For a full review of the book by Gaspard King, Humus (L'Observatoire, 2023):
Ploughman of the Earth: Gaspard Kœnig
« Ver de terre, d'abord, ce n'est pas très gentil comme nom, c'est fait pour blesser. The two voices of the Lombrics can be used to redon a piece of scientific knowledge. Family: lombricidae. Espèce : lombricus terrestris. And these lombrics represent the first biomass of terrestrial animals. Autrement dit, si on les met tous sur une balance, ils pèseront plus loud, et de loin, que les Homo sapiens, les éléphants et les fourmis réunis. Pour thunder un ordre de grandeur, il y en a entre une et trois tons à l'hectare, en tout cas dans les soles où l'homme n'a pas posé ses sales pattes. »
This courte vidéo du professor Marcel Combe qui circulait sur Youtube avait donné envie à Arthur de venir assistant à sa conference. Mais en entrant dans l'immense amphi quasi vide et qui sentait le neuf, entre ces murailles de bois reconstitué qui voulaient thunder un cachet "nature" et ne parvenaient qu'à souligner le squelette de verre et d'acier des bâtiments Alentour, parmi ces étudiants dispersés dans les Travées et qui n'échangeaient pas un regard, Arthur se sentit découragé. This is a part of what is available in the imagination of these agronomy studies.
Arthur se demandait par quelle aberration on avait déménagé AgroParisTech in the desert concrete du plateau de Saclay. The promotional offer is available encore pu passer sa première année d'école au château de Grignon, au milieu de three cents hectares de champs and de forests. The generations of students available apprise the brebis and the meringues in the tails. Au lieu de quoi, Arthur devait badger vingt fois par jour sur les portiques et se repérer dans un dédale de couloirs anonymes où seuls changeaient les numéros sur les portes. In six months the access to the integrated school system is also available to nature. The bulldozers are exposed to the sun. The bedrooms are ressembled in the halls of the courses that are ressembled in the clothes of the gym. Il est certain que l'on gagnait du temps sur ce campus où tout était à disposition, mais du temps pour quoi faire ? Pour mater du porno, pour travailler encore et encore sur les meilleures formales chimiques ? Can you have a drink in a cafe in the middle of the day or chanter in an office of the people in the central area of the terre-plein with a bowl of poissons?
Dès the premier day, Arthur s'était considéré en exile. Autrefois une des terres les plus fertiles de France, the plateau de Saclay avait été transformé en desert fonctionnel, an interminable zone commerciale or les enseignes auraient été remplacées par « Polytechnique », « Télécom » or « École Normale Superieure ». On prétendait and rassembler les meilleurs cerveaux de France, étudiants comme chercheurs. May you have a drink in an implacable geometrical space, with the neon blafards of the couloirs, immersed in a forest of grues? A supermachine atrophy, ready to be reproduced with other supermachines to reveal a world of supermachines. What is the mission that fixes the problem with future engineers and agronomists of AgroParisTech? Apprendre les bons éléments de langage sur l'agriculture régénérative pour transformer en toute bonne conscience les fermes françaises en usines à viande couvertes de panneaux solaires?
The plus perversity in this aménagement consistsait à introduire quelques touches champêtres, comme un regret. Once you have reached an interminable escalator from the start of the RER B, the trainee will have the surprise of the pénétrer in a small tree in a champ de roseaux avant de retrouver les allées pavées et le gazon tondu à ras. Sur le campus lui-même, a new soigneusement délimitée préservait quelques mètres carrés de nature sauvage. Autour de la minuscule plage de gravier s'étaient réfugiés des touffes d'herbes hirsutes, des joncs lançant leurs fleurs havane en bouquets et quelques renoncules flottant sur l'eau comme des marguerites géantes. Mare au diable pour promeneur de l'anthropocène.
In this way, Arthur is now in exile and is provisional. A diploma obtained from the Société Exigeait de Lui, the serait quitte. When the demand is made in the sector of activity in which the lancer grows in the school's range, the response is: «cultivator in the garden». C'était flow mais sincère.
Arthur found himself at the entrance to the amphitheater, here. The aurait sans doute tourné les talons s'il n'avait aperçu ce garçon aux cheveux blonds bien peignés et aux pommettes marquées. Tout en lui breath la bonne santé et la paix d'esprit: son T-shirt gris qui laissait deviner un corps fin et musclé; son ordinateur sagement fermé sur la table devant lui ; Son air impassible, attendant les événements sans se dandiner sur son siège ni tripoter son téléphone. Arthur le trouva singulier, très different de la foule de leurs semblables qui s'agitaient sur eux-mêmes. The avança jusqu'à lui et déplia le siège d'à côté. The garçon blond déplaça son ordinateur for faire de la place et tendit sans la main à Arthur, comme s'ils se croisaient sur un stand de foire agricole. Une telle spontanéité n'était pas habituelle, meme parmi les étudiants. Surtout parmi les étudiants.
Gaspard King, Humus (L'Observatoire, 2023).
"Earthworm, first of all, that's not a very nice name; it's meant to hurt. It's better to speak of Lumbricidae to restore a little scientific dignity to them. Family:" lumbricidaeType: lumbricus terrestrisAnd these earthworms represent the first animal biomass on Earth. In other words, if you put them all on a scale, they would weigh far more than Homo sapiens, elephants and ants combined. To give you an idea of the scale: there are between one and three tons per hectare, at least in soils where humans haven't set their dirty paws on them.”
This short video by Professor Marcel Combe, circulating on YouTube, had inspired Arthur to attend his lecture. But when he entered the vast, almost empty lecture hall, which smelled of new materials, between walls of reconstructed wood meant to evoke the impression of "nature" but only emphasizing the glass and steel skeleton of the surrounding buildings, among the students scattered across the rows of seats who didn't exchange a single glance, Arthur felt discouraged. This wasn't how he had imagined his agricultural science studies.
Arthur wondered how AgroParisTech had ended up in the concrete jungle of the Saclay plateau. The previous year's cohort had spent their first year at Château Grignon, surrounded by 300 hectares of fields and forests. Generations of students had learned there how to milk sheep and have sex in the undergrowth. Instead, Arthur had to clock in at the gates 20 times a day and navigate a labyrinth of anonymous corridors where only the door numbers changed. In the six months he'd been at the school, he'd never seen so little of nature. Outside, the only sound was the roar of bulldozers tearing up the ground. The dorm rooms looked like classrooms, which in turn looked like gym changing rooms. Sure, you could save time on this campus where everything was readily available, but time for what? To watch porn, to work on the best chemical formulas over and over again? Who would want to have a drink in a cafeteria that was cleaned twice a day, or sing in a student office that looked like a fishbowl in the middle of the median strip?
From the very first day, Arthur felt exiled. The Plateau de Saclay, once one of the most fertile regions of France, had been transformed into a functional wasteland, an endless shopping zone where signs had been replaced by "Polytechnique," "Télécom," or "École Normale Supérieure." It purported to be a gathering place for the best minds in France, students and researchers. But what becomes of a brain trapped in a relentlessly geometric space, blinded by the pale neon lights of the corridors and immersed in a forest of cranes? A stunted supermachine, ready to reproduce with other supermachines to design a world of supermachines? Was this the task now being set for the aspiring agricultural engineers of AgroParisTech? To learn the right words about regenerative agriculture in order to, with a clear conscience, transform French farms into solar-panel-covered meat factories?
The most perverse thing about this establishment was the inclusion of some rural elements, almost as a form of regret. After the panting student had climbed an endless flight of stairs from the RER B station, he was surprised to find himself in a small wood, then a reed bed, before returning to paved paths and closely mown lawns. On campus itself, there was a carefully demarcated pond that preserved a few square meters of wilderness. Around the tiny pebbly beach, scraggly clumps of grass, rushes producing their Havana-brown flowers in clusters, and some buttercups that floated on the water like giant daisies had taken root. A Devil's Lake for a stroller from the Anthropocene.
In any case, Arthur had vowed that this exile would only be temporary. Once he had obtained the qualification society demanded, the matter would be settled. When asked what profession he planned to enter after graduation, he replied, "Tending my garden." It was vague, but honest.
Arthur was still standing by the entrance to the lecture hall, hesitating. He probably would have turned away if he hadn't seen this boy with the neatly combed blond hair and striking cheekbones. Everything about him radiated health and peace of mind: his gray T-shirt, which hinted at a lean, muscular physique; his laptop, neatly closed on the table in front of him; his impassive expression as he waited for events to unfold, without fidgeting in his chair or playing with his phone. Arthur found him peculiar, quite unlike the crowd of their peers who were preoccupied with themselves. He walked over and unfolded the seat next to him. The blond boy moved his laptop aside to make room and extended his hand to Arthur without hesitation, as if they were meeting at a booth at an agricultural fair. Such spontaneity was unusual, even among students. Especially among students.
This article is written in German and can be found at https://rentree.de. Automatic translations into English and French are available. English, French.
