For our first reading by Nash, a very interesting quote “Wilderness is a noun that acts like an adjective” means there is no specific wilderness exists, it changes based on different person with their unique concept. It is like an abstract concept. Like the book says, “because it is “so heavily freighted with meaning of a personal, symbolic, and changing kind as to resist easy definition.” Wilderness can be everywhere, it can be a house, a piece of wood or the bunch of building in the city which can be named the iron forest. And one man’s wilderness can be defined differently in another’s concept.
For our second reading by Snyder, the biggest concern is how Snyder differiciated between nature and wilderness.“Nature” is defined as the physical universe and all its properties by Gary Snyder. It has two meanings. One is “the outdoors” which means a physical world including all living things. And another one is “the material world or its collective objects and phenomena” which including the products of human action and intention.
And Wilderness is a place of abundant. It represents the very real condition of energy and richness that is so often found in wild system. It can symbolize the huge amount of lives in the nature. On the other hand, it also can be implied chaos, eros, the unknown, realms of taboo, the habitat of both the ecstatic and the demonic. It means a place of archetypal power, teaching and challenging.
For our third reading from Nash this week,“Paradoxically, their sanctuary and their enemies were one and the same.” by Nash was trying to express a specific opinion. Puritans moved into the wilderness for escaping the persecution of the corrupt civilization. They took the wilderness as the place has a fresh start and they could have the fittest way to run their activity freely. Based on the Old Testament, wilderness also could be a pathway for pursuing God, and a place to overcome the incoming challenges on the wild. Therefore, Puritans took the wilderness as their sanctuary.
On the other hand, the wilderness is an enemy. It was seen as a place represent the difficult; danger; seduction; and moral crisis. They wanted to tame it and change it. It was like to build a garden in wild or ignite a light in the darkness. Therefore, the city on the hill was the first step to redeeming and change the world of wilderness.
About my personal reflection, I would like to focus on the perspective of wilderness because we have discussed the difference between nature and wilderness in the discussion part which was very interesting to me. I was born in a city in China and the greening was really bad for the city. My city and circumstance were kind of bad, the air was wet and the weather was extremely hot in the summer. The wastewater flowing on the downside of the walkway on the street and it stinks. If you were there you might see mouses running on the street just like the period England had the plague. It is kind of exaggerate but I used to found a few rats in my closet when I was about 6. I would like to define the mess as wilderness. Although it is a city where a lot of human being living together, without appropriate city management and greening. Wow. It is many ways better now but the street is still dirty and lacking greening in the city. For me, the iron city has been build up based on destroying the original ecological environment is wilderness because it is lack of breath of fresh lives from mother nature.
I feel so lucky that I haven’t met any serious natural disasters could damage me or my properties, otherwise, I might not have a chance writing the blog related to the wilderness right now. : ) I would like to share a link with natural disasters that already happened. It is like: hey, love and takes care of your mother planet carefully otherwise you will feel the insane female anger. 🤔
Xiubin's Nature blog 