The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction

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. [publisher's note]

Introduction by Donna Haraway; images by Lee Bul.

*New edition*