Forests: The Shadow of Civilization

Human civilization grew up and out of the shadows of the immense forests that came to cover all of the Northern Hemisphere at the conclusion of the most recent glacial event and are thus therefore, utterly, completely dependent on the forest at every level, from the most pragmatic to the most profound. That, in a nutshell, is Harrison's thesis. His purpose is to show (and he does not travel outside of western civilization to make his point, but it holds globally, I have no doubt at all) how this great truth informs every human creative and cultural impulse at the deepest level. From Gilgamesh to MacBeth, from Descartes to Conrad, from Rousseau to Thoreau, it seems that almost no change in the understanding of the human condition comes show more without, in some form or another, a "return" to the forest for inspiration, exploitation, or transformation. It was a brilliant exposition too of the the contradictions and limitations of the "enlightenment" view that through rational means man can be perfected. To do this requires denying "the shadow", that is, requires taming the wild and forested, which is nothing less than the massive destruction of nature, and ultimately, yes, ourselves. In the first three-quarters of the book, Harrison traces this evolution, in the final chapter he brings forth his final thesis, that having "left" the forest (nature) to live in dwellings we are forever separated from our "roots" (see how pervasive it is!); the closest we can get to nature is through the poetic mediation or "logos" or "bringing together" of the visionaries. He links our fear and denial of death (which nature "going into the forest" can teach us not to fear) with our wanton destructiveness of nature. In the final part of the book, making his point about the poetic "mediation" without which the little connection we have with "nature" is feeble at best, he discusses the work of Constable, Thoreau, an English poet named John Clare and an Italian poet named Andrea Zanzotto. The exegesis of a couple Constable's paintings was fascinating and illuminating, and his view on Thoreau added something new to the mix, his enthusiasm over Clare an Zanzotto--both poets so rooted to their home ground that the one went mad when he lost his home and the other never leaves home. Interesting to learn about and perhaps now I will see them everywhere. I'm not sure what I think of it all, but I am convinced it is very much worth meditating on in a serious way. One major take-away was a new understanding of how the medieval hunting forest preserve of the aristocrats and the "rational" forestry methods of the enlightenment period (in which it is assumed that everything on earth must be useful and exists for the benefit of mankind) are in a way, at the root of the warring factions between wildlife preservationists and the forestry industry today. ****1/2 show less