Encounters with the ArchDated
Is there any form of literature that ages so quickly as nature writing? I was looking at "Encounters with the Archdruid" yesterday and was stunned by its irrelevance.
In this classic of environmental literature, written in 1971, John McPhee convinces Sierra Club founder David Brower and federal dam-builder extraordinaire Floyd Dominy to float the Grand Canyon with him. The two bicker the entire time about whether to build a dam in the canyon.
It's a great piece of literature because it's a stunning exploration of the two men's characters. But McPhee's vehicle for drawing out that character is the environmental politics of the time. I'm sure it was a hot and meaningful issue in 1971, but the idea of damming the Grand Canyon today is so quaint as to be absurd. Even the environmentalists' talk of removing the Glen Canyon dam upstream has abated, thanks to the drought that is removing most of the river water that one might or might not want to dam.
It started me thinking about other works of contemporary nature writing. So many seem steeped in environmental politics, rather than the environment. Will any be able to stand the test of time in a manner similar to _Walden_?
Join the discussion at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/johnclaytonoutreach/
In this classic of environmental literature, written in 1971, John McPhee convinces Sierra Club founder David Brower and federal dam-builder extraordinaire Floyd Dominy to float the Grand Canyon with him. The two bicker the entire time about whether to build a dam in the canyon.
It's a great piece of literature because it's a stunning exploration of the two men's characters. But McPhee's vehicle for drawing out that character is the environmental politics of the time. I'm sure it was a hot and meaningful issue in 1971, but the idea of damming the Grand Canyon today is so quaint as to be absurd. Even the environmentalists' talk of removing the Glen Canyon dam upstream has abated, thanks to the drought that is removing most of the river water that one might or might not want to dam.
It started me thinking about other works of contemporary nature writing. So many seem steeped in environmental politics, rather than the environment. Will any be able to stand the test of time in a manner similar to _Walden_?
Join the discussion at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/johnclaytonoutreach/
