Affinities

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction: Affinities as an Invitation to Think Differently 1

Part One: Sensations of Living

Why Sensations? 7

Facets of Sensation 11

1. Ashes, ghosts and the âsense of presenceâ 11

2. âGrandmaâs Handsâ by Bill Withers (version by Gil ScottHeron) 17

3. The sensations of others: childrenâs perspectives 18

Looks 21

Voices, volume and imitation 22

Size, height, weight, growing 24

Play fighting and real fighting 26

Bodily proximity with others 27

Relational traces and bodily inscriptions 27

4. The sensory-kinaesthetic intimacies of violence 29

5. Becky Tipperâs creaturely âmoments of beingâ 31

6. Meat, âfood-animalsâ and Rhoda Wilkieâs âsentient commoditiesâ 33

Layering the Argument: Sensations of Affinity 39

Life is full of sensory-kinaesthetics 40

Sensations are multiple and atmospheric, emanating in encounters 42

Sensations as sensations: not representations, adjuncts or qualities 46

A sensory-kinaesthetic attunement reveals characters 50

Affinities are charged with the energies of fascination, wondering and discordance 54

Part Two: Ineffable Kinship

Why Ineffable Kinship? 59

Facets of Ineffable Kinship 63

1. Family resemblances in literature and art 63

2. Resemblance interactions 68

A familiar conversation topic and form 70

Resemblances as striking, fleeting and capricious 71

Negotiating and âsettlingâ resemblances 72

An uneasy combination of the potent and the trivial 74

3. Resemblance stories 74

4. The still-beating heart 89

5. Nordqvist and Smartâs donors as âenigmatic presencesâ 93

6. Konradâs ânameless relationsâ and âtransilienceâ 97

7. Super-donors and dubious progeniture 101

8. âThe Seedâ by The Roots, featuring Cody Chesnutt 104

Layering the Argument: Affinities of Ineffable Kinship 106

Metaphors of genetics and heritability 106

Poetics and the âfrissonâ of ineffability 111

Wondering about what is circulating and relating 114

Part Three: Ecologies and Socio-Atmospherics

Why Ecologies and Socio-Atmospherics? 123

Facets of Ecologies and Socio-Atmospherics 126

1. Animate places and things in literature 126

Nan Shepherdâs âliving mountainâ 126

Jon McGregorâs city that âsingsâ 127

Haruki Murakamiâs âpulsingâ city 129

Barbara Kingsolverâs Africa as an âattendance in my soulâ 130

2. Atmospheric memories of animate places and things 131

The atmospherics of a teenagerâs city 131

Anat Hechtâs âtangible memoriesâ of home 133

Karin Widerbergâs atmospheric memories of âthe homes of othersâ 135

3. Animate technologies, vehicles and journeys 137

Phone feelings 137

The threaded worlds of train travel 140

Mimi Shellerâs âautomotive emotionsâ and âfeeling the carâ 143

Lynne Pearceâs âautopiaâ of driving and thinking 146

4. Weathery weather in social science and literature 148

5. Writing weather stories 152

6. Socio-atmospherics and the time of the floods 154

Shock: the power and magnitude of water 155

Bearing witness and being in touch 156

An atmosphere of âgetting on with itâ 158

Legacies of the floods 159

7. Weather poetics 164

Layering the Argument: Ecologies and SocioAtmospherics 168

Ecologies as convivialities, assemblages, happenings and animated space 169

The feel of places, things, journeys and technologies 175

Enigmatic ecologies and the socio-atmospherics of living 178

From what is connected to the dynamics of connection 180

Ecological poetics 184

Conclusion: Affinities in Time 186

Three layers of the argument 187

Time: a final layering 188

Time and sensations 190

Time and ineffable kinship 193

Time, ecologies and socio-atmospherics 196

Accepting the invitation of affinities 200

Notes 203

References 204

Index 000