AESTHETICS: In Kiøsterud's eco-philosophical text, 'beauty' becomes a riddle as much as a solution, a question as much as an answer. Is it possible to find beauty on nature's own terms – a beauty you cannot own?
ESSAY: It is our self-understanding that is at stake today. With their aggressive, partly inflated subjects, Western technologists, economists and artists have for centuries seen themeselves above nature. In the ecosystem, man is in nature, he is a part of nature, on which he is completely dependent. Can we protect biotopes, habitats, rivers, lakes, soils, oceans and commons? This essay looks at five books examining the ecosystem.
FICTION: In Kiøsterud's quiet recluse novel, life is weighed against the pain in a quest for reconciliation. Nature remains silent and ambiguous, even when the protagonist tries to step aside with his demands for meaning.
ECOLOGY: In autobiographical form, Kiøsterud continues his rethinking of modernity in the era of the eco-crisis. He points to a normalized brutality that most tacitly accepts.