Seven Sublimes

A reconception of the sublime to include experiences of disaster, war, outer space, virtual reality, and the Anthropocene.


We experience the sublime—overwhelming amazement and exhilaration—in at least seven different forms. Gazing from the top of a mountain at a majestic vista is not the same thing as looking at a city from the observation deck of a skyscraper; looking at images constructed from Hubble Space Telescope data is not the same as living through a powerful earthquake. The varieti...