It is perhaps not surprising that Morton’s reaction to Morton has been so complex and confusing. Hyperobjects has been (and is) often described as “hopeless,” “arousing,” “impotent,” “embarrassing,” “confusing,” and “strange.” At the same time, Morton’s ideas have found interest — and growth — reading outside of traditional education, drawing everyone from artists and musicians to science fiction writers, architects, and students.
In about ten years since its release, Hyperobjects reported in a Buddhist blog about environmental issues, a New York Times op-ed on digital secrets, and a BBC report on how concrete will surpass all living things on earth. Developers request the term as a way to communicate the ambiguity of algorithms and the internet; Science fiction writer Jeff VanderMeer has said he well describes the strange phenomena he wrote in Destruction, his surreal book changed the 2018 video. Icelandic singer Björk reached out to Morton to talk about a lot of things, and their e-mails became part of the MoMA show. In 2019, Adam McKay, formerly Saturday Night Live Hollywood actor and founder of the theater, was so inspired by Morton’s work that he named his company Hyperobject Industries. “You can feel your brain changing a little bit because you never thought about this,” McKay tells me. “By Timothy. Every page of their writings contains those ideas. ”
Then Covid took place, along with the increasing number of natural disasters caused by climate change, and Morton’s ideas became as popular as possible. He also appeared in a Canadian parliamentary dispute over the epidemic. Charlie Angus, a member of Parliament, said: “We see something bigger than us, bigger than we can ever imagine.” Then the power of the plague. In their quest to understand — or even acknowledge — certain tremendous power of communication, a growing number of people were intrigued by Morton’s claims. “Dangerous situations already exist,” as Morton wrote in their book, “and gradually we came to understand what he was saying. He connected with us. ”
The message that some readers heard in this episode was shocking: Look at our deeds, you mighty ones, you who are in despair. But there is another message in Morton’s book, which Morton praises so much because despair threatens so many people: Our idea of a “world” is gone, but people cannot be destroyed. In fact, the end of this world system of things can be just the beginning.
2.
“How are you to tell a man in a dream that he is a man in a dream? ” Morton asks me the first time I met him. We are in the same small area of Houston where I lived for a year and was locked up by my brother. It’s August, and it’s hot as in Houston it’s always hot in the summer: so wet that the exit to the front door is like an entrance to an explosive, slightly dense area. Morton picked me up in their Kicky Mazda3, and we were on our way to the Menil Collection, a museum and art gallery housed in five buildings, including a church, in a 30-acre area.
Morton explains the origin of Hyperobjects as a talk — as a radio broadcast from the future.
Artwork by Frank Nitty 3000Born in London and educated in Oxford, Morton – who moved to Texas in 2012 to work in Rice – is a soft-spoken but strong speaker. On the day we met, they wore a dark green shirt that withers and goes out. There is no way to persuade people in a dream to wake up, Morton told me as we walked down the highways, the stereo sound of a mix of ’70s prog rock, deep house, and shoegaze. “You can’t talk to them. You have to blow their mind. ”
Talking to Morton, like reading their notes, is a little psychedelic experience full of poetry and lines around a lot of confusing topics: Star Wars, Buddhist meditation, love poems, David Lynch, quantum physics, The Muppet Show. One minute he talks about the death of the planets and the great ideas of Heidegger and Derrida, and the next one explains to me in detail why PM Dawn’s R&B of 1991 hit “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” is one of the most creative. time, and because Han Solo Millennium Falcon it is a very democratic way of life that “heralds the dawning of a new era.” None of that is not to be confused, but the idea may seem unattainable, like a magical image that is about to appear. Because Morton often talks about things we can’t explain directly, the only way to know is to move around, with hands and illustrations that are close to touch but not really.