ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a discussion of biosemiotics before turning to a close reading of Judy Gladding’s Translations from Bark Beetle. Translations from Bark Beetle raises questions as to what counts as language, what counts as a preposition, what is part of speech, and what remains separate from speech. Gladding carries the language of bark beetle from beneath the bark of the tree, across to a rubbing, across into human language. In a sense, Gladding seeks to translate not the preposition itself, nor its object, but rather that energy of Gaia—that turning edge of life—that moves all things toward. As Gladding says in the interview, the “relationship between beauty and destruction is fairly complicated” As will be explored, life’s “inherent future-directedness” resonates with Gladding’s translation of “bark beetle” as life’s towardness. However, in an interview, Gladding provides insight into how these grooves can be understood as a language worth translating.
