{"product_id":"ascension-9781573661959","title":"Ascension","description":"\u003cb\u003eA visually stunning narrative of three eras in humankind's vexed relationship with nature\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eAscension\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel about the end of nature, or rather, the end of three \"natures\" the time just before Darwin changed the natural world; the 1980s, just as the digital and genetic revolutions begin to replace \"nature\" with \"environment\"; and today, a time when we have the ability to manipulate nature at both the scale of the planet and at the genome. The narrative follows three different biologists on the brink of each of these cultural extinctions to explore how nature occupies our imaginations and how our imaginations bring the natural world, and our place in it, into existence. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eAscension\u003c\/i\u003e is a story of how we continually remake the world and are in turn remade by the new nature we've created. It is the story of humans yearning to understand their families, themselves, and the world they live in as it comes to a close, leaving them to anticipate what will follow. Rich in visual depictions of the natural world--from nineteenth century engraving and paintings to twentieth century photography and twenty-first century databases--\u003ci\u003eAscension\u003c\/i\u003e uses the materials of three eras to drive home our inability to escape nature, and the ways our fates are irrevocably bound together even as our actions usher in an end-time. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSteve Tomasula\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of \u003ci\u003eOnce Human: Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, and the novels \u003ci\u003eIN \u0026amp; OZ\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Portraiture\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTOC: A New-Media Novel\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eVAS: An Opera in Flatland\u003c\/i\u003e. He is the editor of \u003ci\u003eConceptualisms: The Anthology of Prose, Poetry, Visual, Found, E- \u0026amp; Hybrid Writing as Contemporary Art\u003c\/i\u003e. His essays on literature and art have also appeared widely. He lives in Chicago and at www.stevetomasula.com. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"F2c","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50453061370130,"sku":"9781573661959","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_5035a6b8-efea-4695-ba74-35b38521513b.jpg?v=1729833657","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/ascension-9781573661959","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}