Nature writing as Postmodernism
Some of you have been getting a bit shirty about my post on that. Thanks for proving my point! To wit:
"Everyone knows that nature writers are self-reflexive" means:
(1) You have admitted my basic observation. (Yet Ecocriticism is predicated precisely on denying it, viz Jonathan Bate's struggle against Hartman, who made the same claim about Wordsworth.)
(2) You are claiming that I shouldn't mention that nature writers are reflexive.
(3) (2) has the force of an injunction to be silent.
"Of course everyone KNOWS that x" just is a perfect example of postmodern rhetoric, a symptom of cynical reason.
And I'd go on to say that Wordsworth is the only one in the bunch who truly gets the Romantic irony involved in being explicit about narration.
Yet Wordsworth like Abbey hide the fact that a female amanuensis is nearby to inspire and transcribe their wilderness narration...
And like I say, when I first pointed this stuff out in 2007, I was threatened with physical violence. At least y'all are past the anger phase of grief...
"Everyone knows that nature writers are self-reflexive" means:
(1) You have admitted my basic observation. (Yet Ecocriticism is predicated precisely on denying it, viz Jonathan Bate's struggle against Hartman, who made the same claim about Wordsworth.)
(2) You are claiming that I shouldn't mention that nature writers are reflexive.
(3) (2) has the force of an injunction to be silent.
"Of course everyone KNOWS that x" just is a perfect example of postmodern rhetoric, a symptom of cynical reason.
And I'd go on to say that Wordsworth is the only one in the bunch who truly gets the Romantic irony involved in being explicit about narration.
Yet Wordsworth like Abbey hide the fact that a female amanuensis is nearby to inspire and transcribe their wilderness narration...
And like I say, when I first pointed this stuff out in 2007, I was threatened with physical violence. At least y'all are past the anger phase of grief...
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