‘Coralations’ Q&A with author Melody Jue

What benefits can we gain from new perspectives on corals? 

A lot of my work has to do with identifying norms in environmental narratives. Rather than repeating these norms, I try to open up possibilities for telling stories about the ocean differently. Part of this is goal-oriented — such as the renewal of public attention — but part of it is not. Rather, it’s about constant, rigorous, ongoing examination of the conditions of objectivity. 

As a philosophical exploration, what does the book bring to the table? 

Concepts are different underwater. This thesis has a number of implications, not just in the sciences. One implication is that literary theory and philosophy don’t take place in a vacuum. Theorists are always drawing analogies to tables and chairs. They spend a lot of time indoors. They’re not always thinking about how their ideas translate into other environments, like the ocean. 

In my first book, “Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater” (Duke University Press, 2020), I wrote about how the media concepts of the interface, inscription and database exhibit a terrestrial bias, and how thinking about them in the ocean changes their connotations. In “Coralations” I examine what has been correlated with coral — from the iconic color, to a sense of the tropics, to its reputation for symbiosis — and I look at situations where these things don’t work. 

Specific corals can draw our attention to new correlations. For example, between the species Lophelia pertusa and the oil industry in Norway, or how Trinidadian photographer Nadia Huggins uses corals to challenge expectations of the gendered body underwater in these very interesting diptychs, which look totally science fictional.  

For someone new to these ideas and this kind of work, what can they hope to take away from the book?

I hope those readers enjoy learning about weird corals, and also take something away about how to pay attention to media forms. 

Anything you’d like to add?

There’s a fun chapter on optimization for anyone thinking about coral and AI. Also, the cover is intentionally the exact shade of Pantone’s “Living Coral” that I write about in the prologue. I wanted that color on the cover so that the reader would have to look underneath to get to all the other unusual corals and “coralations” that I write about in the text.