Peter Lang Group are pleased to share that Jonathan Gordon Smith’s book Advaita, Christianity and the Third Space

Abhishiktananda and Bede Griffiths in India, has been shortlisted for the 2019-2023 Book Award in Hindu-Christian Studies (Theology/Philosophy) from the Society of Hindu-Christian Studies. Congratulations to Jonathan Gordon Smith on this fantastic news

Click here to learn more.

Peter Lang Group is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with OpenAthens Federation, a significant step in our ongoing dedication to delivering a seamless and secure experience for users seeking access to our digital resources. This collaboration reinforces our commitment to facilitating global access to Peter Lang Group’s extensive collection by enabling OpenAthens’ single sign-on capabilities for our titles.

OpenAthens offers librarians and users a simplified, integrated experience both on and off-site, increasing the accessibility of valuable knowledge and research. This aligns with Peter Lang’s fundamental mission of disseminating critical, high-quality research to the global academic community.

Librarians can now choose from nearly 20,000 digital books spanning the humanities and social sciences for their users, with an addition of 1,100 new print and digital publications annually. This portfolio ensures that users have access to cutting-edge research across various disciplines. Our partnership with OpenAthens means that libraries who choose from the Peter Lang collection can now benefit from simple and secure access.

“Patterns of learning and study continue to evolve, as does the technology that supports scholarly publishing. OpenAthens is delighted to work with Peter Lang to ensure their high-quality knowledge and research is simpler and easier to access wherever the learning takes place.” Jon Bentley, Commercial Director, OpenAthens

To learn more about how Peter Lang works with academic libraries, visit www.peterlang.com/our-services/libraries

To learn more about OpenAthens federated single sign-on, visit http://openathens.pub/IPvsOpenAthens

We are pleased to announce that From subordination to insubordination written by Cristina Lastres‐López has been awarded the Guadalupe Aguado Research Award for Early Career Researchers 2023 from the Spanish Association for Applied Linguistics (AESLA). Click here to learn more details: https://www.aesla.org.es/es/premios

Why should we talk about a book written in English at an Italian Language Festival (Biblioteca delle Oblate, Firenze, 1 Aprile 2023)? Because the Italian author, Massimo Arcangeli an Italian-speaking linguist and organiser of the Festival, has chosen to write in English in order to publish with international academic publisher, Peter Lang Group. This book is the first of a new format, called Vectors, which is aimed at an interdisciplinary intra- and extra-academic as well as international readership. In fact, it can be said that the first ‘inclusive’ operation of this book is to speak of the Italian language (as a metonymy of all languages) to an audience that is not necessarily Italian.

Arcangeli does this with a technical and specialised language and style but with the necessary clarifications for the non-expert. It is therefore a cultured disclosure (made by a cultured person for the cultured) that does not simplify but makes it accessible to curious readers who are not familiar with the discipline in question, in this case linguistics. Another common feature of the Vectors format is in fact the ‘compact’ paratextual apparatus, a short index, i.e. with only a few chapters (4 in this case), minimal footnotes (none in this case) to facilitate reading, and a reference bibliography for those who wish to delve deeper.

But let us come to the topic which, like many things Arcangeli does, is trendy, ultra-contemporary (to use a category used in literary studies), very topical (in the last five years there has been increased conversation about it) and also militant. Militancy is one of the characteristics required of the authors of the Vectors format, that they write on topics that provoke a discussion, that constitute as books, pamphlets, a provocation on a subject on which public opinion may be divided. Therefore, militant linguistics. Title and subtitle constitute an oxymoron in themselves: ‘Grammar without gender. How to promote inclusion without destroying languages’. The title could have been in interrogative form, but the author’s position is neither doubtful nor equivocal, it is clear-cut for the reader. Moreover, the subtitle clarifies the message, which is political (in a broad sense) and linguistic (in a narrow sense). The author, the book, are in favour of inclusion but against the destruction, demolition, and impoverishment of languages. The last word, LANGUAGES, is in the plural not only because it is a book by an Italian author addressing a non-Italian audience, but also and above all because it speaks of all languages.

The Book

The book is a linguistic manifesto that on the one hand embraces the needs of today’s evolving society, and on the other listens to the concerns of the Accademia della Crusca and language historians by placing some necessary curbs on the arbitrary and sometimes senseless frequent drifts. In short, it imposes a rule for the form while being in favour of the content it is meant to convey. These are discussions that involve all languages that have masculine and feminine and which, I can testify, even Editors take care not to overlook.

Chapter I and II

Moving to the contents, in this sense the English language helps, an index is called Table of Contents. The first chapter is on the dictatorship of political correctness as if to say that public opinion dictates (or tries to) the rules of language, the use of language: whoever does not conform to the genderless code, to schwa, to asterisks, etc. is considered politically (or rather ethically) incorrect, receiving pressure even at an institutional level (Arcangeli recalls the first speech codes in American universities, 1988 Michigan). And it is here that the linguist Arcangeli brings his erudition and authority to bear. In particular, he does so with his decisive and gentle manner in the final chapter (chapter IV) where he proposes solutions to problems and requests in favour of inclusion in various languages, a sort of handbook. Chapter II, dedicated to gender equality and inequality from the over-extended masculine (the use and rule of putting plurals that semantically include sets of men and women into the masculine) to contemporary feminism (whereby the feminine is declined as soon as possible or even when it would not be), has a historical-diachronic slant on the history of language. In this sense, the position of the moderate but attentive is to always address the feminine first and then the masculine to an audience of readers or listeners when until today, the day before yesterday, or a few years ago, the masculine included the feminine.

Chapter III

The third chapter is more technical and provides examples and data with a militant and provocative title: In the name of the neuter (and therefore in favour? the reader wonders): The schwa and other transgender graphic symbols. Transgender is a bold term, linked to topical social issues (he could have chosen UNISEX, born and used in the fashion industry in the 1980s). The schwa was originally supposed to be in the title of the book but a more cosmopolitan, inclusive slant was chosen, since schwa is purely Italian. The reading (without notes, as already mentioned) is facilitated by a rich set of tables, graphs.

I leave it to the reader to discover: is this a book in favour of linguistic inclusion? In what way can the Italian language take the lead in this small translinguistic revolution? Is it a book on the History of language, Historical linguistics or Socio-linguistics? On balance, it would also have done well in another Peter Lang Group series, one directed by Arcangeli himself ‘Storia linguistica e storia sociale. Social History of the Italian language.’

Receive more information about Massimo Arcanbgeli’s title “Genderless Grammar. How to Promote Inclusivity without Destroying Languages” here https://www.peterlang.com/document/1297221

By Adam F.C. Fletcher

Around the world today, there is a challenge to the most common organizing structure for society today. Never easily rested upon, democracy has required constant invention, reinvention and transformation since the earliest peoples practiced it, whether among the Greeks 2,700 years ago, the Indians 3,100 years ago, or Native American nations in the last 2,000 years. Right now, there is a lot being done to damage, harm, and wreck democracy worldwide, even after decades of active attempts to encourage, proselytize and even force democracy worldwide.

Why a “disorder”?

The World Health Organization defines a disorder as “a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotional regulation, or behaviour.” The democracy deficit disorder is a significant disturbance in individual’s, communities’, and nations’ cognition, feelings about, and behaviors related to democracy.

Our cognition is the way we think about things. The ways our society has thought about democracy have expanded greatly since the American experiment began in 1776. Obviously government is the greatest function of democracy — which is majority rule — in our society. Today though, we apply democracy to many institutions, elements, factors and components like education, neighborhoods, and even families.

Feelings about democracy require balance with thinking things through. There are many sentimental ideas about democracy, including the feelings of passion, empathy and solidarity that lead to inclusivity, equity and empowerment. However, there are also other feelings about democracy, including cynicism, intransigence and even antipathy. Feelings are used to capture attention, divert resources, undermine paradigms and transform cultures.

Finally, there are our democratic behaviors. This can look like many things, including active listening, deliberate teamwork, obvious flexibility, and intellectual humility. These are particularly democratic because they focus on reciprocity, inclusion and belonging, and by using them as actions we see them as outcomes because each behavior is what democracy looks like in process.

The democracy deficit disorder exists because each of these elements is being actively and passively, overtly and subversively challenged by dominant powers in society. These powers are motivated by power and driven by violence, whether they are economic, cultural, social, political or otherwise.

There is hope!

There is hope though, and it is young people. Throughout the history of the American experiment, children and youth have continuously kept the flame of potential shining brightly for democracy. Working with adults as partners, young people have been addressing countless issues at the core of democracy, taking direct actions to keep democracy alive, and driven structural, elemental and powerful strategies to keep the democracy alive.

By dedicating, concentrating and sustaining action by young people focused on saving democracy, we can ensure leadership by the people, for the people continues. Political misdirection, environmental calamities, wars, social unrest, economic upheaval and more challenges have rocked the foundations of the United States since its foundation, and other democracies worldwide have faced these realities, too. Their innate belief in freedom and dedication to justice have ensured children and youth the standard bearers of a better society worldwide. They are the hope we need right now.

In May 2023, Peter Lang Group published a new book by Adam F.C. Fletcher and J. Cynthia McDermott called Democracy Deficit Disorder: Learning Democracy with Young People. Exploring everything in this blog post and much more, the book is going to become an essential read for youth workers, community organizers, government workers, educators, and others.

All industry must go through evolution. Education and politics seem to change on a daily basis, and even the long-standing career of academia itself is forced to evolve to keep up with technology and digital media. But what does it mean when careers and roles seem to die out? Do they die out, or do they evolve and what is the impact of this on society as a whole?

Professor Edd Applegate opens up discussion around this issue, considering how journalism and investigative journalism have undergone significant change.

So, in the author’s own words…

Disclaimer: The views and opinions below are the authors own and are not representative of the Peter Lang Group.

________________

According to the current Occupational Outlook Handbook, employment for reporters and other journalists is negative for the next 10 years. In fact, it is predicted that employment for these individuals will decline 3 percent. This means almost 2,000 jobs will be lost.

As if this is not grave enough, newspapers and magazines have been cutting editorial positions for the past several years. For instance, in 2021, according to the Pew Research Center, employment in media newsrooms in the United States fell 26 percent between 2008 and 2020. Unfortunately, during this period, investigative journalists were some of the first individuals in newsrooms to lose their jobs.

Fortunately, several media outlets have been founded for investigative journalists and writers who spend hours, days, weeks, or months investigating one or more stories. Unfortunately, fewer individuals read or view what these journalists uncover primarily because fewer individuals actually subscribe to or watch the media in which the stories appear.

Yet, this form of journalism is essential if individuals expect a democratic society to function properly. Without question, investigative journalists, especially those who report what they have uncovered without including their opinions, play an important role in a democratic society, particularly when they uncover unethical and/or illegal activity by businesses, state, or federal employees. Such reporting generally results in one or more individuals being charged with a crime and/or a new law addressing the issue being written and passed.

The book, Investigative Journalism in the United States: A History, with Profiles of Journalists and Writers Who Practiced the Form not only presents a history of the subject, but includes biographies of numerous journalists and writers who devoted their professional careers to uncovering wrongdoing by businesses, state, and/or federal employees, as well as others.

The book should be added to every college and university library’s reference section. Students who are emphasizing some area of journalism or mass communications more than likely will find it a valuable resource.

Professor Edd Applegate

Much like the libraries they reside in, academic books have a very classic image. To talk of academic libraries most people conjure up mental images of rows of books with slightly dusty covers, wooden panelling and a hushed atmosphere. Academic books are expected to be dry, serious tomes filled with long words and complicated ideas with pictures restricted to technical diagrams. And let’s not forget the stereotypical librarian and academic — both serious creatures who speak quietly and dress classically.

Yes, there are some academic libraries with wooden panelling and a hushed atmosphere holding beautiful stacks of books, large worn wooden tables and a distinct smell that brings a smile to any bibliophile’s face. And there are certainly dry academic titles with incredibly complex ideas held within their pages, best suited only to the avid reader. And yes, there will also be academics who by their nature are serious and quiet and well-dressed. Beyond that though, is an academic world of more variety and innovation and colour.

Anyone who has visited an academic library in recent times, particularly one that has been revamped and invested in, will know that an academic library is not just a place for quiet study anymore. No more librarians shushing students for coughing or breathing too loudly as the old stereotype suggests. Just as learning has evolved the library is now a multi-functional space for learners to collaborate and explore new ideas and concepts. Modern libraries are designed with learning at their heart with colour, light, and technology all playing their part. Librarians reflect these changes with their focus not just on crafting the perfect book and journal collections for their users but on how they can best support collaboration, learning, and technological advances in the space.

So what about academic books? What does a modern academic title look like?

Well, one thing we know is that they aren’t serious, text-heavy books. The academic world is diverse these days with academics studying everything from sexuality to vampires, from democracy to video games and titles reflect this. Images are increasingly important across many academic subjects.

Graphic Medicine

Graphic novels have bridged the gap between ‘comic’ and ‘academic’ and now serve as a format in their own right for graphic medicine. In this instance the pairing of academic research with a graphic novel format offers a softened narrative, weaving in the emotions and personal experiences that underlie all medical research. It brings the research to a more accessible place. This can be especially important for research in areas where there is expected to be a broad readership made up of medical professionals, researchers, patients themselves, and family members affected.

One such title is ‘Moving along — A co-produced graphic novel about Parkinson’s dance’ by Lisbeth Frølunde, Louise Phillips and Maria Bee Christensen-Strynø. This beautiful book is a graphic novel based on personal experiences of living with Parkinson’s Disease. More specifically it is around the value that movement and dance have for those with the disease. Written for use across the fields of arts and health, medical humanities, graphic medicine and narrative medicine, the format makes it an accessible title for the layperson as well where other medical texts may seem intimidating. Most importantly though the graphic images help to convey the movement and joy the book itself explores. It is hard to imagine words alone being able to capture the impact freedom in dance has on someone living with the restrictions Parkinson’s places on the body.

“Dancing brings joy, energy, and community, and thereby strengthens the will to live, all important when a chronic illness turns your world upside down.”
Moving along — A co-produced graphic novel about Parkinson’s dance

Film Studies

Another genre in which images hold value is film studies. In the past film studies may have been focused on classic films that students and researchers were expected to have already watched. These days though the sheer quantity of films produced around the world makes this implausible. In the US and Canada alone, the average is 600 films a year, and with streaming services and the increased use of language dubbing and captions more and more people are choosing to watch films that originate outside of their country and language. With such a vast repository of source material for academic study it is no surprise that genre studies are increasingly diverse.

One series ‘Genre Fiction and Film Companions’ seeks to provide accessible introductions to key texts within the most popular genres of our time. The latest title ‘The Deep’, edited by Marko Teodorski and Simon Bacon, explores the myths and legends of merfolk and sea monsters and our fascination with the sea, from mythological representations through to present-day visions. Consider how many films explore a relationship with the sea or the creatures that reside in it. From disaster films with a vicious, untamed sea, to the romance genre where the sea offers an escape, to fantasy films that offer up entirely new worlds to explore underwater. To expect a reader to have seen every film up for discussion would be unreasonable and yet to explore the nuances of a scene they need to have seen it, to have the same sense of panic or escape or wonder that the author has recognized. This is why images are so important. Even if a reader has never seen the film, a single image can share details with them about lighting, colour, and costume design, all of which play a part in the analysis of a film regardless of theme.

In addition, for the exploration of film and fiction genres such as ‘The Deep’ which crosses borders of both time and space, it is of the utmost importance to ground the analysis in the culture in which the film and story was created. The understanding of one mythological creature might differ between countries, and perhaps only by illustration can the reader truly understand the same and connect with it.

“The idea of ‘The Deep’ is as culturally specific as it is transcultural”
The Deep — A Companion

Art & Architecture

Similar needs can be found in art and architectural history titles. Excluding the most obvious reason — because art is a visual study — images are often essential for architecture titles. This importance is not just limited to, for example, needing an image of a building to accompany an exploration of the Baroque style. Much like with graphic medicine, images can make architectural history accessible to all. One example would be ‘Denmark in Britain — Architecture, Design and Lifestyle, 1945−1970’ by Bruce Peter. This title explores how Denmark’s national image in Britain was changed by the admiration of its modern architecture and design. Images help to tell the story of this design and clearly show what it was that the British critics and consumers desired. Without images, it would be hard to fully explore the sense of interest in Danish creativity that was felt in Britain at the time and indeed, make the reader feel that same interest.

“This is a splendidly lucid and readable book, a distinctive and a distinguished contribution to Nordic Studies.”
Colin Roth, Centre for Nordic Studies, University of Sheffield

For art history, there are also titles which explore art that is no longer valid or accessible. With a medium such as painting, perhaps with enough words a reader can paint their own picture in their mind of a piece of art. But what about mediums that are confined to history? What about something like ivory, which is now in modern-day considered to be untouchable as a piece of art? ‘Or blanc. Sculpture en ivoire, Congo et discours colonial sous le règne de Léopold II (1885–1909)’ by Sébastien Clerbois is a fantastic example. The book offers a global history of ivory as an art form but unlike other mediums, that many people have experience of seeing and touching, ivory is no longer accepted. Without images to support it, the discourse around such a medium could feel too grounded in the modern understanding of it. Providing images helps the reader to remove their modern mindset and fully embrace art as understood in the context and timeframe the book explores.

History

Bringing the reader back to the appropriate timeframe and setting the context for a title is hugely important for academic titles. Much like historical fiction needs to fully set the scene for the reader, academic titles need to connect their reader to the world they explore. This is never more true than when considering archival history. Peter Raina has recently published two titles under ‘Devolution of Power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: The Inner History’. Both volumes, ‘Tony Blair’s Cabinet Papers, 1997 Volume One, Devolution in Scotland and Wales’ and ‘Tony Blair’s Cabinet Papers, 1997 Volume Two, The Representative Government in Northern Ireland’ present the cabinet papers with commentary. It would be truly impossible to provide such a commentary without offering the Crown documents (reproduced under open license) for the reader to consider. More specifically though, the documents and the illustrations in the text connect the reader to the time they were created. They bring history to life and make understanding and critiquing the decisions made at the time more accessible to the reader.

“It is perhaps the most signal achievement of the era and this expertly curated collection on its genesis and evolution is unquestionably of permanent value.”
Professor Marc Mulholland, Professor of Modern History, Oxford

The Power of the Image

Perhaps it is an academic title itself that can summarize what imagery means in academic research? The Power of the Image in the Work of Lídia Jorge, edited by Nazaré Torrão and José Cândido de Oliveira Martins is a study of the image in the work of Lídia Jorge. Jorge herself has asserted several times that her writing takes a powerful and inspiring image as its starting point and this image concentrates the reflections and ideas explored through her texts. It can be considered that it is not just the images in the final text, for the reader, that hold importance, but also the images that inspire the author and drive them to explore ideas and share them with the world.

“Scholars point out that whenever language opens to universal images and mythologies capable of conveying visions of clarity, the subversive power of beauty is re-asserted”
The Power of the Image in the Work of Lídia Jorge

It is clear that the academic book, like the library and the librarian, has and continues to evolve. Words will forever remain the main tool of the academic but perhaps there is room for another set of tools, the illustrations, images, and photographs that support those words. Words might tell the story of the academic research but an image can tell the story of the world that built that research.

Congratulations to the following editors and authors who were recently named Distinguished Scholars by the National Communication Association:

• The Douglas W. Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award to Mary E. Stuckey, volume editor of Reading the Presidency, co series editor for Frontiers in Political Communication
• The Orlando L. Taylor Distinguished Scholarship Award in Africana Communication to Andre E. Johnson, editor of vol 2, & vol 2, co series editor for Studies in Communication, Culture, Race, and Religion
• The Distinguished Scholar Award to Bernadette M. Calafell, author of Monstrosity, Performance, and Race in Contemporary Culture, editor of Negotiating Identity and Transnationalism, co series editor of Critical Intercultural Communication Studies

The awards will be presented at the NCA 109th Annual Convention in National Harbor, Maryland. To learn more, go to https://www.natcom.org/awards/2023-nca-award-winners

At this point in the 21st century, it is difficult to talk about the oceans without immediately thinking of what mankind has done to them — micro-fibers, raw sewage, oil and chemical pollution, over-fishing, rising temperatures and sea levels — threatening and destroying not just the lives and habitats of sea creatures, but also our own. Yet films like Meg 2: The Trench (Wheatley: 2023) want to make us forget that through the deflection of scale. For who can think about the overwhelming size of the environmental crisis when confronted by a 60+-ft prehistoric shark? Failing that, it makes us want to believe that nature can somehow protect itself — not from us, of course, but those greedy billionaires and corporations (the mega-sharks of the capitalist world) that seek to exploit the planet for their personal gain rather than ours.

Much of the above is achieved through the attribution of blame and the identification of who or what is good and bad in the film. Obviously its star, Jason Statham, is necessarily good and in a manly, but sensitive way. Nature, of course, should also be good, although this is complicated by being an area beyond human knowledge or control. The film takes this further, showing it not just as a place beyond our reach, but beyond our time, as well: it literally symbolises an ecological Eden where knowledge of value and exploitation has never reached … until now. It is worth looking at this underwater idyl more closely because it is represented as a kind of “magical kingdom”, a world so far removed from our own that it could be a completely different planet — indeed, the echoes of films like Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water (Cameron: 2009 & 2022) and its “nature spirit” are explicitly there.

Of course, Meg 2 reminds us it is our planet by the conceit of prehistoric creatures still living there, as the trench has not only been protected from us but from the passing of time itself. In many senses,this is the environment that time forgot and where nature has been left to take care of itself.

But now, humans have arrived and brought capitalism with them and punctured the temporal bubble around this idyllic landscape of the past so that time can flood in … while they suck the mineral wealth out of it. Nature, if we go with its connections to Avatar, is not happy about this and so releases the megalodons, and assorted other beasts, to both protect it and seek revenge on those who have dared to enter its domain.

This mirrors the scenarios from both Avatar films, where human exploitation causes the planetary spirit to instruct its creatures to actively attack and kill the human interlopers. As such, the megalodons, or Megs, should be the good guys, as they are acting on behalf of the earth — not unlike the common cold in H. G. Welles’ The War of the Worlds (1898). Yet two things work against them: first is their size, which oddly translates to making all the oceans of the world instantly dangerous. This is established at the start of the film when we see a Tyrannosaurus Rex being eaten by a Meg in a few feet of water, suggesting all seawater is now deadly. This can also be read as the Meg itself representing pollution, not least in its scale and voracity, making the entirety of the oceans a source of deadly danger to humanity. Second, the Megs have a connection to the past and symbolise a world before (without) humans. This deadly temporal anomaly is at the heart of the Jurassic Park franchise, but the Meg instantly situates itself as far more dangerous when we saw the Tyrannosaurus Rex being eaten at the start of the film[1]. This clash of the past and the present gets more interesting since the director of Meg 2, Ben Wheatley, is arguably best known for his Folk Horror films Kill List (2011) and A Field in England (2013), and transposing the characteristics of such films onto this film yields some curious results.

If we read Meg 2 as a Folk Horror film, many of the plot points work surprisingly well. To begin, we have an isolated landscape/environment — the trench — that is separate from the modern world. It has its own skewed belief system, where nature rules over itself and is made manifest in its “rulers”, the megaladons. We then have the intrusion of the modern world into this isolated place, in the shape of the mining company, which becomes a catalyst for the events that follow. Usually in Folk Horror this involves some form of ritual or “summoning” of the old gods, and in many ways this can be seen to be fulfilled by the megalodons and the other Eldritch horrors released: like the devilish beast brought forth from nature in Blood on Satan’s Claw (Haggard: 1971) or the one being called upon at the end of The Wicker Man (Hardy: 1973). What also happens in Folk Horror is often the sacrifice of a hero of sorts, the one who tries to defend the modern world and its belief systems — Sergeant Howie in The Wicker Man, for example — but is inevitably sacrificed and “consumed” to power the continued presence of the ancient (natural) past in the present. Of course, our “Sergent Howie” in Meg 2 can only be our hero Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham), though there is no way that he can be sacrificed to the “gods” of the past at the film’s end with the possibility of another sequel in the works. That leaves our Folk Horror reading at a bit of an unfulfilled impasse.

Perhaps a better reference point is the 1970s and the “animal revenge” films that evolved from Jaws (Spielberg: 1975). Movies like Jaws, Grizzly (Girdler: 1976), Tentacles (Assonitis: 1977), and Nightwing (Hiller: 1979), etc. all feature a human hero (inevitably a man) that saves the day, even in the face of corrupt officials and money-grabbing corporations. Yet, they tend to be Everyman-type figures, often thrown into the situation and doing their job or the best they can to save family, friends, or those they feel responsible for. Statham is slightly different in that he is far more of a professional “hero”. For all the pretense in the film of him being down-to-earth he is not only a specialist, and built like he is from a special forces unit, his cinematic pedigree positions him as superhuman. If Sergeant Howie was unlikable and clueless in the face of his “enemy”, we already believe that Statham can beat a 70-ton shark with his bare hands.

Statham can save us from the dark forces of nature — even while it embodies a world before pollution — and even from the “jaws” of the corporate sharks that look to consume both us and the environment we depend on. Of more concern, though, is that Statham is not “one of us”, as the heroes of the 1970s natural horror often were. Instead, he is a savior who saves the world for us, so that we do not need to do anything and can carry on partying at the beach — coincidently, beach scenes appear in both Meg films. This is perhaps the most worrying aspect of a film that, through size and scale, purposely tries to deflect us away from its core message that, in the face of the world’s oceans becoming deadly places to be in, or even near, we do not need to do anything but can relax on our beach chairs and watch the show of a single hero saving us all. In the face of the mega-shark of impending environmental catastrophe, this is possibly the most dangerous thing we can do.

[1] The importance of size in the Meg (Turtletaub: 2018) is explored in Craig Ian Mann’s essay in The Deep: A Companion (2023).

The Deep: A Companion is now available here: https://www.peterlang.com/document/1339843

Eva Berger, author of Context Blindness, received the Erving Goffman Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Social Interaction.

Carolyn Wiebe and Susan Maushart received the Edmund S. Carpenter Award for Career Achievement in Editing in the Field of Media Ecology for their work on the two volumes of Christine Nystrom’s The Genes of Culture.

Context Blindness and The Genes of Culture are part of the Understanding Media Ecology series, edited by Lance Strate. To learn more about the awards, go to https://www.media-ecology.org/awards.