Steve Schmolaris's EP Review: Submarine Terrain

It's argued that knowledge should be relational. I disagree. It's argued that science isn't holistic enough. I disagree again. What world enterprise has found more links — relationships, by any other name — in nature than science? What has identified the fundamental forces of the universe? What has linked physics to chemistry to biology to evolution to ecology and beyond, with all its complexities? Relational knowledge is not knowledge. It is self-deception. One looks at a rose and what lessons does one get from it? Whatever lesson one wants. But don't let anyone deceive you into thinking it has anything to do with the rose. The beauty-seeker sees its petals. The caution-seeker, its thorns. Does one learn about cooperation from observing its gregarious pollinators? Or is one just seeing what one wants to see? Be careful about taking your lessons from nature. There are beetles who do nothing else but perform acts of sexual violence. (How would you feel about being pierced in the back with a sword-shaped penis? That is how it's done in the beetle world. Again, don't take any lessons from this.) We should not follow nature's example. And just because something reminds one of something else doesn't make it knowledge. • • • To read the rest of this review — and more by Steve Schmolaris — visit his website Bad Gardening Advice . • • • Steve Schmolaris is the founder of the Schmolaris Prize, 'the most prestigious prize in all of Manitoba,' which he first awarded in 1977. Each year, he awards the prize to the best album of the year. He does not have a profession but, having come from money (his father, 'the Millionaire of East Schmelkirk,' left him his fortune when he died in 1977), Steve is a patron of the arts. Inspired by the exquisite detail of a holotype, the collective intelligence of slime mold, the natural world and the suffering inherent within it — and also music (fuck, he loves music!) — Steve has long been writing reviews of Winnipeg artists' songs and albums at his website Bad Gardening Advice, leading to the publication of a book of the same name.