Nature writing can be found in numerous genres and each can portray different opinions, thoughts, examples, solutions, etc. Therefore, setting up a general set of guidelines allows people the opportunity to define what is meant by nature writing. Defining genre can be highly influential when readers are trying to capture the essence of what they are reading. Lawrence Buell’s four criteria for what constitutes an “environmental text,” provide a basic set of understandable guidelines. However, as the criteria stand they are too directed at the factual context and overlook the “experience” or emotional resonance of reading such works.
Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl, is a great example of an environmental text that addresses both the usefulness and limitation of Buell’s criteria. This climate fiction or cli-fi novel sets the tone and raises awareness about the major threats of climate change. It is set in the future when globalization fell apart and the world is in a genetically engineered nightmare where the oil based market has failed. Bacigalupi’s book is a great novel to emphasize the blind spot about emotional experience that is created by the close symbiotic relationship between the environment and people and how this relationship resonates. This novel also provides a perfect example of work that fits in line with each of Lawrence Buell’s criteria and certainly qualifies as an “environmental” text.
Lawrence Buell’s four criteria are easily embraced as they are highly applicable to what we consider nature writings. For instance, one of the criteria suggest it should provide evidence that the consequences of the environment affect the interests of other aspects of the world beyond just human interests. For example, in ...
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...s and provides supporting evidence that the novel shows that nature is ever changing, the nonhuman environment is relevant, there is human accountability, and that human interest is not exclusive. Bacigalupi’s narrative also provides evidence of the overlooked aspect of the reading “experience” within the criteria. When you read this gut wrenching novel of constant turmoil and unease it creates an awareness of the potential for environmental destruction. To omit the emotional experience of this book would eliminate the potential to emphasize the consquences of certain behavior by introducing connections.
Works Cited
Nordquist, Richard. "Grand Style Rhetoric." About.com Grammar & Composition. About.com, 2014. Web. 04 May 2014. .
Bacigalupi, Paolo. The Windup Girl. San Francisco: Night Shade Books, 2009. Print.
“Ode to Enchanted Light” by Pablo Neruda expresses and “Sleeping in the Forest” by Mary Oliver show deep appreciation of nature using a free form and narrative style formats. Pablo has a positive message about the lights under the trees, and has
Cronon, William “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995, 69-90
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Nature.” The American Experience. Ed. Kate Kinsella. Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005. 388-390. Print.
The wild is a place to push yourself to the limit and take a look at who you truly are inside. “Wilderness areas have value as symbols of unselfishness” (Nash). Roderick Nash’s philosophy states that the wilderness gives people an opportunity to learn humility but they fight this because they do not have a true desire to be humble. Human-kind wants to give out the illusion that they are nature lovers when in reality, they are far from it. “When we go to designated wilderness we are, as the 1964 act says, "visitors" in someone else's home” (Nash). People do not like what they cannot control and nature is uncontrollable. Ecocentrism, the belief that nature is the most important element of life, is not widely accepted. The novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer depicts a young boy who goes on an exploration to teach himself the true concept of humility. Chris McCandless, the protagonist, does not place confidence in the universal ideology that human beings are the most significant species on the planet, anthropocentrism.
When thinking about nature, Hans Christian Andersen wrote, “Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” John Muir and William Wordsworth both expressed through their writings that nature brought them great joy and satisfaction, as it did Andersen. Each author’s text conveyed very similar messages and represented similar experiences but, the writing style and wording used were significantly different. Wordsworth and Muir express their positive and emotional relationships with nature using diction and imagery.
From the lone hiker on the Appalachian Trail to the environmental lobby groups in Washington D.C., nature evokes strong feelings in each and every one of us. We often struggle with and are ultimately shaped by our relationship with nature. The relationship we forge with nature reflects our fundamental beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. The works of timeless authors, including Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard, are centered around their relationship to nature.
The book is often cited as an environmental classic - of which there can be little doubt - but it is also said by some to have largely triggered the modern environmental movement. Its warning about the dangers of
A graduate of Harvard and the former editor of the Harvard Crimson, Bill McKibben joined the New Yorker in 1982 as a staff writer right out of college. His parents had been writers, and he always thought he would follow in his father’s footsteps as a “newspaper” man. Oblivious as any to environmental predicaments, the course of his career—and life really—changed after writing an extensive piece where he literally tracked down where everything was made in his apartment. Travelling around for this piece introduced him to the “real world,” and in 1987 he left the New Yorker to live in the Adirondack Mountains with his fiancé (“McKibben, Bill”). This is where he wrote his first book, The End of Nature; a book that pushed him into the environmental limelight and provided a basis for all his other works.
One strength of his article is that it can easily elicit an emotional response from the more sympathetic readers and outdoor enthusiasts. Duane appeals to pathos when first setting the scene of a day in the wilderness. He describes what it would be like if one had the “good fortune” to spot a Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep in the wild. He writes, “You unwrap a chocolate bar amid breathtaking views . . . the sight fills you with awe and also with gratitude for the national parks, forests, and yes, environmental regulations that keep the American dream of wilderness alive” (Duane 1). For the audience that connects to this emotional appeal, this instantly draws them in to the article and can arouse feelings of amazement and wonder toward the sight described. It can likewise leave readers wondering whether or not this scene is truly so perfect. This statement can also appear too dramatic for those less passionate. When Duane writes, “The sight fills you with . . . gratitude for the . . . yes, environmental regulations that keep the American dream of wilderness alive,” it seems almost untrue, as most people do not think twice about the environmental regulations that keep animals in their
In the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, there are many themes, symbols, and motifs that are found throughout the novel. For my journal response, I have chosen to discuss nature as a prevalent symbol in the book. The main character, Montag, lives in a society where technology is overwhelmingly popular, and nature is regarded as an unpredictable variable that should be avoided. Technology is used to repress the citizens, but the oppression is disguised as entertainment, like the TV parlour. On the opposite end of the spectrum, nature is viewed as boring and dull, but it is a way to escape the brainwashing that technology brings. People who enjoy nature are deemed insane and are forced to go into therapy. Clarisse says “My psychiatrist wants to know why I go out and hike around in the forests and watch the birds and collect butterflies,” (Bradbury 23) which shows she is a threat to the control that the government has put upon the people by enjoying nature.
He opens up the article with the singular word that incites the highest level of fear in people, “doomsday” (Wallace-Wells). It catches people’s attention and makes them worry about the ramifications of climate change, and Wallace-Wells’ use of this word enforces the looming danger of rising temperatures. Next, he discusses the lifespan of Miami and Bangladesh “as if [they] still have a chance of surviving” even if people stop burning fossil fuels all together (Wallace-Wells). Wallace-Wells asserts that carbon emissions are the ultimate cause of climate change and causes anxiety in the readers because parts of the world may soon disappear into the ocean. Then, he explains how the carbon emissions affect the air quality and describes the air as “a rolling death smog that suffocates millions” (Wallace-Wells). This terrorizing and horrifying statement effects the audience and makes them panic about the air quality due to fossil fuel burning. Wallace-Wells’ inclusion of heartstopping and fear inducing descriptions of the consequences of climate change forces the audience to take another look at the issue as something that it is imperative to address. Emotions are influential and stick out in people’s minds, yet for these appeals to be effective, Wallace-Wells had to support them with facts and
Nature is often a focal point for many author’s works, whether it is expressed through lyrics, short stories, or poetry. Authors are given a cornucopia of pictures and descriptions of nature’s splendor that they can reproduce through words. It is because of this that more often than not a reader is faced with multiple approaches and descriptions to the way nature is portrayed. Some authors tend to look at nature from a deeper and personal observation as in William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, while other authors tend to focus on a more religious beauty within nature as show in Gerard Manley Hopkins “Pied Beauty”, suggesting to the reader that while to each their own there is always a beauty to be found in nature and nature’s beauty can be uplifting for the human spirit both on a visual and spiritual level.
Through the ingenious works of poetry the role of nature has imprinted the 18th and 19th century with a mark of significance. The common terminology ‘nature’ has been reflected by our greatest poets in different meanings and understanding; Alexander Pope believed in reason and moderation, whereas Blake and Wordsworth embraced passion and imagination.
A human induced global ecological crisis is occurring, threatening the stability of this earth and its inhabitants. The best path to address environmental issues both effectively and morally is a dilemma that raises concerns over which political values are needed to stop the deterioration of the natural environment. Climate change; depletion of resources; overpopulation; rising sea levels; pollution; extinction of species is just to mention a few of the damages that are occurring. The variety of environmental issues and who and how they affect people and other species is varied, however the nature of environmental issues has the potential to cause great devastation. The ecological crisis we face has been caused through anthropocentric behavior that is advantageous to humans, but whether or not anthropocentric attitudes can solve environmental issues effectively is up for debate. Ecologism in theory claims that in order for the ecological crisis to be dealt with absolutely, value and equality has to be placed in the natural world as well as for humans. This is contrasting to many of the dominant principles people in the contemporary world hold, which are more suited to the standards of environmentalism and less radical approaches to conserving the earth. I will argue in this essay that whilst ecologism could most effectively tackle environmental problems, the moral code of ecologism has practical and ethical defects that threaten the values and progress of anthropocentricism and liberal democracy.
Many poets are inspired by the impressive persona that exists in nature to influence their style of poetry. The awesome power of nature can bring about thought and provoke certain feelings the poet has towards the natural surroundings.