Conversations with the North Sea
In Search of a New Relationship with Nature
A quirky, adventurous book on whether humans and the sea can understand each other. Arita Baaijens researched for the Living Landscapes Foundation how we can move towards a society in which the sea helps us think about its own future, a future in which humans are no longer all-determining.
A desire to dominate land and sea is typically Dutch. Dredging, straightening out everything crooked and scattering wind farms; we do whatever we please without ever asking or thanking the nature we harness. This enslavement has always puzzled Arita Baaijens. On her travels, she saw how other cultures heard the voices of forests, mountains and rivers. So why not here? Baaijens explores what is usually overlooked.
Conversations with the North Sea opens the debate on how we deal with nature and takes the reader into an unknown world where language flows, shrimps solve philosophical problems and the sea comes intimately close.
“Akin to Bruno Latour’s ‘Parliament of Things’ concept which argues for viewing the world from the perspective of animals,plants and even things, and identifying with them.”
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