to life, fresh green shoots emerge by inches everyday day. Growth is not limited to plants only, however; a new addition… Read the rest
Not many of my friends like opera, but I do. Yes, it’s incessantly melodramatic, filled with extremes of human behavior, broadly comedic and invariably tragic, but that’s just what I like about it.
Opera is like life. Its main characters are tortured, and like Shakespeare’s, suffer the torments of … Read the rest
“Eat and be eaten. Such is the law of the universe.” So begins Pierre’s presentation to the Executive Board of the Food Science Institute. Given the stress placed upon the city’s shrinking population and its aging infrastructure, he’s invited to speak and offer his ideas about possible solutions.… Read the rest
At the beginning of 20th century, coincident with the rise of high technology and the advancement of science – the telegraph, radio, personal automobiles, and the shift from agrarian to industrial culture – the way people related to each other and themselves began a major transition:… Read the rest
The discovery of other “green” animals in the valley has unanticipated results. The family has expanded to include not just Homo botanicus, but the new members, the botanicus “pigs.” The botanicus children, in particular, bond with the little creatures, and spend time singing with them.… Read the rest
Remember “plug and play”? An obsolete term almost upon its introduction, it’s joined a host of other falsities of modern civilization. I put “plug and play” to the test a month ago when my wife and I bought a new HP all-in-one printer. I’m a follow-the-directions-kinda-guy, but it made no difference;… Read the rest
The ride through Halifax is unproblematic; the vehicle’s transponder, registered with the city government, is automatically detected and because Jacques Lehmann is the head of the Food Science Institute, his vehicle and its passengers are pre-cleared for passage. Private vehicles … Read the rest
I am my mind and my body, and they are me. So it is that my self-consciousness imagines itself. My inner thoughts, unspoken but constructed of words nonetheless, convert my embodied experience of being to the symbolic and then back to embodied again. I feel hungry; I think “I am hungry;” I find something… Read the rest
Saha awakens to the distant sound of thunder, a relatively rare experience in her life. While rainfall still falls on the wild lands of Nova Scotia, thunderstorms, with their lightening, hail and sometimes torrential downpours are infrequent. At the next clap, much louder, the entire clan… Read the rest
In her remarkable book, The Reproduction of Evil, psychologist Sue Grand highlights the role of the onlooker. Evil, she points out, is often the result of harm inflicted on a propagator, trauma and abuse endured by the propagator at the hands of others that gets passed on to new victims, some of whom go… Read the rest