Telling the Bees
An Interspecies Monologue
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In a bid to wean himself off Facebook and Twitter, media scholar and cultural theorist Dominic Pettman decided to revive an ancient custom. He decided to tell the local bees of his thoughts, theories, musings, and meditations. The result was an apian journal that parses the daily news and the routines of modern life in a more sustained and reflective way than the Pavlovian posts to which we are so addicted.
The account that emerges from Pettman’s regular discussion with the bees forms a compelling portrait of the tumultuous period running from the Fall of 2019 to New Year’s Eve, 2022. What began as a reflection on the traumatic effects of an “unprecedented” presidency soon evolved into a real-time response to the equally extraordinary events of the pandemic and its aftermath.
One key concern that emerges from Pettman’s ongoing discussion with the bees is the extent to which, thanks to the alienating effects of neoliberalism, we were already engaged in an advanced form of social distancing long before anyone had heard of COVID. Other key themes include education, human-animal relations, climate change, mediated intimacy, attention ecologies, collective memory, slow violence, the self-fulfilling prophecy that is New York City, the never-ending end of history, and the mundane strategies we share in a bid to forge on, despite the accumulating challenges of the twenty-first century.
Telling the Bees is an invitation to rediscover the art of reflection and a profound meditation on human connection, alienation, and our collective yearning for intimacy in an age of distance. Through what Pettman describes as an "interspecies monologue," readers are treated to a unique perspective on navigating the complexities of the twenty-first century, inspired by the ingenuity and resilience of our natural cohabitants.
Insects as a companion species? In Pettman’s engaging and beautifully composed bestiary, writing for animals is writing with animals and composing a monologue that already consists of more than one voice. The covid years articulate the stretch of time between 2019-2023 into a particularly weighted temporality comes to feature observations, lists, affects, violence, films, and light. Telling the Bees is a smart, at times bitterly funny, and persistently contagious read.—Jussi Parikka, author of Insect Media and Operational Images
The memoir of a disillusioned academic who felt isolated during COVID-19 shutdowns, Telling the Bees is a searching, insightful, and witty text that offers catharsis aplenty.—Foreword Reviews
Weary of the insistent demands and disappointments of online life in the early 2020s, Dominic Pettman turned to a very old practice: Rather than commenting on current events by posting for his followers on social media, he would tell the bees instead. . . In interspecies dialogue, the bees tell us news too, of the world around them and us: the blooms and predators, pesticides and pollen, the health of the hive, and the likelihood of surviving dearth.—H-Net Reviews
