Nature Writing?

Romantic elegies of the way the arms of a tree dance in the wind, or how a flower wilts as its season comes to an end, mirroring the change of weather and the fading of a person, have been examples of nature writing in the past. Most often, Nature serves as a useful tool for the introspection of an individual. One can escape into the trees to find themselves; they are tested and bested by the peaks of a mountain, learning their limits; they sit in fields among grasses and wildflowers in deep contemplation, reflecting what they see, feel, or hear, back on themselves. This has been nature writing.

There are some, however, who let the awesomeness of the natural world speak for itself without imprinting upon it, Richard Powers, Gilbert White, and John Clare come to mind. I’m sure there are others, and yet most of what is called nature writing has been a useful tool for self discovery. Though, this seems to be rather counterproductive. Is writing about and for Nature not a way to provide a voice to what has been trodden over, exploited, extracted from, and disrespected in the most horrendous way? Should Nature writing not be focussed on the identify of Nature itself, rather than the person inserting themselves into the picture? Is it not hypocritical for authors to claim the Nature Writing title, through fiction or non-fiction, and yet refer and relate every element of that Nature back to the human identity? Are humans too limited in their understanding of anyone outside their own species that the only way they can appreciate it is to see themselves in it?

I propose a revolution in the way people relate to Nature.

Learning to appreciate the natural world as its own entity deserving, like any other living thing on the planet, respect, its own voice to be heard, to be left alone, and to be given a fair chance at survival. In the same way assistance and compassion are offered to human beings who have been downtrodden, traumatized, torn, and disrespected, I propose the Natural world be given the same respect. How do we get there?

It begins with the way we talk about Nature. It begins in allowing Nature to speak for itself, the same way we expect human beings to speak for themselves. It begins in not running our mouths and in printing our own identity upon the natural world so as to stifle its own voice, way of being, way of connecting and communicating.

Let the natural world speak through us, as itself, rather than imprinting our own egocentric ideologies upon it, as a way to better understand ourselves.