A Literature Of Place Barry Lopez Summary

“On Entering a New Place” by Barry Lopez is a piece of work that will really make you think. By definition, a preconception is; a preconceived idea or prejudice. Preconceptions of unknown objects or beings could really affect a person, which is what happened to the man in this reading. In the first two paragraphs, a man is having preconceptions about the desert he is crossing, but when the third paragraph comes along, he says “You can’t get at it this way. You must come with no intention of discovery.” Implying that you cannot have preconceptions to things that you are not familiar with.

Kunstler, James Howard. The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. Print.

In “Why Place Matters” by Wilfred M. McClay and Ted V. McAllister, the authors establish an argument of why place matters more than virtual places brought to us by technological advancements. McClay and McAllister talk about the risks as individuals and society face, when losing connection to physical space. They discuss how a feeling of “thereness” has vanished because people focus on a virtual place. Technologies around us have “absorbed our energies,” is something they mention, and it is what the satellites revolving around Earth are doing. The authors say when we move we have no emotion because we have detached ourselves very quickly from the place. McClay and McAllister reason how we all come from a place or “places” that

In “The Trouble with Wilderness,” William Cronon illustrates the paradox within the notion of wilderness, describing that if wilderness is that which lies beyond civilization -- beyond humankind, then so is the notion of nature outside the realm of the human... that humans are therefore, unnatural. Further, he explains that if our concept of nature (and ultimately our concept of God) is outside of humanity, then our existence is synonymous with the downfall of nature. That wilderness is purely a construct of civilization is central to this argument.  For example, Cronon asserts that “the removal of Indians to create an ‘uninhabited wilderness’---uninhabited as never before in human history of the place---reminds us just how invented, just how constructed, the American wilderness really is” (pg.79). Instead of in isolation from civilization, Cronon finds that his most spiritual experiences with nature have always been closer to home… a sense of wildness (versus wilderness) can be found in one’s backyard, gazing from a front porch, and in the melding of the human experience with mother nature. One of Into the Wild’s final scenes drives home this idea by altering the literal point of view that main character, Chris McCandless, has had of both himself and of the world since the beginning of his two year journey.  Into the Wild attempts to dramatizes Cronon’s argument to rethink wilderness; we will examine how the film succeeds, and where it fails, to support its premise.

The significance of the of the spaces we live in and are surrounded by is of course shaped by the purpose of the space, but the meaning of it goes beyond that. Places can hold significance by being centers of commerce or essential for sustaining life, but those hold no real personal relationships. They exist solely to meet the simplest of needs, and are constructed only with necessities in mind. In this sense, they are allowing life to be sustained, but they are not encouraging any real sense of living. “Subconscious Landscapes of the Heart” really addresses these ideas, looking at how human presence and habit are what gives the meaning to specific places. “Lifestyle and landscape [are] intertwined” and “daily ritual has place specificity.” Spaces are shaped and formed by the culture of a group, and as the space is made our own, that culture becomes

Emerson claims that when the Earth and everything in it is “...in its forms and tendencies, describing its own design” (142). Annie Dillard and Barry Lopez are both well-known American authors, heavily influenced by the works of previous transcendental essayist’s, Henry Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. In Emerson’s work, Nature, he discusses how he believes that the true meaning of transcendentalism is the complete opposite of social conformity, going against the norm, and doing right for our own lives and nature (143). Dillard, sharing Emerson’s thoughts, ponders the differences between good and evil and how we perceive things. In Heaven and Earth in Jest, Dillard talks about how she does not blindly follow society, instead looking and admiring all sides of everything. She says, “The sign on my body could have been an emblem or a stain” (Dillard 868). Similar to Dillard, American writer Lopez has a deep understanding of Emerson’s transcendental thoughts, and recognizes the problems a lack of such understanding creates in modern society. Although his writing is still relevant to the nature writing of Emerson and Dillard, Lopez’s American Geographies essay mainly focuses on the ignorance of geography by many Americans and the issues that stem from this.

Through removal and technology, humans have started to become isolated from the wilderness and the nature around them. This view distinctly contrasts with Thoreau’s perspective. “Though he [Thoreau] never put humans on the same moral level as animals or trees, for example, he does see them all linked as the expression of Spirit, which may only be described in terms of natural laws and unified fluid processes. The self is both humbled and empowered in its cosmic perspective,” states Ann Woodlief. The technologies that distract and consume us, and separate us from the natural world are apparent. Many people and children ins cities have seen little to no natural-grown things such as grass and trees. Even these things are often domesticated and tamed. Many people who have never been to a National Park or gone hiking through the wilderness do not understand its unruly, unforgiving, wild nature. These aspects, thought terrifying to many, are much of why the wilderness is so beautiful and striking to the human heart. “Thoreau builds a critique of American culture upon his conviction that ‘the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality,’” pronounces Rick Furtak, quoting Thoreau’s Life

Throughout history, humans have had a strong reliance on nature and their environment. As far back as historians can look, people have depended on elements of nature for their survival. In the past few decades, the increased advancement of technology has led to an unfortunate division between humans and nature, and this lack of respect is becoming a flaw in current day society. In Last Child in the Woods, Louv criticizes modern culture by arguing that humans increasing reliance on technology has led to their decreasing connection with nature through the use of relevant anecdotes, rhetorical questions and powerful imagery to appeal to ethos.

When people think of their environment people think of their immediate surroundings; however, one's environment goes beyond and further into the psychological connection to one's personal environment. To further explain, Gallagher discusses three different aspects of The Power of Place: Outside In, Inside Out, and Synchrony. The book opens doors previously unnoticed about psychological ecology. From reading the book one learns that settings influence behavior more than the personalities of most people.

Aldo Leopold is on the forefather of modern environmentalism. His book, A Sand County Almanac, is based on the notion of viewing land as a community and as a commodity. In the chapter “The Land Ethic”, Leopold invokes a rethinking of our relationships to our world and is based on the principle that ethics are “a process in ecological evolution” (238). Leopold describes the stages of ethic evolving and explains that the rules for socializing were originally defined for human beings. These rules are expanded upon in the next stage of “Ethical Sequence” (237-238), describing how humans interact toward their community. The third stage is the ethics between humans and the land. Upon analyzing “The Land Ethic” I have come to the conclusion that in order to have respect and ethic for land, or anything, one must make a personal connection.

In Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods written in 2008, he argues the separation between people and nature. As technology advances the less people are able to see of nature there is a boundary that is separated between the two. To convey his goal Louv uses rhetorical question, allusion, and anaphora to make the people understand the boundaries that are being set between people and nature. One of the rhetorical devices Louv uses in order to convey his goal is an allusion to advertisements.

“The Earth does not belong to us: We belong to the Earth”-Marlee Matlin. In Aldo Leopold’s essay, “The Land Ethic”, there are several overwhelming examples that illustrate why we as humans would believe we own the Earth when we really don’t. Paradoxically, looking at Virginia Woolf’s work, “The Death of a Moth”, one would come to believe that none of that matters because all living beings will suffer the fate of death. However, both works show that there can be a reconciliation between a certain kind of symbiosis: man vs man, land vs land, or man vs land. “The Death of a Moth” may show that all life form end eventually,but “The Land Ethic” convinces readers that there can be ways to maintain balance in the land that can prevent death or ameliorate life for all before death. In both works, we can observe the considerable similarities and differences, the balance between what is ethical and logical in how humans use the land, and the management of life and assurance of death for all life forms.

In A Literature of Place the writer Lopez describes for us his vision and how his imagination was shaped by nature of water in a dry southern California valley. Lopez tells us how he believes the human imagination is shaped by architecture at the early stages of our lives. In the writing, he takes us on a visual journey through his description in writing of time and places for example, how he made you see southern California in his vivid view through just words. Lopez talks about the sound of the wind in the crown of eucalyptus trees, the sensation of sheen earth, mahogany and scarlet cloud piled above a field of alfalfa at dusk. Lopez explains why he feels language seemed so magical to him talking about the first

Momaday describes living “in” one’s environment as a form of intimacy: “There is an intimate, vital link between the earth and himself”. There are habits and activities that define this condition. Hunters hunt animals, but they do not hunt them into extinction. People grow vegetables, such as, corn, squash, and beans. They also gather fruit to consume. They make arrangements to live on the land without being detrimental to it: “He lives on the land: he takes his living from it: but he does not destroy it”.

Since the beginning of time, man and nature have coexisted with one another. Before civilizations began and industrialization spread, all that was in the world was nature and man. Both Edward Abbey and Ralph Waldo Emerson, viewed nature as something which made us complete as a person. Abbey claims nature both “bore us and sustains us”. They believe we owe everything to nature. Nature has provided us opportunities to grow and prosper as an individual, yet what Abbey and Emerson failed to recognize is the importance of community. Both men believed one could truly understand himself by escaping society and pursuing the serenity of nature. This theory has its faults, for while moments of isolation may be beneficial in renewing one’s self, other