Dr. Antje Schmidt’s talk focused on close readings of the book written by Carla Cerda, which was filled with poems. These poems all related to each other, but stepped in and out of each other. Some of the main ideas in these poems were the effects of the lithium industry on the environment, the effects of the lithium industry on Chile, and human interaction with technology. 

This talk relates to our course through the commentary on the environment. Our class is focused on “literature and the environment”, as it is named. This book, written by Carla Cerda, often discusses the interactions of humans with the environment, and being a collection of poems, it is literature. The poems speak on how humans have caused destruction in the environment through lithium mining (disturbing flamingo populations, local populations, indigenous populations), which is similar to how we discuss human interactions with the environment through use of the mermaid as a symbol of the environment. Also similar to our class, this book uses a story to make commentary about the environment. The poems loosely follow the story of a tour group on an elevator, which stops at different floors.

Another important part of this talk that is relevant to our class was how it exposes the current society. Often, in class, we talk about the influence of historical society or historical events on the writing (themes of Christianity, attitudes toward the environment, marriage). This collection of poems reflects the technological times of this decade through random inserts of technology related words or graphics. It also reflects current political times by making commentary on the lithium industry in Chile and its effects on the people and environment.