Our Life, Between Sea and Oil

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&nbsp; I WAS born and raised on Bayou Lafourche, 30 miles from Grand Isle, which is Louisiana’s only inhabited barrier island and also the setting of Kate Chopin’s 19th-century novel of maternal disorientation, “The Awakening.” But “Frankenstein” offers the more appropriate narrative lesson for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Mary Shelley begins her story with the anti-hero Victor Frankenstein declaring his admiration for scientists who “penetrate into the recesses of nature.” Full of hubris, he “pursued nature to her hiding places,” bringing horror upon his family and community. He has no foresight, only the belief that “maternal nature” can be manipulated by unvetted technology.

Today, we are both the victims of such shortsighted overreach and culpable for its grim results...

<center> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/opinion/11serpas.html" target="_blank">The rest of the story </a>

By MARTHA SERPAS






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