One Part Water, Two Parts Starch: Performing oobleck as political resistance
Keywords:
non-human studies, performativity, activism, anarchism, reisistance, oobleck, literature, inopertativity, vulnerability, occupy, plant philosophy, gilets jaunes, plasticityAbstract
Oobleck is two things: a non-Newtonian fluid, a mixture of cornstarch and water showing properties of both a liquid and a solid; and an invention by Dr. Seuss, an odd green weather occurrence who’s fluid, adhesive, and elastic attributes manage to threaten the entire state apparatus of the “Kingdom of Didd.” Re-viewing the children’s book Bartholomew and the Oobleck, and in light of its starch-and-water namesake, I argue that we can learn an insurrective strategy of political resistance from its performativity.
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