3 ms·
There is a strangeness to this piece that I can't quite get a handle on. For one thing, it is a transcendentalist tribute, the contours of which are predictabl
by prescriptivist 5y ago
There is a strangeness to this piece that I can't quite get a handle on.
For one thing, it is a transcendentalist tribute, the contours of which are predictable: an intellectual living in Boston owns a vacation home in Maine. They go up there a few times a year to fill up their nature reserves, then import those back into their circles in academia/literature/media at the end of summer. That's been a cottage industry for a couple of hundred years now (Emerson, Thoreau, et al.)
That's not a big deal, I live in Maine, and this kind of mining is good for the economy. What bothers me is the piece feels compelled to cite studies such as an Oberlin "nature scale" (which seems insane) and various surveys and other studies to provide an academic backing to their run-of-the-mill transcendentalism. This approach to naturalism seems to denude whatever point they are trying to make.
As if we need experts to confirm our nature to love nature? Who is this written for?
- i000 5y agoGreat thoughtful comment. I think you answer your question yourself. It is defensively written for the modern intellectual who wishes their beliefs to have a flair of objectivity. Perhaps another question is, why it is not enough for the author to trust they intuition when it comes to well-being?
- prescriptivist 5y ago> why it is not enough for the author to trust they intuition when it comes to well-being? Good question. I found the section where the author experiences the mind-meld with an Osprey to be the only charming part of the piece. It's an unguarded moment in a guarded essay. It's also downright bizarre but endearing and an experience anyone could have to an encounter in the woods. It's very human. Shame that it's encased in all that objectivity, indeed.
- stathibus 5y agoI'd call myself an Alan Lightman fan (Einstein's Dreams is a lovely book) but I think he missed on this one.
- bryanrasmussen 5y agoAnyone who writes for the internet age will be guarded or brave enough that they might actually be insane.