Page 47 - Hrobat Virloget, Katja, et al., eds. (2015). Stone narratives: heritage, mobility, performance. University of Primorska Press, Koper.
P. 47
nting, growing and breeding stones
Bojan Baskar
Does stone grow? just curious ok?
A question posed to Yahoo Answers.1
It is reported by some of the Ancients, that in Cyprus there is a kind of iron, that being cut into little pieces,
and put into the ground, if it be well watered, will increase into greater pieces. This is certain, and known of
old, that lead will multiply and increase; as hath been seen in old statues of stone, which have been put in cel-
lars, the feet of them being bound with leaden bands; where (after a time) there appeared, that the lead did
swell, insomuch, as it hanged upon the stone like warts.
F. Bacon, Sylva sylvarum, 1627
Introduction
When it comes to stones and rocks, modern science is widely held guilty of impoverishing
our imagination of them. By imposing a sharp divide between organic and anorganic, be-
tween dead and alive, between chemistry and alchemy, astronomy and astrology, the argu-
ment runs, the stone was largely disentangled from its earlier complex and rich imagery. Its
highly polysemic and symbolically charged substance was boiled down to a dead, inert, un-
ambiguous matter. Not that adjectives such as immutable, solid, hard, thick, resistant, du-
rable, eternal, were not attributed to the stones before the advent of modern science, but
they certainly became more pronounced, even domineering after.
Philosopher of science Gaston Bachelard, who also wrote books on the imagina-
tion of matter (the four elements, to be precise), has written two books on the imagina-
tion of the earth. In one of these (Bachelard, 1948), he also tackled the poetic imagination
of stones, rocks and minerals. His analysis is largely based on poetry, and the bulk of poet-
ry he takes into analysis originates from the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. De-
spite emphasizing poetic imagination as the richest form of imagination, his focus on po-
etry as a source material was not exclusive: he also made ample use of scientific, scholarly
and philosophical works, especially those from earlier centuries. Contemporary scholar-
ly works include a modicum of ethnology (in particular Michel Leiris, Marcel Griaule and
André Leroi-Gourhan).
Despite privileging poetic imagination as his source material, Bachelard admirably
expounded a complex mesh of themes which affords precious insights into how the learned
elites imagined things telluric, lithic and metallic. It may come as no surprise that many of
the poetic images and themes analysed in Bachelard’s account do appear a little strange to
us today, for example rocks as moral agents. One might equally miss certain themes that we
nowadays deem inevitable when talking about stones and rocks, while Bachelard ignored
them or preferred to omit them.
1 Https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090513091...; accessed April 3, 2015.
45
Bojan Baskar
Does stone grow? just curious ok?
A question posed to Yahoo Answers.1
It is reported by some of the Ancients, that in Cyprus there is a kind of iron, that being cut into little pieces,
and put into the ground, if it be well watered, will increase into greater pieces. This is certain, and known of
old, that lead will multiply and increase; as hath been seen in old statues of stone, which have been put in cel-
lars, the feet of them being bound with leaden bands; where (after a time) there appeared, that the lead did
swell, insomuch, as it hanged upon the stone like warts.
F. Bacon, Sylva sylvarum, 1627
Introduction
When it comes to stones and rocks, modern science is widely held guilty of impoverishing
our imagination of them. By imposing a sharp divide between organic and anorganic, be-
tween dead and alive, between chemistry and alchemy, astronomy and astrology, the argu-
ment runs, the stone was largely disentangled from its earlier complex and rich imagery. Its
highly polysemic and symbolically charged substance was boiled down to a dead, inert, un-
ambiguous matter. Not that adjectives such as immutable, solid, hard, thick, resistant, du-
rable, eternal, were not attributed to the stones before the advent of modern science, but
they certainly became more pronounced, even domineering after.
Philosopher of science Gaston Bachelard, who also wrote books on the imagina-
tion of matter (the four elements, to be precise), has written two books on the imagina-
tion of the earth. In one of these (Bachelard, 1948), he also tackled the poetic imagination
of stones, rocks and minerals. His analysis is largely based on poetry, and the bulk of poet-
ry he takes into analysis originates from the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. De-
spite emphasizing poetic imagination as the richest form of imagination, his focus on po-
etry as a source material was not exclusive: he also made ample use of scientific, scholarly
and philosophical works, especially those from earlier centuries. Contemporary scholar-
ly works include a modicum of ethnology (in particular Michel Leiris, Marcel Griaule and
André Leroi-Gourhan).
Despite privileging poetic imagination as his source material, Bachelard admirably
expounded a complex mesh of themes which affords precious insights into how the learned
elites imagined things telluric, lithic and metallic. It may come as no surprise that many of
the poetic images and themes analysed in Bachelard’s account do appear a little strange to
us today, for example rocks as moral agents. One might equally miss certain themes that we
nowadays deem inevitable when talking about stones and rocks, while Bachelard ignored
them or preferred to omit them.
1 Https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090513091...; accessed April 3, 2015.
45
