Poetry Prose and Other Words
by Ken Ingham
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Oh My Gaia
Mission Statement
I never aspired to write a novel. I only wanted to write about my favorite subject, Gaia, that long forgotten earth goddess who, according to Greek mythology, started everything. She came to my attention after James Lovelock attached her name to a scientific hypothesis about global warming. The strongest version of that hypothesis views the biosphere as an emergent super organism that regulates the environment for the benefit of its diverse constituents. Whether intentionally or not is open to question, but with a name like Gaia, it was inevitable that the hypothesis would be embraced by new age thinkers who were struck by its spiritual overtones. Disclosure: I am one of them. After a decade of studying Gaian literature, I realized that much of what I wanted to write had already been written quite well by others. At the same time, I was struck by how few of my acquaintances had ever heard of the ancient goddess, let alone the modern hypothesis that bears her name, or the metaphor of Earth as a living organism. I concluded that fiction might be a more effective genre for spreading the word of Gaia.
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