Michael Madsen’s documentary about the disposal of nuclear waste in Finland uses a symbolic language whose meaning can be amplified by St. Augustine’s theology, and in particular by his theories of reading. Because nuclear waste remains dangerous for 100,000 years, the problem of its disposal forces us to think about the inevitable end of our own civilization. The necessity to place warnings on the waste burial sites demands that we find ways to speak to people in the future with whom we may have no cultural continuity. It makes ancient theories of eternity newly relevant, and potentially awakens our sense of the sacred in a world that has been stripped of sacredness during the scientific era that gave rise to nuclear power in the first place.

中文翻译：

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照明的诗学

迈克尔·马德森（Michael Madsen）的关于在芬兰处置核废料的纪录片使用一种象征性语言，其含义可以通过圣奥古斯丁的神学，尤其是他的阅读理论来加以放大。由于核废料在十万年来一直是危险的，因此废料处理问题迫使我们思考我们自己文明的必然终结。必须在废物埋葬地点发出警告，这要求我们找到与将来可能与我们没有文化连续性的人们交谈的方法。它使古老的永恒理论重新相关，并有可能唤醒我们对这个神圣的感觉的世界，而这个世界在科学时代首先被剥夺了神圣性，而科学时代却首先产生了核能。