Currents of the Universal Being: Explorations in the Literature of Energy

Energy scholar Vaclav Smil wrote in 2003, "Tug at any human use of energy and you will find its effects cascading throughout society." Too often public discussions of energy-related issues become gridlocked in debates concerning cost, environmental degradation, and the plausibility (or implausibility) of innovative technologies. But the topic of energy is much broader and deeper than these debates typically reveal. The literature of energy bears this out--and takes the notion further, revealing in vivid stories and images how energy permeates the fundamental nature of existence. Readings in this collection encompass a wide array of topics, from addiction to oil to life "off the grid," from the power of the atom to the power of bicycle technology. Presenting a wide array of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and interviews--ranging from George Eliot's nineteenth-century novel Mill on the Floss to Sandra Steingraber's recent writing on the subject of fracking--this first-of-its-kind anthology aims to capture the interest of the general reader as well as to serve as a potential textbook for college-level writing classes or environmental studies classes that aspire to place the technical subject of energy into a broader cultural context.


About the Author
Scott Slovic is professor of literature and environment and chair of the English department at the University of Idaho. He has published more than two hundred articles in the field of ecocriticism and written, edited, or co-edited twenty-one books.

James E. Bishop is teaching assistant professor of liberal arts and international studies at the Colorado School of Mines, where he teaches courses in environmental philosophy, public policy, and engineering ethics.

Kyhl Lyndgaard is director of the Writing Center and First-Year Seminar at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University. His publications include articles in Great Plains Quarterly, Green Theory & Praxis, and ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment.