tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post1690425055538643627..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: Fire, Air, Earth, Water: Elemental Order vs. Phenomenological OrderCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-18746051219637629692015-01-03T07:22:53.996-05:002015-01-03T07:22:53.996-05:00I love the convolutions of this map, which attempt...I love the convolutions of this map, which attempts to but cannot quite reconcile disparate cosmic orderings. It reminds me very much of Gervase of Tilbury, who in the first book of the Otia Imperialia likewise attempts (though only textually) a cartography that will bring together different modes of apprehending the cosmos. It doesn't work but the interleaving he achieves is fantasic.<br /><br />Karl, you probably know this already but the second chapter ("Machine of the World") of Robert Bartlett's The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages has much about these kinds of elemental cartographic emplotments, dealing with some of the issues you raise here.<br /><br />Asa, I have a forthcoming essay on the very topic you raise: imagining the waters of the ocean as both below and above the human world. It will be out in a collection called Elemental Ecocriticism this year!Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-12642750873399820172014-12-31T21:30:19.206-05:002014-12-31T21:30:19.206-05:00Excellent post. I, too, love this odd map. What ...Excellent post. I, too, love this odd map. What about the "waters beneath the earth" (Second Commandment)? How does that fit into the ordering of the elements? Water is both above AND below the earth, no?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07739030407138098739noreply@blogger.com