The Symbolic Quest Behind Today’s Cities of Light— and its Unintended Ecological Consequences
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v7i1.7Keywords:
light, symbol, ecological crisis, fuel fetish, directed attention, overconsumption, transcendenceAbstract
The symbol of light has commonly represented human desires for goodness, order, truth, perpetual abundance, and the transcendence of earthly limits. Modern practices of artificial light cultivation remain associated with a symbolic promise to banish darkness and its corollaries— lack, death, ignorance, disease, and chaos. In today’s global and increasingly urbanized world this association is most notably emblematized in the modern city, which is lit up at night in a technologically brilliant display that ironically also conveys the deepening ecological disaster of anthropogenic climate change. Responding to German philosopher Hans Blumenberg’s essay ‘Light as a Metaphor for Truth’, this article seeks to uncover the ways that technological figurations of light transform an ancient association with freedom into dangerous practices of fuel fetish and over-consumption. Increased awareness of such habits of overconsumption could help to decrease urban light pollution and the ecological danger that it signifies.References
Adorno, Theodor W., and Max Horkheimer. 2002 [1944]. Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments (Stanford: Stanford University Press).
Ball, Warwick. 2002. Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire (London: Routledge).
Barthes, Roland. 1974. Mythologies (London: Jonathan Cape).
Berry, Geoff. 2008. ‘Holy Wars Two Millennia Apart: Religious Rhetoric, Oppositional Politics, and Cultural Identity’, Iris; Journal of the Classical Association of Victoria 21: 43-55.
———. 2010a. ‘The Mythic Element of Mass Media and its Relation to Plato’s Cave’, Platform: Journal of Media and Communication ANZCA Special Edition (April): 72-85.
———. 2010b. ‘Under the Dominion of Light: An Ecocritical Mythography’ (PhD diss., Monash University). Online: http://arrow.monash.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/monash:29431.
The Bible, New Revised Standard Version. 2012. Online: http://www.biblestudytools.com/nrs.
Bille, Mikkel, and Tim Fløhr Sorensen. 2007. ‘An Anthropology of Luminosity: The Agency of Light’, Journal of Material Culture 12: 263-84. Doi: 10.1177/1359183507081894.
Bloch, Ernst. 1995 [1938–47]. The Principle of Hope (trans. Neville Plaice, Stephen Plaice and Paul Knight; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
Blumenberg, Hans. 1990. Work on Myth (trans. Robert M. Wallace; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
———. 1993. ‘Light as a Metaphor for Truth’, in D. Levin (ed.), Modernity and the Hegemony of Vision (Berkeley: University of California Press): 30-62.
Boyce, Mary. 2001. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (London: Routledge).
Brox, Jane. 2011. Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light (New York: Souvenir Press).
Campion, Nicholas. 1994. The Great Year: Astrology, Millenarianism and History in the Western Tradition (London: Penguin Arkana).
Caputo, Cosimo. 2001. ‘Light as Matter’, Semiotica 136: 217-43.
Eisenberg, Evan. 1998. The Ecology of Eden (New York: Alfred A. Knopf).
Fouquet, Helène. 2012. ‘Paris Faces Darkness as City of Light Set for Illumination Ban’. Online: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-04/paris-facesdarkness-as-city-of-light-set-for-illumination-ban.html.
Halsberghe, Gaston H. 1972. The Cult of Sol Invictus (Leiden: E.J. Brill).
Harrison, Robert Pogue. 1992. Forests: The Shadow of Civilization (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226318059.001.0001.
Hornung, Erik. 1999. Akhenaten and the Religion of Light (trans. David Lorton; Ithaca: Cornell University Press).
Jacobsen, Thorkild. 1968. ‘The Battle between Marduk and Tiamat’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 88: 104-108. Doi: 10.2307/597902.
Jameson, Fredric. 2005. Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions (London: Verso).
Kramer, Samuel Noah. 1969. Cradle of Civilization (New York: Time-Life).
———. 1970. The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Mackenzie, Donald. 2004 [1915]. Myths of Babylonia and Assyria (London: Kessinger Publishing).
Marchal, Virginie et al. 2011. ‘OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050: Climate Change Chapter’. Online: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/53/49082173.pdf.
Marx, Karl. 1970 [1867]. Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production (London: Lawrence & Wishart).
Merchant, Carolyn. 2003. Reinventing Eden: The Fate of Nature in Western Culture (New York: Routledge).
Monbiot, George. 2006. Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning (London: Allen Lane).
Moylan, Tom. 2000. Scraps of the Untainted Sky (Boulder, CO: Westview Press).
Nye, David E. 1991. Electrifying America (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
Plumwood, Val. 2008. ‘Shadow Places and the Politics of Dwelling’, Australian Humanities Review 44. Online: http://epress.anu.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/eco02.pdf.
Pritchard, James B. (ed.). 1969. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Rigby, Kate. 2002. ‘Ecocriticism’, in Julian Wolfreys (ed.), Introducing Criticism at the 21st Century (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press): 151-78.
Roll, Susan K. 1998. ‘Christ as Sun/King: The Historical Roots of a Perduring Dualism’, Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research 6: 133-42. Doi: 10.2143/ESWTR.6.0.2002961.
Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. 1995. Disenchanted Night; The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century (trans. Angela Davies; Berkeley: University of California Press).
Shelley, Mary. 1992 [1818]. Frankenstein (London: Penguin Books).
Tredinnick, Mark. 2008. ‘Original Country’, in Paul Bogard (ed.), Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark (Reno: University of Nevada Press): 150-59.
Tuan, Yi-Fu. 1978. ‘The City: Its Distance from Nature’, Geographical Review 68: 1-12. Doi: 10.2307/213507.
Tuveson, Ernest. 1972. Millennium and Utopia: A Study in the Background of the Idea of Progress (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith).
van Oort, Johannes. 1998. ‘Manichaeism: Its Sources and Influences on Western Christianity’, in Roelof van den Broek and Wouter J. Hanegraff (eds.), Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times (New York: State University of New York Press): 37-51.
Wessex Parallel Web Texts. 2003. ‘The Land of Cockaygne’. Online: http://www.soton.ac.uk/~wpwt/trans/cockaygn/coctrans.htm.
Westling, Louise H. 1996. The Green Breast of the New World (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press).
Wheeler, Wendy. 1999. A New Modernity? Change in Science, Literature and Politics (London: Lawrence & Wishart).
White, Lynn Jr. 1967. ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis’, Science 155.3767: 1203-207. Doi: 10.1126/science.155.3767.1203.
Ball, Warwick. 2002. Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire (London: Routledge).
Barthes, Roland. 1974. Mythologies (London: Jonathan Cape).
Berry, Geoff. 2008. ‘Holy Wars Two Millennia Apart: Religious Rhetoric, Oppositional Politics, and Cultural Identity’, Iris; Journal of the Classical Association of Victoria 21: 43-55.
———. 2010a. ‘The Mythic Element of Mass Media and its Relation to Plato’s Cave’, Platform: Journal of Media and Communication ANZCA Special Edition (April): 72-85.
———. 2010b. ‘Under the Dominion of Light: An Ecocritical Mythography’ (PhD diss., Monash University). Online: http://arrow.monash.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/monash:29431.
The Bible, New Revised Standard Version. 2012. Online: http://www.biblestudytools.com/nrs.
Bille, Mikkel, and Tim Fløhr Sorensen. 2007. ‘An Anthropology of Luminosity: The Agency of Light’, Journal of Material Culture 12: 263-84. Doi: 10.1177/1359183507081894.
Bloch, Ernst. 1995 [1938–47]. The Principle of Hope (trans. Neville Plaice, Stephen Plaice and Paul Knight; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
Blumenberg, Hans. 1990. Work on Myth (trans. Robert M. Wallace; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
———. 1993. ‘Light as a Metaphor for Truth’, in D. Levin (ed.), Modernity and the Hegemony of Vision (Berkeley: University of California Press): 30-62.
Boyce, Mary. 2001. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (London: Routledge).
Brox, Jane. 2011. Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light (New York: Souvenir Press).
Campion, Nicholas. 1994. The Great Year: Astrology, Millenarianism and History in the Western Tradition (London: Penguin Arkana).
Caputo, Cosimo. 2001. ‘Light as Matter’, Semiotica 136: 217-43.
Eisenberg, Evan. 1998. The Ecology of Eden (New York: Alfred A. Knopf).
Fouquet, Helène. 2012. ‘Paris Faces Darkness as City of Light Set for Illumination Ban’. Online: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-04/paris-facesdarkness-as-city-of-light-set-for-illumination-ban.html.
Halsberghe, Gaston H. 1972. The Cult of Sol Invictus (Leiden: E.J. Brill).
Harrison, Robert Pogue. 1992. Forests: The Shadow of Civilization (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226318059.001.0001.
Hornung, Erik. 1999. Akhenaten and the Religion of Light (trans. David Lorton; Ithaca: Cornell University Press).
Jacobsen, Thorkild. 1968. ‘The Battle between Marduk and Tiamat’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 88: 104-108. Doi: 10.2307/597902.
Jameson, Fredric. 2005. Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions (London: Verso).
Kramer, Samuel Noah. 1969. Cradle of Civilization (New York: Time-Life).
———. 1970. The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Mackenzie, Donald. 2004 [1915]. Myths of Babylonia and Assyria (London: Kessinger Publishing).
Marchal, Virginie et al. 2011. ‘OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050: Climate Change Chapter’. Online: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/53/49082173.pdf.
Marx, Karl. 1970 [1867]. Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production (London: Lawrence & Wishart).
Merchant, Carolyn. 2003. Reinventing Eden: The Fate of Nature in Western Culture (New York: Routledge).
Monbiot, George. 2006. Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning (London: Allen Lane).
Moylan, Tom. 2000. Scraps of the Untainted Sky (Boulder, CO: Westview Press).
Nye, David E. 1991. Electrifying America (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
Plumwood, Val. 2008. ‘Shadow Places and the Politics of Dwelling’, Australian Humanities Review 44. Online: http://epress.anu.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/eco02.pdf.
Pritchard, James B. (ed.). 1969. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Rigby, Kate. 2002. ‘Ecocriticism’, in Julian Wolfreys (ed.), Introducing Criticism at the 21st Century (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press): 151-78.
Roll, Susan K. 1998. ‘Christ as Sun/King: The Historical Roots of a Perduring Dualism’, Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research 6: 133-42. Doi: 10.2143/ESWTR.6.0.2002961.
Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. 1995. Disenchanted Night; The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century (trans. Angela Davies; Berkeley: University of California Press).
Shelley, Mary. 1992 [1818]. Frankenstein (London: Penguin Books).
Tredinnick, Mark. 2008. ‘Original Country’, in Paul Bogard (ed.), Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark (Reno: University of Nevada Press): 150-59.
Tuan, Yi-Fu. 1978. ‘The City: Its Distance from Nature’, Geographical Review 68: 1-12. Doi: 10.2307/213507.
Tuveson, Ernest. 1972. Millennium and Utopia: A Study in the Background of the Idea of Progress (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith).
van Oort, Johannes. 1998. ‘Manichaeism: Its Sources and Influences on Western Christianity’, in Roelof van den Broek and Wouter J. Hanegraff (eds.), Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times (New York: State University of New York Press): 37-51.
Wessex Parallel Web Texts. 2003. ‘The Land of Cockaygne’. Online: http://www.soton.ac.uk/~wpwt/trans/cockaygn/coctrans.htm.
Westling, Louise H. 1996. The Green Breast of the New World (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press).
Wheeler, Wendy. 1999. A New Modernity? Change in Science, Literature and Politics (London: Lawrence & Wishart).
White, Lynn Jr. 1967. ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis’, Science 155.3767: 1203-207. Doi: 10.1126/science.155.3767.1203.
Published
2013-04-03
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Berry, G. (2013). The Symbolic Quest Behind Today’s Cities of Light— and its Unintended Ecological Consequences. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 7(1), 7-26. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v7i1.7
