Sandra Steingraber, "War"
Questions for Making Connections within the Reading:
1. Steingraber begins “War” with a description of her father’s service in World War II and then provides additional personal information throughout the rest of the peace. Mark off each of the sections where Steingraber adds to her personal narrative. Is there a logic to the order that Steingraber has chosen for revealing information about herself? Does this personal information effect her ability to be objective about environmental toxins?
2. One challenge posed by Steingraber’s work is the specialized vocabulary it requires: organic, with its nearly contradictory meanings; synthetic, carcinogens, phenoxy herbicides, etc. Create a master list of the key terms that are essential for understanding Steingraber’s argument and write out definitions for each term. What is the relationship between the list of words you have generated and Steingraber’s title?
3. Steingraber declares near the end of her piece: “I am convinced that human inventiveness is not restricted to acts of war.” Based on the information that Steingraber has provided, is there cause to believe that human inventiveness can clean up the environment? Is Steingraber’s conviction grounded in reason or hope?
Questions for Writing:
1. In the middle of “War,” after describing her travels back to the Illinois county where she grew up, Steingraber writes: “A silence spreads out. I cannot make her speak.” And shortly after this, she writes: “Amid a flooded sea of information, an absence of knowledge. Amid a thousand computer-generated words, a silence spreads out.” What is the relationship between these statements about being silenced and the rest of Steingraber’s discussion? By the end of “War,” has she moved her readers beyond “the sea of information” to a place of knowledge?
2. Not too surprisingly, Steingraber’s piece ends with a call to action. But what kind of action is appropriate, given all that Steingraber has revealed? Does her account establish that actions to protect public health are likely to emerge from the government? Corporations? Concerned citizens? Scientists? Is change on the scale she calls for brought about through reason? Legal action? Moral suasion?
Questions for Making Connections Between Readings:
1. In “The Myth of the Ant Queen,” Steven Johnson describes how computing has helped to unlock some of the secrets of “organized complexity.” Is the situation that Steingraber describes one of “organized complexity” or “disorganized complexity”? Are the solutions the same in any case? Or has Steingraber drawn attention to a system of such complexity, with so many different variables, that the very notion of a solution is out of the question? If there is no solution, does this mean that there is nothing to be done?
2. Given the argument that Annie Dillard develops in “The Wreck of Time,” does it make sense to pursue a project like controlling the release of toxins into the environment? Is Dillard’s view of the natural world consonant with Steingraber’s? Absent a notion of “the sacred,” can science and information lead to environmental change?
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