Natural Causes: The Nature Issue

Conjunctions #64

by China Miéville (contributor)

In Natural Causes, a provocative collection of radical reinventions of the genre of nature writing, we encounter shrimp farms and spoonbills, maize husks and Austrian woods, tarantulas and eels, multitudinous winds that pollinate or desiccate—nature in all its myriad forms, right down to photons, neutrons, neutrinos, and, yes, even Godzilla, the Sasquatch, and some of nature’s other fictive and folkloric monsters.

Genres: Poetry, Nature

424 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 28, 2015

About the author

A British "fantastic fiction" writer. He is fond of describing his work as "weird fiction" (after early 20th century pulp and horror writers such as H. P. Lovecraft), and belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird who consciously attempt to move fantasy away from commercial, genre clichés of Tolkien epigons. He is also active in left-wing politics as a member of the Socialist Workers Party. He has stood for the House of Commons for the Socialist Alliance, and published a book on Marxism and international law.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

After almost being put off this book by the first story that struck me as somewhat pointless overview of pollinating corn, and several poems that just didn't appeal, I found material that made me glad I stayed with this work by a wide variety of authors. All revolve around man's ever-changing relationship with the natural world. One is even a trippy play on an old sci fi story---call it an update of sorts. My reward for continued reading was a collection of essays and stories, many of which were clever, interesting and distinctly different from anything I've read before.

I particularly enjoyed "Last Days Feeding Frenzy" by Russell Banks, "Transformation Day" by Lucy Ives, "Brother Who Comes Back Before the Next Very Big Winter" by Benjamin Hale, "Big Burnt" by Joyce Carol Oates, "The Return to Monsterland" by Sequoia Nagamatsu, "The Confession of Philippe Delambre" by Greg Hrbek, and "After the Jump" by Matthew Pitt.

Sadly, the poetry throughout the collection simply was not for me. Others might find the poetry involving since poetry can be such a personal taste.

So this was a mixed reading experience for me but there were definite pluses as can be seen in the number of stories I've mentioned above, mostly by authors new to me.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley.

I haven’t read the other collections in this series, so I can’t compare it to them, just so you know.

Natural Causes is a collection of nature writing that is suppose to push nature writing in another direct or add another layer to it. It doesn’t quite do that as most of the writing comes off as simply fantasy fiction. Mind you, it’s not bad fantasy fiction.

Or maybe that’s my reaction because I read fantasy.

There are selections that do push the definition of nature writing. Most of them are poetry, though there a few stand out essay or short story pieces.

The collection starts strong with “Frothy Elegance & Loose Concupiscence” by Karen Hays. If you have read the work of Pollen, in particular his writing about corn intercourse, you will dig this essay. In it, Hays not only manages to describe corn but to use it to shed light on those who tend it. You learn just as much about the plant as you do about the human condition. Hays is followed by some outstanding poetry – in particular Thomas Bernhard’s “Eight Poems”, which make want to see if any more of his work is in translation.

“Transformation Day” by Lucy Ives is a rather interesting, if metaphorical tale about how perspective changes. It will make the reader re-think how to see things. While Benjamin Hale’s “Brother Who Com Comes Back Before the Next Very Big Winter” is a bit too long for my personal taste, the subject matter, living a town associated with a famous urban legend among other things, but also about life. It’s followed by Evelyn Hampton’s “Fishmaker” which is a rather good re-imaging of a creation myth.

The collection is closed out by China Mieville’s “Listen the Birds, A Trailer”, which just proves my long held point about robins wanting to be our overlords, though you might not be aware of it. It’s a view I’ve long held, and only the sparrows can save this (though Mieville doesn’t seem aware of this).

The essays and fiction in-between “Fishmaker” and “Listen the Birds, A Trailer” are not quite as intriguing as the poetry, though they are good and cover everything from plants to hyenas.
But the poetry. The poetry stays with you.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This issue was mostly fine. A little dated, i guess, and some of the stories had me scanning. i need to practice my patience for poetry, and conjunctions always provides plenty of range.