Laura Marris, an accomplished essayist and poet, unveils the concept of ecological loneliness as both a cause and reflection of isolation in society. She highlights how our disconnection from nature not only impacts personal relationships but also the environment. The conversation reframes loneliness as a pathway to hope, illuminating its potential for introspection and societal insight. Marris encourages listeners to reconnect with their surroundings, suggesting that understanding our isolation may spark meaningful transformation.
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insights INSIGHT
Ecological Loneliness
Loneliness, especially ecological loneliness, results from disconnection from the living world.
This disconnection is reciprocal, harming both individuals and the environment.
insights INSIGHT
Loneliness and Social Training
Societal views on loneliness often focus on individualistic and gendered aspects.
However, the planetary and ecological stakes of loneliness connect to this individualistic view.
insights INSIGHT
Ground-Truthing Loneliness
Loneliness can be ground-truthed by observing changes in familiar places.
A society focused on growth and capital can foster isolation, making loneliness its shadow side.
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Laura Marris's "The Age of Loneliness" explores the interconnectedness of loneliness, ecological loss, and community science. The book examines the concept of the 'Eremocene,' or the age of loneliness, coined by E.O. Wilson, highlighting the reciprocal relationship between human actions and environmental consequences. Marris investigates the impact of ecological grief and proposes that loneliness can be a tool for understanding our longing for connection with nature. She shares stories of community science projects, showcasing how collective action can foster hope and resilience in the face of environmental challenges. The book ultimately encourages a re-evaluation of our relationship with the environment, emphasizing the importance of community and collective action.
Loneliness is what results when a person is cut off from the living world. Ecological loneliness, in particular, is reciprocal - what we mete out always comes back to trouble us. However, as Laura Marris demonstrates, loneliness can entail the shadow work for understanding how a society based on capital and on growth, can create profound isolation. She suggests that this work can look like ground truthing a place that has changed over time, that was once familiar to us, either as individuals or as collectives, but now appears alien.
Laura Marris is an essayist, poet, and translator. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Believer, Harper’s, The New York Times, The Paris Review Daily, The Yale Review, Words Without Borders and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from MacDowell, a Katharine Bakeless Fellowship from the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and a grant from the Robert B. Silvers Foundation. Her first solo-authored book, The Age of Loneliness, was published by Graywolf in August, 2024. She lives in Buffalo.
Image: “The Monk by the Sea” by Caspar David Friedrich, now housed at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. The image is in the public domain.
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