I talk
about my mom a lot on here. Well, I talk about my mom a lot in general.
But my
mother has always said she is a spiritual person. She believes in a higher,
non-malicious power and she believes it lives in her plants. My mother, bless
her pea-pickin’ heart, talks to her plants. Coos at them. Tells them they’re so
strong and powerful and beautiful.
So, if the
Ents do rise up and take back over the planet, I think my mother will be just
fine.
I
understand what our friend Kingsnorth is trying to say here. Let’s put a voice
to the planet. Let’s make her a character. Let’s have a novel from her
perspective so we can cause a sympathy for the planet that she hasn’t felt in a
long, long time.
But guys,
don’t you think that’s awful presumptive of us? Can we pretend to know how the
planet’s “mind” works? Can we even begin to put a voice to that? A human voice
nonetheless? How else would we even write a story from the planet’s perspective
than to humanize it?
It is one
thing to talk to the planet. To encourage its growth. To tell your plants their
beautiful and to respect Mother Nature. But how the hell can we pretend to talk
for her? It is wrong to write from
the perspective of a culture that is not your own, when you do not experience
the hardships they do. How is this any different? I don’t think this is the
answer, but I think old Kingsnorth is onto something. We just have to find a
way to otherwise represent the planet in our art.
I sound
pretty hippy dippy right now.
You really
do turn into your parents.
Meta Post: The Good the Bad and the Voice of the Universe
ReplyDeleteThis week we read the work of Paul Kingsworth, and while some of us in our tiny anonymous universe agreed with the man's words, some on the other hand were not so generally pleased.
Some good questions came up this week, like:
Who are we to speak for the planet?
And
Why do humans consider themselves to be at the top of the ecological pyramid?
As the tallberrybee has stated, we may not have any authority to even think about what the planet as feeling. We burn it, bulldoze it, destroy it, take from it.
And what does mother nature do?
ALL
SHE
DOES
IS
GIVE
As tricentennialcephalopod stated, why haven't we been listening to nature? Well, as the tallberrybee stated, maybe it is because we have no business in doing so, so people in general, as humans in existence, do not. It seems kind of ridiculous to think we ever could. As brought up this week, we have no idea how nature is feeling, how nature might be healing, might be hurting.
After all, the answer to this question was already brought up I believe, we are not the height of existence on this planet so why on Earth would we think somehow that we should be allowed to speak for it.
The only question left in mind is, why on Earth would the planet want to talk to us after all this abuse?