Hacking the linear, progressive mode of the Techno-Heroic, the Carrier Bag Theory of human evolution proposes: ‘before the tool that forces energy outward, we made the tool that brings energy home.’ Prior to the preeminence of sticks, swords and the Hero’s killing tools, our ancestors’ greatest invention was the container: the basket of wild oats, the medicine bundle, the net made of your own hair, the home, the shrine, the place that contains whatever is sacred. The recipient, the holder, the story. The bag of stars.
London-based press Ignota Books recently republished Ursula K. Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction.
This story proposed the first tool as the basket or container, rather than the spear.
“Before the tool that forces energy outward, we made the tool that brings energy home.”
“Our ancestors’ greatest invention was the container: the basket of wild oats, the medicine bundle, the net made of your own hair, the home, [...] The bag of stars.”