{"product_id":"the-mouth-that-eats-itself-geography-the-problem-of-space","title":"The Mouth That Eats Itself: Geography \u0026 the Problem of Space","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Mouth That Eats Itself: Geography \u0026amp; the Problem of Space\u003c\/em\u003e by Carl Olsson explores the relationship between geographical thought, freedom and the living body.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll animals must distinguish themselves from their surroundings. Humans do so not only through their hands, feet and membranes, but also through representations of themselves in the world. Following geographical thought from its beginnings into self-contradiction, Olsson asks how geography makes us free, and how its representations can turn into a trap.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMoving between a close reading of Kant’s \u003cem\u003eCritique of Pure Reason\u003c\/em\u003e and vivid examples involving praying mantises, chameleons, geometry and owl-eyed butterflies, the book brings the conflict between freedom and necessity into sharp focus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/becoming.press\/the-mouth-that-eats-itself-%E2%80%94-micro-lectures\" rel=\"history\"\u003eMicro-lectures on The Mouth That Eats Itself\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Carl Olsson is a geographer and writer interested in how geographical thought impacts the human body.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"editorial-header\"\u003e“A much-needed return to Kant epistemically positioned beyond the “speculative realist” dismissal of so-called post-Kantianism. While Olsson stands on the shoulders of the “speculative turn,” and moves away from the poststructuralist consensus, his revisiting of Kant is a refreshing illumination of the fact that we still live and think in the era of modernism. This fact is structurally baked into our existence, on a global scale, regardless of the post-modernist or the speculative\/realist\/new materialist turns.“\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"quotation\"\u003e— Katarina Kolozova\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"editorial-header\"\u003e“Carl Olsson’s \u003ci\u003eThe Mouth That Eats Itself\u003c\/i\u003e begins with a question. How does an organism distinguish itself from a world threatening to absorb it into the concept-less exteriority of space? Olsson turns this problem into a philosophy of geography as an organ of autonomy through which the animal wrests itself from its environment and stakes out the position from which thought can begin.\u003cbr\u003e            Caillois’s psychasthenia meets Kant’s transcendental subject in an argument where geography’s power to locate the self meets its limit. When thought submits the act of self-distinction to natural necessity, geography preys upon its own condition of possibility. \u003cbr\u003e           The result is a philosophical horror story. The eye cannot witness its own seeing, and a mouth that consumes itself annihilates the instrument of hunger. With the severity of a treatise and the pressure of nightmare,\u003ci\u003e The Mouth That Eats Itself\u003c\/i\u003e forces naturalism into a drama of autophagic reason, where knowing our place in nature risks abolishing the distinction that lets us think at all.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e— Reza Negarestani\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"editorial-header\"\u003e“Geography’s familiar promise to locate us in the world becomes a disturbing philosophical problem in Carl Olsson’s hands. Moving between Kant, animal mimicry, the cunning of Odysseus and psychoanalysis, \u003ci\u003eThe Mouth That Eats Itself \u003c\/i\u003easks what enables us to distinguish ourselves from our surroundings, and what happens when thought turns upon the conditions of its own activity. Olsson combines philosophical precision with an imagination that makes these questions felt. The result is a strikingly original book that reaches well beyond geography, compelling us to reconsider the conditions and costs of making a place for ourselves in the world.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e— Jonathan Pugh\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Becoming Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54486256091483,"sku":null,"price":16.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0569\/8951\/5850\/files\/zabriskie_themouththateatsitslef.jpg?v=1792837525","url":"https:\/\/zabriskie.de\/products\/the-mouth-that-eats-itself-geography-the-problem-of-space","provider":"Zabriskie Buchladen für Kultur und Natur","version":"1.0","type":"link"}