Chemical catastrophe can erase an affected person’s sense of precedents and future

Evidence

Animal is a foundling who has morphed into a posthuman changeling, a one-of-a-kind creature spawned by a kind of chemical autochthony. Marooned in the present, Animal views himself as a four-footed species without precedent or the prospect of progeny, the alpha and omega of his kind. We can read him as a new beginning, which (in keeping with the novel’s apocalyptic tenor) doubles as the end of time. — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 143

Categorization

• DEFINE: ‘Chemical autochthony’ — being born of the poison itself, with no past and no progeny — is a striking concept for the Anthropocene condition.
• XREF: connects to: Toxic disaster erases a victim’s categorical identity down to uncertain humanity — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 978; Toxicity erases a community’s pretoxic past along with individuals’ human histories — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 144; Severe trauma can sever a person’s felt continuity with their own life — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 510 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Severe trauma can sever a person’s felt continuity with their own life #expands (0.95) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 510
• Toxic disaster erases a victim’s categorical identity down to uncertain humanity #expands (0.90) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 978
• Toxicity erases a community’s pretoxic past along with individuals’ human histories #expands (0.85) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 144