For the class of September 27th: The Environmental Imagination of Thoreau's Walden (and Emerson's Nature)
These are the reading prompts for you to comment on the texts for this week (with lovely pic of Margarida in Walden pond at the bottom!). You can choose one of the questions, or weave more than one into a commentary.
1.Compare Gary Snyder's "Wave" with Thoreau's "Walden" (poem). Which of them seems more eccentric? Why?
2. Lawrence Buell, in the intro to The Environmental Imagination (1999), refers to "literature's capacity for articulating the non-human environment" (10). Do Emerson and (or) Thoreau achieve these goals? In what (different) ways?
3.. Buell also posits, in pp. 7-8, four ingredients that should comprise the more ecocentric texts... Can you pick up from the Walden excerpts parts that exemplify such ingredients, and briefly analyse them?
4. Write a short text analysis of the passage, on pp. 2127-28, that begins "The whole bank, which is from twenty to forty feet high" and ends with "we may turn over a new leaf at last".
1. Having compared the poems, Gary Snyder's "Wave" is the more eccentric.
ReplyDeleteThoreau's "Walden" clearly engages with another voice in the poem, as can be seen in l.17 "O! tell me what (...)" in a more conversational style while "Wave" feels more internalized and naturalistic. The poem consists in the natural sounds of waves, which aren't necessarily logical and rational but are always natural. In other words, Thoreau tells us about Nature in "Walden" and Snyder shows us Nature in "Waves".
Furthermore, Snyder's poem feels like a wave: formally and aurally.
Formally, the stanzas are written in a way in which the middle line is longer than the rest, and this structure maintains throughout the poem giving the visual feeling of a wave, going up and down through the sea and breaking on the shore.
Aurally, because the poem also fluctuates in terms of sound. In the beginning it is calm, no rhymes, but then there is this violent alliteration (l. 7-8 "wave wife // woman-wyfman-" and l.9 "veiled; vibrating; vague") which is so sudden like the break of the wave on the shore. And then it calms down again, and the wave doesn't break anymore, but by the end of the poem, we notice that it is starting to build up to break again because of the consonance in (l.20 "trembling, spreading, radiating") and the rhyme between (l.22 "wide" and l.24 "mind").
Snyder suggests that the waves culminate in a cacophony of sounds when breaking on the shore. Textually, this is represented by the violent and abundant use of figures of speech to produce this cacophony.
2. Both Emerson as well as Thoreau, in their distinct ways, explore and articulate the non-human environment in their work.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, one could argue Thoreau focuses much more on the representation of nature as an entity of its own.
For example, in Nature, Emerson writes “The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God” (Emerson, Nature) suggesting that nature could serve as a conduit for the devine, allowing others to transcend their limited minds and be able to connect to a more elevated reality. By doing so, Emerson emphasizes the ability that nature has to inspire a transcending experience to the human mind. However Emerson’s focus remains mainly on the effect of nature on the human conscious rather than just nature by itself.
Thoreau, on the other hand, particularly in Walden, displays a much more profound interest in the depiction of nature on its own terms by focusing in specific details of the natural world, such as tree growth patterns, animal behavior and seasonal changes. He writes, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life”(Thoreau, Walden). Thoreau’s goal is not only to celebrate nature’s beauty but as well to understand nature’s complex existence and defend its preservation, stating “Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads”(Thoreau, Walden). This awards him to be held in great esteem by Buell who considers Thoreau a fundamental figure in the history of American environment thought.
4- “Springing into existence” can be viewed as the key phrase setting the scene in Thoreau’s excerpt. Through the transformation of “a bank of sand” into “lush foliage”, he employs both dynamic language and dynamic content. This dynamism can be also seen where he likens humans to “a mass of thawing clay,” highlighting human-kind’s intrinsic connection to the Earth. Clay, made of minerals and soil, can absorb water, has a plastic structure that easily takes shape, and hardens when dried or heated. Therefore, this analogy accentuates that humanity, who has the potential to grow and adapt, is (a part of) nature. Overall, every ‘thing’ Thoreau describes in this passage is intertwined in a harmonious way, emphasizing the fluidity of existence.
ReplyDeleteAs for the nature-al frame referred to as where the ‘Artist’ molds life, it can be concluded that the text draws similar conventions to Emerson’s "Nature." According to Emerson, in nature we can find a deep and divine interconnectedness with the world and the ‘Over-soul.’ However, by using a more cultural term like “hieroglyphics” to suggest a deeper insight into life, Thoreau’s perspective might be slightly distinguished from Emerson's.
Last but not least, by using the phrase “turn over a new leaf,” he highlights transformation and hope. This saying carries connotations of new beginnings and growth. Also, by choosing "leaf," Thoreau links personal transformation to the natural processes of renewal, which presents a holistic understanding of growth.
If I dare to stench it relatively far-fetched, linguistically, “leaf” serves a dual purpose: it refers to a physical part of a plant and also denotes a page or sheet in a book. By choosing this word, Thoreau may be intertwining the natural with the literary, suggesting that just as a leaf in nature signifies growth and renewal, so too can a "leaf" of paper represent a new chapter in one's life or the opportunity to rewrite one’s narrative (connecting not only with hieroglyphics but also with the analogy of clay again). This semantic relationship reinforces Thoreau’s overarching theme of continuous evolution, interconnectedness and harmony.
3) Lawrence Buell identifies four defining traits of eco-centric texts: the presence of the nonhuman environment as more than a backdrop, the recognition of nonhuman interests, human accountability to the environment, and an understanding of nature as a dynamic process rather than a static entity (Buell, 7-8). It is these very tenets that inform the text, Thoreau’s ‘Walden’ which is an account of the connection between human beings and the natural ecosystems. Buell’s concepts further fittingly enable how Walden can be appreciated as an eco-centric narrative by the way nature is portrayed, the nonsensical man-centeredness expressed in the text, and how the principles of environmental ethics are stressed in the text. Also, Greg Garrard in his book, ‘Ecocriticism’, states “Walden is crucial to Buell’s argument because it is a transitional work, at the midpoint of a movement from youthful anthropocentric transcendentalism to the mature, biocentric perspective revealed in the late essays on wilderness, the dispersion of seeds and the succession of forest trees” (p. 52). Accordingly, using Buell's paradigm, we can observe how Walden embodies eco-centric literature in his depiction of nature, condemnation of anthropocentrism, and advocate for an ethical, sustainable living.
ReplyDeleteTo begin with, Thoreau’s engagement with nature illustrates the active role of the environment in the making of history. ‘Walden’, for example, contains the following lines: “I was seated by the shore of a small pond, about a mile and a half south of the village of Concord…its crystal surface, reflecting the sky, seemed an immortal thing”. Here, the pond is no longer merely a beautiful view, rather it is referred to as a “crystal surface” which possesses qualities of eternity, defining a power that cannot be subjugated or put to use for human purposes. This is also consistent with Buell’s first principle. Thoreau’s reflections were both concerned with an active nature, rather than a set background as it is often represented in films.
Thoreau’s ideas stand in opposition to the belief that there is a need to focus only on human concerns. As Thoreau reflects on his love for solitude and simplicity, he reveals his appreciation of the non-human world: “Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with nature herself.” Thoreau here shows that he does not want to destroy nature; he wishes to coexist with it. This quotation reflects Buell’s second tenet, in that Thoreau recognizes natural order and balance, without reference to a particular use or purpose to humans. This appreciation also reminds me of Haraway’s statement: “who and whatever we are, we need to make-with—become-with, compose-with the earth-bound” (p. 161).
In ‘Walden’, an important aspect is how people account to nature, since Thoreau’s experiment on simple living is primarily minimizing his impact on the environment. He states, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.”. Thus, showing a self-conscious effort to cut down the use of resources and co-exist with the environment, thus depicting a moral concern for the nature. Thoreau speaks out against the consumers overproduction and advocates for a simpler way of living and environmental conscious ways. As for retreating into the woods and embracing simplicity, there is an echo of the third principle of environmental accountability as stated by Buell.
DeleteFinally, Thoreau depicts nature as a process, always changing and in motion. He notes, “the wind that blows is all that any one knows. It is the wind with which all are familiar; it passes through the wood and over the hill”. The wind, an element of nature that touches all, connotates the idea of nature as active and never still. The wind and its activeness that draws Thoreau helps to elaborate on the notion that nature is fluid and a never-ending cycle rather than a steady unchanging feature. This viewpoint is in support of Buell’s fourth requirement which emphasizes that nature has to be considered as a variable rather than a fixed state.
Finally, we can say that since Buell establishes some ecocritical values, Thoreau’s ‘Walden’ fits into such values. In his mobilization of nature as an entity, in his respect for the intrinsic worth of nonhuman entities, in his moral obligation to protect the environment, and in his perception of nature as an active process — Thoreau exhibits an ecology principled at its core. It is precisely because Thoreau's writing seeks to correct anthropocentric imaginations and argues for the coexistence of humans and the environment that Walden has been considered a major work in the environmental movement, with implications for today's society.
ReplyDeleteIn his essay "Walking", Thoureau writes the following: "English Literature, from the day of the minstrels to the Lake poets, - Chaucer and Spenser and Milton, and even Shakespeare, included - breathes no quite fresh and, in this sense, wild strain. It is an essentially tame and civilized literature, reflecting Greece and Rome. Her wilderness is a greenwood, her wild man a Robin Wood. There is plenty of genial love of Nature, but not so much of Nature herself" (231, https://www.walden.org). Mais à frente no ensaio, Thoreau equipara ao Homem que anda nos bosques (e encontra aí a sua liberdade) a capacidade de gerar ideias que vão além da estagnação da sociedade humana, que se gere de hábitos e rotinas, ideias aladas e não de aves de capoeira (que vão além do definido pelos movimentos mecânicos da sociedade e da sua cultura). Parece, neste sentido, haver uma ligação para Thoreau entre o activamente estar e andar na natureza com a capacidade activa de pensar, de gerar pensamento, mas, essencialmente, de estar uno com a sua consciência.
Na frase de Lawrence Buell "literature's capacity for articulating the non-human environment" está subentendido o desenvolvimento do seu argumento para uma questão de linguagem, primeiro, e, depois, para um consideração da importância que os estudos de género e feministas tiveram para uma redefinição de uma percepção sobre o cânone, que não só exclui o feminino (ou o via através de olhos masculinos; e toda a tradição ocidental lírica parece ancorar-se nesta absorção do "outro" no seu discurso poético) como exclui a Natureza através do mesmo processo de romantização ou idealização. De facto, a Natureza é absorvida pelo "eu" nessa tradição. Associada à animalidade, aliás como a figura do feminino, a Natureza é tida como objecto de uma aprimoração espiritual a partir de uma posição de distância do sujeito em relação a ela, objecto natural que deve ser tornado belo ou produtivo.
Para Emerson, a Natureza é figura da total consciência do homem, ou, mais especificamente, do Aristocrata, a que essa consciência justifica a natural superioridade. A Natureza é o Conhecimento platónico, artificial, do próprio egoísmo subjectivo e de classe (ele separa os ricos dos pobres através de uma naturalização dessas hierarquias (e em que, para garantir a estabilidade dessa "sociedade" aristocrata naturalizada, os pobres são sacrificados a esse conhecimento), é o considerar da Natureza sempre como algo distante, além: "The pine tree, the river, the bank of flowers before him, does not seem to be Nature. Nature is still elsewhere (...) To the intelligent, nature converts itself into a vast promise" ("Nature", Read Books 2016, 155). Assim, o modo como Emerson pensa a Natureza separa o sujeito dela, torna-a objecto de exploração pois ela é objecto da consciência humana. Participa do problema que Buell explicita como sendo a separação entre o texto e o referente, dado que o referente é absorvido pela voz textual até se confundir com ele e a sua vontade individual. O mesmo, em Emerson, se sucede com as classes mais baixas: "But if, instead of identifying ourselves with the work, we feel that the soul of the workman streams through us, we shall find the peace of the morning dwelling first in our hearts, and the fathomless powers of gravity and chemistry, and, over them, of life preexisting within us in their highest form" (156). - comment by André Osório (continues)
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ReplyDeleteThoreau, por outro lado, parece estar mais próximo, como exemplo de redefinição do cânone americano, de uma centralidade de um pensamento de alteridade sobre a Natureza, afirmando “Tão perto do bem está o que é selvagem!” ("Caminhando), em vez da beleza. Procura pensar na subjetividade como dentro de um todo Humano (em ensaios como "A Escravidão em Massachusetts") e dentro da Natureza como tal. Embora existam alguns problemas que surgem de Thoreau, acredito aborda fortemente o problema do romantismo e do pensamento imperial, não separando a subjetividade da Natureza como tal, considerando a relação humana com o sertão e não a sua idealização (que só pode ser preservada como tal distanciando o objeto, que se torna de posse). - Comment by André Osório (concl.)
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