Bounty comes from understanding the words. The Revelation is, firstly, the words (and the spiritual energy they contain).

La métamorphose du narrateur est visible dans ce vers. Le narrateur qui était autrefois critique est maintenant fier de son pays. Il utilise le mot « nous » pour décrire son sentiment d’unité entre lui-même et les gens de son pays. Il se présente aussi comme peu. « ma main petite maintenant dans son poing énorme » Il s’agit d’un changement par rapport à son ton divin au début du poème. Maintenant, c’est son pays qui est plus grand et plus puissant que lui. Il illustre peut-être que, dans l’unité, les gens de son pays sont beaucoup plus forts que lui-même.

Dans une manière biblique, Césaire regarde un arbre et décide de devenir un arbre. Ses pieds deviennent les racines de l’arbre. Il se confond avec la terre, et ainsi, son pays. Il est maintenant enraciné, comme un arbre, et comme son peuple. Il est stagnant, tout comme le trait même qu’il a critiqué son peuple. Son enracinement est toxique. Ou la ville est-elle toxique ? Dans cet extrait, Césaire met également en parallèle la ville et la nature.

L’image de devenir un arbre peut être interprétée comme le désir de Césaire pour l’île de revenir à sa forme « naturelle », sa forme avant qu’elle ne soit colonisée. Césaire compare la « civilisation » (colonialisme) au poison.

Il désire s’identifier avec tous les opprimés de son pays et établir des liens avec eux avec le « secret des grandes communications. » Encore une fois, d’une manière biblique, Césaire se compare à Dieu. Tout comme dans l’Ancien Testament, Césaire contemple toutes les choses qu’il dirait comme « fleuve, […] tornade, […] feuille » et elles apparaîtront, comme s’il était Dieu. Avec ce pouvoir, il désire relâcher une terreur de catastrophes naturelles sur son pays pour qu’il puisse recommencer a nouveau. D’une certaine façon, Césaire ridiculise le catholicisme. C’est la religion des colonisateurs, ses oppresseurs, qu’ils ont imposée à son peuple. À mon avis, Césaire a une sorte de complexe de dieu tout au long de son poème. Pourtant, il se moque aussi du catholicisme en quelque sorte.

Césaire emploie une assonance en [e] dans cet extrait. Il parle encore de la Martinique. En utilisant le champ lexique de la nature et de l’enfer.

Césaire fait constamment référence au paysage de la Martinique, et le poème déborde d’un merveilleux catalogue de noms : rivières, fleurs, arbres. Aussi beau que soit son pays, il est couvert de violence et de sang. En superposant l’image de la belle nature et de la violence horrible, Césaire rend son image encore plus puissante.

Césaire affirme que pour soutenir la poésie, il faut détruire les faussetés du monde. Pour décrire l’impact des mots, il les compare aux aspects mystiques de la nature tels que les marées et les feux de forêt.

This statement reminds me of the unpredictability of nature and of life. We cannot predict what life will bring and we certainly are not all-knowing. Therefore, as Thoreau says, "the wind that blows is all that any body knows."

Thoreau uses description and narration here to paint a picture of the natural world around him, the sounds and imagery. I found it interesting that he compared the cackling of the goose to the "spirit of the fog."

Damn! I want an experience like this

Brief definition of a Japanese Garden.

The nature of power is material as well as social.

gilmanhernandez already linked to the video I was considering, but (according to a cursory search of YouTube at least) videos of turtle sounds are also likely to be videos of turtles mating or attempting to mate, so how 'mournful' they are is perhaps up to interpretation... 😂

Okay, this is is more specific, similar to Wollstonecraft, as curlyQ pointed out.

What's interesting here is Astell's saying that she isn't "exceptional"--by that she seems to mean that she is no different or more outstanding than other women, that she doesn't have some special ability or nature (just the same natural inclinations as others).

This resonates with Wollstonecraft's Rights in her insistence that women are not by nature the 'inferior' sex but are instead bred that way due to poor education. By distancing herself from the term "exceptional", Astell seems to be doing something similar, pointing not to any particularly special nature or natural ability but instead a sound education.

Would the belief in innate, natural qualities be contrary to John Locke's idea of the tabula rasa? I don't know enough of Locke to know whether innate qualities would be part of what's swept off the slate.

is it possible that any idea can have no connection to nature or the natural world?

By nature, humans are selfish. We're always thinking, whether consciously or not, "what's in it for me?" We deem actions that have a potential benefit to us as praiseworthy, while label unbeneficial actions as hurtful.

Cf. Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman, written about 100 years later, making a similar argument. Specifically, Wollstonecraft argues that women are not naturally inferior or frivolous but have been bred that way through poor education. Taken in comparison to the Enlightenment's exploration of human nature and with a lack of significant progress between 1687 and 1792 (outside of literacy, noted below), it seems clear that "human nature" really means "man's nature."

What is implied about how we know what we know here? What might be some problems with this argument?

What is the contrast in generations RWE sets up here? What is the problem with his generation in the middle of the 19th century?

How does interpretation of the natural order differ depending on one's paradigm?

Perhaps unrelated, but I'm reminded here of a passage from Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing -- "The world has no name, he said. The names of the cerros and the sierras and the deserts exist only on maps. We name them that we do not lose our way. Yet it was because the way was lost to us already that we have made those names. The world cannot be lost. We are the ones. And it is because these names and these are our own naming that they cannot save us. That they cannot find for us the way again" (387).

I like this quote because it makes explicit the real/symbolic distinction that we apply to nature, similar to Siegert's music example. The world simply exists, but we interact with it symbolically, assigning names and numbers to denote physical locations or geographic/geological features.

Doreen Massey has an interesting book that touches on this (Space, Place, and Gender), where she points out that time and space are treated as binaries, where time is typically masculine and dynamic and space is feminine and static. Nature (gendered feminine) is spatial, a place, and therefore not a time ("ahistorical and timeless"). Culture, on the other hand, is temporal, dynamic, masculine. It's a very particular rhetoric which begs the "which one?" question.

(While Massey points out this common way of conceiving of time/space and binaries in general [A vs. Not A], she argues that the concept of space needs to be defined on its own merit, distinct from its binary opposite.)

Is it our human nature to always perform our identity? can we ever separate ourselves from it?

He does a really good job pointing out some of the dangers of effortlessly overcoming fear at the cost of learning courage and struggle at the cost of learning discipline but he doesn't really touch on how in time we might recognize the side effect these biomedical technologies bring and human nature might push back against it. Kind of like with genetically modified foods now all people want is organic food.

He mentioned several times that human nature can be the basis for values and morality, but here he says that human nature is subject to change. In that case It sounds like he believes that the standards of morality and value which are based on human nature should also change and that doesn't sound like very firm ground to stand on.

This is an example of a man vs. nature conflict, because the sea water is making it hard for him to stay above and breathe.

This is a Man vs. Nature conflict because Rainsford is struggling to stay above water after he has fallen into the ocean and the salt water engulfs him making it impossible to breathe.

inaturalist website- really cool place to upload nature pics and correspond in discussions with others about identifying the plant or animal species

Looks like a great project to get involved in! Very collaborative (both in the classroom and in online), plus integrate technology while having students explore nature

using photography in nature (a form of technology) to enhance learning science curriculum

Wow! I had no idea there were so many organizations, apps, and programs to combine technology with nature for a classroom setting! This is really encouraging and I would love to use some of these with my future classes!

int. tech into nature for ages 2nd grade and up

Interesting article- Combining technology with nature in an age that kids desperately need to be outdoors more

It's still very impressive to see.

Bentham's view of "state of nature" aligns nicely with Hobbes. It would be useful to remind students of the way in which the vision of "State of Nature" leads to conclusions regarding what Social Contract should be. I would ask students who Madison might agree with, or at least who he seems to have taken into consideration. ( "If men were perfect . . .")

I found this interesting how the weather changed so quickly after King Edward took over the throne from Queen Victoria. As we know from the start of Chapter 5, the Victorian era was dark and gloomy. Now that it is a new chapter, it goes onto another era in time, when King Edward takes the power. With the rise of a new era, it also is a new birth for a brighter future and the country is becoming more and more modernized, but this is not really the case. This is interesting because how rapid the change is able to take place, showing how fast time is passing. The new era is completely different from the one before, contrasting with the Victorian times, as described by the biographer in this section, everything was brighter and the sky is no longer filled with gloomy cloud, but instead metals. The light serves as a guide for the people to move forward when the women were in aprons, showing how gender roles are changing. On the other hand, we associate light with something positive, but during this time,things were also shrink in size, like the amount of fertilized plants and family sizes.

The writers of this document seem to view education not only as a means of expanding one's knowledge but as a means of improving one's inherent nature from one of evil and corruption to one of goodness and virtue. I find this notion classist and fallacious, as it seems to suggest that those who are not educated (including those who cannot afford education) are inherently worse as people than those who are educated and also that education can fundamentally change who a person is.

This section reminded me of the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes who believed the nature of man is inherently bad and the purpose of government and education is to control man's selfish desires. In my opinion, I side more with John Locke's philosophy that the nature of man is inherently good but society is corrupted by certain negative people. Education's purpose should be to remind people of their virtuous nature and not become distracted by the inequalities and failures of society.

The wrath of winter reflected his sadness

When the snow from winter has almost vanished

How old is this article? David hasn't been there for years...

Sounds cool, and I don't even like the outdoors...

Don't feed the wild animals, please!

The storm tonight is merciful to none--not wise men, nor fools.

Facing the music

funny, literal foreshadowing. This fool ends up in a storm with King Lear.

taking astrology to the other fucking level, my dude. Allows that to determine his destiny. Fuck. Not cool. nature determines your nature determines your destiny

Natural progression of things means we are naturally evil?

Berger uses the term "non consuming use" to define activities in the wilderness that do not have a lasting impact on nature. He talks about how these non consuming acts are practiced by the Native People and some recreational activities. He contrasts this with the idea that commercial industry exploits the wilderness in a way that permanently affects it. An interesting example to look at here is commercial hunting and fishing practices in the North compared to recreational and indigenous ones. Commercial hunting and fishing operations does not have a decorated history in the Arctic. Whaling practices have led to the collapse of the North Atlantic Right whale which was at one point considered to be the most abundant species in the Arctic. As of today "it is arguably the most threatened large cetacean in the Atlantic Ocean, if not the world, with an estimated minimum population size of 313 animals." This dramatic decrease in population is not only seen in whales but also in many common fish species in the area as well. In 1992 there was a moratorium put on cod fishing in Canada because the population was so over harvested that there was only a few schools left in the ocean. Both of these situation brought a lot of economic hard ship to fishing regions in Canada that relied on these populations for work. The irony in this situation comes from how the large scale fishing operations caused a ban for indigenous populations too even for their comparatively miniscule action.

Parsons, E.C.M., J. Patrick Rice, and Laleh Sadeghi. "Awareness of whale conservation status and whaling policy in the US--a preliminary study on American Youth." Anthrozoos 23, no. 2 (2010): 119+. Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources (accessed May 8, 2017).

Wilderness is a very vague term that get used a lot in this chapter. Berger uses the definition which is “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” This definition covers the technical and legal definition of wilderness, but wilderness has many meanings that has changed over time. Before modern technology, the wilderness was a place that was dangerous and unforgiving. Because of this perception of the wild, there was a sense of masculinity to travelling in the through it. Even today this idea manifests in pop culture as shows such a Man vs Wild are still popular that focus on humans overcoming the elements in the wilderness. However, wilderness has a even deeper meaning than that. There has been a spiritual element to the wilderness that has been integral to North American society for centuries. From the Pilgrims to Thomas Cole to Thoreau to John Muir to Bob Marshall to Aldo Leopold, the spiritual aspect of the wild led these men on philosophical movements. John Nagle argues "the spiritual benefit which people receive from a stay in the wilderness is not a tangible item, but it must be an important consideration in legislation of America is truly dedicated to a somewhat idealistic sense of values." This notion has been seen throughout history as there was a clear sense of spirituality recognized when the Wilderness Act of 1964 was passed. Nagle, John Copeland. "The spiritual values of wilderness." Environmental Law, Fall 2005, p. 955+. Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources, find.galegroup.com/grnr/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=6f8f4a3faafd67e66fa023866730b0a1&prodId=GRNR&userGroupName=bucknell_it&tabID=T002&docId=A141802024&type=retrieve&PDFRange=%5B%5D&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0. Accessed 6 May 2017.

Alberta-British Columbia is a region in south western Canada. This region is where the proposed pipeline would be travelling through to get to the lower parts of Canada and Vancouver as well as the United States. This region is home to foothill forests which are very interesting ecosystem that is only found at this latitude. The foothill forests border the Canadian taiga forests from the north and the temperate forests from the south. This combination makes the foothill forests a very unique community which is known as an ecotone because it works as a buffer in between two other ecosystems. This ecosystem is home to a variety of fauna such as moose, reindeers, snowshoe hares, and beavers. This area is home to the most abundant moose populations in the world. Forests have become increasingly vulnerable to mortality due to the direct and indirect effects of climate change and human activity. "In Western Canada, recent increases in the frequency and severity of natural disturbances in forests, such as wildfires, pest outbreaks, and droughts, have been attributed to a changing climate" Like many other ecosystems in the north, the foothill forests are facing major problems due to climate change. Moose populations are dropping due to new diseases that are prevalent because of the warmer year round temperatures. This phenomenon is being experienced all over the northern part of the United States and southern Canada.

Hajjar, Reem, and Robert A. Kozak. "Exploring public perceptions of forest adaptation strategies in Western Canada: Implications for policy-makers." Forest Policy and Economics 61 (2015): 59+. Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources (accessed May 6, 2017). http://find.galegroup.com/grnr/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=6f8f4a3faafd67e66fa023866730b0a1&prodId=GRNR&userGroupName=bucknell_it&tabID=T002&docId=A437244896&type=retrieve&PDFRange=%5B%5D&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0.

Similar to the United States, Canada has the Species as Risk act. This act is was published in 2002 and is intended to protect any species that is being threatened in Canada. Many of the species on the list are endangered due to human activity in the area. In February 2017, "Eighteen species were recently added or reclassified under Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act because of threats to their recovery and survival, including habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation; changes to land use and human activity; climate change (variability, unpredictability, severe storms); and invasive species." Many of these species are different types of birds found in Western Canada. The recent increase of human activity in western Canada has led to a lot of habitat loss for these birds as humans continue to cut down forests and pollute the area. However, not just birds are being threatened in Canada. The Collared Pika was recently added to the Species at Risk Act. The collared pika is a small mammal similar to a rabbit that has being endangered due to habitat loss. The situation with the collared pika is an important one because the Canadian distribution takes up about half of its global range. The pika is a good example of what Berger is referring to about species that do not need wilderness habitat but are being pushed to extinction by humans. Canada overall has their hands full with conserving the biodiversity in the country with all of the invasive oil techniques that are being applied. "Canada : Amendments involving 18 species under the Species at Risk Act." Mena Report, February 28, 2017. Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources (accessed May 6, 2017). http://find.galegroup.com/grnr/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=6f8f4a3faafd67e66fa023866730b0a1&prodId=GRNR&userGroupName=bucknell_it&tabID=T004&docId=A483932721&type=retrieve&PDFRange=%5B%5D&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0.

In this context, Berger is using the Wilderness Act to reference how wilderness is defined. This is a very famous definition for the eloquent way the wilderness is described. "A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” After many drafts and eight years of work the Wilderness Act was signed in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Since the passage of this act there has been much debate about what land is "wilderness" and what should be done with this land. The main reason for the act is to protect these lands from development and industrialization. But another part of the reason was to increase recreational use of this land such as hiking, canoeing and fishing. "Over the decades an obvious contradiction has emerged between preservation and access." The National Forest Service is reluctant to put up signs and other infrastructure in these areas because it goes against the foremost goal of this act. Unfortunately, this is causing safety concerns for recreationists. Overall the Wilderness Act has made over 170,000 square miles into "wilderness" and has protect this land for the last half century. Gourlie, Don. "The Wilderness Act at 50." Environmental Law, Spring 2014, 285+. Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources (accessed May 6, 2017). http://find.galegroup.com/grnr/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=6f8f4a3faafd67e66fa023866730b0a1&prodId=GRNR&userGroupName=bucknell_it&tabID=T002&docId=A375290680&type=retrieve&PDFRange=%5B%5D&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0.

Sequoia National Park is a large land reserve in southern California which is home to the Sequoia National Forest. This forest is home to five out of the ten largest trees in the world and contains the single largest tree known as the General Sherman Tree. General Sherman stands at a whopping 275ft and a 14ft diameter at the middle of the tree. Sequoia National Park was founded in 1890 and was part of the initial effort to create more national parks to conserve the different habitats and ecosystems in the United States. The mission of the national parks was to bring awareness of the beauty of our environment. National parks were created to have designated areas that were set aside for humans to enjoy in a natural state. This concept still holds true today in parks as research shows "that this wilderness, in contrast to where most visitors live, is highly valued for clean air and water, natural sounds, low density of people, lack of motorized noise, and where evidence of human influence is relatively unnoticeable." Sequoia and other national parks around it are a large source of eco-tourism in the area. Eco-tourism is becoming a more prevalent force in the world today and some countries such as Costa Rica have much of their entire economy built on it.

Watson A, Martin S, Christensen N, Fauth G, Williams D. The Relationship Between Perceptions of Wilderness Character and Attitudes Toward Management Intervention to Adapt Biophysical Resources to a Changing Climate and Nature Restoration at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park](http://insert-your-link-here.com))mber 2015;56(3):653-663. Available from: GreenFILE, Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 25, 2017.

RE: "Nature itself" having a history

Nathaniel's in-class comments last week were very helpful to hear prior to the readings this week. It is particularly helpful to consider the paradox that some folks want to protect the Earth from humans and somehow return it to a point "before humans," as though the Earth exists outside of humans and we are pure agents acting upon it. (Which is where we get things like this video that has been going around Facebook because of Earth Day:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49w7GHVYoI0

This video pretends the Earth is an agent, but it actually only reflecting human actions back on humans. There is an underlying argument that our relationship to the planet is only the things we do to it and not all the other relationships and existences on and in it.

Yellowstone National Park is a large land reserve in the American west that extends into Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. Yellowstone is very well known for its incredible geology and wildlife. Yellowstone National Park is built on top of a ancient super volcano that causes interesting geological phenomena like geysers and hot springs. Furthermore, Yellowstone has very diverse wildlife that ranges from wolves to American bison to elk populations. Yellowstone was the first ever National Park in the world as it was established in 1872 by President Ulysses S. Grant. The original initiative for national parks came from the idea for people to leave areas of great natural beauty to be left alone and enjoyed by everyone. Though the first national park, the development of Yellowstone stared a theme of conservation and preservation that spread throughout the country. Even to this day, Yellowstone stands as a prime example of environmental preservation because of their ever expanding American Bison population as well as wolf populations. This can be seen even as early as last year as the Obama administration placed a ban on mining in an area near Yellowstone saying, "Today's action helps ensure that Yellowstone's watershed, wildlife and the tourism-based economy of local communities will not be threatened by the impact of mineral development."

Dennis, Brady. "Obama administration moves to block mining near Yellowstone." Washington Post, November 21, 2016. Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources (accessed April 10, 2017). http://find.galegroup.com/grnr/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=6f8f4a3faafd67e66fa023866730b0a1&prodId=GRNR&userGroupName=bucknell_it&tabID=T004&docId=CJ470939393&type=retrieve&PDFRange=%5B%5D&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0

The dust bowl is a geographic region in the United States centralized in the panhandle of Oklahoma and northern part of Texas that extends to surrounding states like Kansas and New Mexico. The dust bowl is infamous for experiencing a severe drought for almost a decade in the 1930's. In addition to the drought, decades of poor farming practices led the top soil to be overused and low in nutrients. Because of these compounding problems, crops were not able to be grown in this region which forced tens of thousands of farming families to move away. The drought in the dust bowl could not have come at a worse time as it occurred during the Great Depression. With an already struggling economy, food supplies were severely reduced nationwide leading to even more struggle. "This convergence of geophysical and anthropogenic factors conspired to create what is arguably the most severe long-term human ecological crisis the USA has seen.” An iconic part of the dust bowl were the intense dust storms that were experienced because of the loose top soil and high power winds. These storms were know as black blizzards as they covered the sky in dust and blackened everything. These dust storms reached all the way to areas of the East coast.

Porter, Jess. 2014. "What was the Dust Bowl? Assessing contemporary popular knowledge." Population & Environment 35, no. 4: 391-416. GreenFILE, EBSCOhost (accessed April 10, 2017).

American buffalo also known as bison were at one point the thought to be the most abundant mammal living in North America. They have been reported to grow up to 6 feet tall and weigh over 2000 pounds. Buffalo, in the wild, are indigenous to the Great Plains region of North America but lived all throughout the continent all the way into Canada and Alaska. This massive animals played an essential role in for many Native American populations throughout history. In the 19th centuries mass hunting of these animals began with the use of horses and rifles. Before this hunting it was reported that one would be able to see entire parries filled with millions of these animals. Over the course of the century, reckless hunting of bison led to a massive collapse of their population. There was many different reasons for their hunting ranging from sport hunting, to killing them to hurt the Native American populations that heavily relied upon them. The American Buffalo has become a symbol of conservation and there has been an ongoing effort to try and rebuild their populations. Recently they were named as the official mammal of the United States as "the bison is North Americas largest land animal the embodiment of American strength, resilience and the nations pioneer spirit.” Many national parks including Yellowstone have protected bison populations that have been steadily growing over the last decades.

"American bison designated national mammal of U.S." St Louis Post-Dispatch [MO], November 24, 2016, A17. Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources (accessed April 10, 2017). http://find.galegroup.com/grnr/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=6f8f4a3faafd67e66fa023866730b0a1&prodId=GRNR&userGroupName=bucknell_it&tabID=T004&docId=CJ471488256&type=retrieve&PDFRange=%5B%5D&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0..

learning space

nature ecosystem

Conner on the social nature of listservs--cf. McCatry

Bring the sea/nature back to the boxes

https://via.hypothes.is/http://tachesdesens.blogspot.com/2014/09/nature-regains-ground.html

Both. These are not railway tracks they are intermingled and confusing networks - undergrowth and cash crops

They are deciding in what weather they should rather meet

Another connection with Blair, here. Though while Blair identifies a universal nature to attune to, Spencer sees a number of natures, but they are still naturally correct for their particular circumstance.

Douglass really underscores how there's no natural basis for slavery, that it requires instruction and reinforcement at every level. This seems to fit well with Locke, who would be similarly opposed (perhaps not to the same degree) to the dominant arguments that slavery was a natural function.

Somewhat related text on this point: Ruskin's Stones of Venice describes Gothic architecture as the best architecture because it is the closest to nature.

Couldn't it be a combination of both? One has to be naturally comfortable speaking in front of others, but it is also necessary that they be trained in how to best do this.

Her ideas that "nature is the best teacher of eloquence" and rules only help a little is tricky. It seems that Astell is proclaiming that there are natural characteristics which make women effective rhetorically, but women must also follow rules in order to adhere to their nature and speak eloquently?

What Lemos might identify as norms?

I like how this phrase is used to describe Paleolithic caves; this challenges the separation between nature and technology.

Theodore didn't get much attention until he negative effects like the dust bowl append

Nature defiled by the unreal city

Interesting break from the aforementioned cruelty that April brings. What is it about the mountains that generate that feeling of being free? Perhaps having nothing or nobody to disturb the peace and solitude found there. Maybe is suggests optimism or hopefulness such as was discussed in class with the discussion on specks of light. It briefly pulls away from the gloom by offering romanticism instead.

nature as motif, for in class activity, interconnecting man with nature

This line is significant because it implies the possibility of that the cycle of life can be disrupted not just by death, but also by natural processes that prevent rebirth.

This is another example of an image of a plant that cannot regenerate itself, which reminds us that it is possible for the cycle of life to be disrupted.

Nymphs are nature spirits, so for the nymphs (and even the city directors) to depart and leave no address implies that the cycle of life has been disrupted.

Water is necessary for the cycle of biological life. Take away water, and this cycle of life is disrupted, leaving only rock.

This line is implying that we choose to forget the power of nature, and how it can destroy us in an instant. Even when nature tries to warn us itself.

Already this book is filled with lots of death but this line really stands out. He says it as if the tree should give shelter but a dead tree is weak and rotten.

Interesting, because a snowy mountain is also a fairly desolate place (dead trees/plants, deadly stillness or harsh wind, untouched landscape, etc), but it is seen as beautiful instead of distasteful like the wasteland that Eliot describes.

Merely surviving on the little bits of life that still exist during the winter. Feeding on mainly potatoes and whatever else can be found.

The term which is repeated often, "jugs" is the same as "dugs" in it's reference to female breasts. This once again touches upon not only Apollo's clairvoyant prophet, but the concept of life and nourishment.

When i hear this i think of death but also wiped out memories. I remembered seeing in a movie that after the snow this boys memory of a girl was wiped clean. The snow melts after a while which results in it being forgetful because it docent stay for that long. Almost like a memory being lost or a lost of life.

I cannot help but think of a tree branch hovering over the river. its a good image of that because that was the first thing that came to mind.

I just got the idea of what if the water over a rock is a waterfall and the waterfall is the thunder described.

These dry summer mountains are so different from the sheltering winter mountains in the beginning of the poem. The mountain is dead, and still able to work destruction even with "teeth that cannot spit." We get away from death by water and leap into the jaws of death by thirst...escaping the misery is impossible.

I always saw April as one of the more beautiful months. But sometimes beauty is the greatest cause of pain for those who can't relate to it.

Are the bodies being considered as angels?

the sky at dusk

the nightingale, or the bird that Philomel becomes.

This part of the poem is creating a contrast with nature because we usually see objects of nature as something lively, but here they are being represented as something lifeless.

Dry grass to me seems so lifeless, basically dead. But as the stanza before, this is like pairing opposites. If dry grass does sing, I imagine it's a sad song.

Page 187 On hyper authorship

"hyper authorship” is an indicator of "collective cognition" in which the specific contributions of individuals no longer can be identified. Physics has among the highest rates of coauthorship in the sciences and the highest rates of self archiving documents via a repository. Whether the relationship between research collaborators (as indicated by the rates of coauthorship) and sharing publications (as reflected in self archiving) holds in other fields is a question worth exploring empirically.

bibliography tying rate of coauthorship to professionalisation of science

in some domains, collaboration is necessary. Hence the preference for team grants

A great deal of scientific production is the product of a "socio-technical production and communications network"

My first daily create.

https://soundcloud.com/brian-rocz/5-sounds-that-shouldnt-go-together

This part encourages that even if I do not know yet what this text is sharing it is important to have some understanding so as I may recognise the signs when they do occur.

We're essentially creating things on purpose that are going to have the ability to make their own decisions, possibly be smarter than us, and also have a chance of malfunctioning... Why?

So if it threatens our understanding of what it means to be human.. is that beneficial to our ongoing research of essentially what makes us humans by constantly pushing our understanding to be deeper? or is harmful and uprooting of the interpersonal/cultural norms we've established?

This was done among urban environments, so not just "urban" vs "rural".

The Mountain passage continues Eliot’s theme of Nature and the effects of human pollution upon it. This instance has a more distinct visual of man’s impact on the world that surrounds us. It focuses not so much on contrasting dirty vs. clean imagery, but on the disfiguration of nature. The “Dead mountain” suggests human intervention as it and the surround lines seem to bring to mind imagery of mining within the mountains. In the line on 385, it evokes this with the line: “In this decayed hole among the mountains”. This could be a reference to how we would mine mountains by either blowing them up or digging holes right through them. This hole could be a result of this human intervention.

The pollution of nature is seen on the line preceding the dead mountains. Eliot notes how there is no “water among the rock”. It suggests that by our tampering with nature we have driven the key element of life from this area: water. Without water, the life around the mountain will die, leading to Eliot calling it a “dead mountain”. This pattern can be seen a few times in the poem, the idea of a dead land not able to contain life. In line 23 and 24, Eliot states how “[…] the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water”. The broken mountain can give no protection to life. The dry rocks have no water, as the mountain’s “carious teeth that cannot spit”. Even with out rain there is still “dry sterile thunder” that cannot hurt the land due to it already being dead. As Eliot says, “There is not even solitude in the mountains”. When humans try to change nature, it can lead to disastrous consequences that destroy the land from even the simple pleasures of life and nature. This is not only disastrous for nature but come back to haunt humans as well.

This passage continues Eliot’s motif of nature throughout the poem. However it does not present nature as pristine. The imagery of a cold winter fog is mixed in with a dirty brown fog, offering a strong contrast between nature and pollution. The “Brown Fog” seems to be a reference to the industrial revolution in Victorian London. During the time industrial pollution was rampant, especially due to the now iconic imagery of the smoke towers of factories around the city. It seems to suggest how humans cause pollution through our industry and our numbers. The brown fog is a result of the dirty smoke mixing in with the clean air, producing a dirty haze. However, we would only notice this contrast because it’s mixing with clean nature.

In life we only seem to notice the effects of pollution when they begin to mix in and change the clean nature, giving us a way to contrast the dirty from the clean. Eliot is well aware of this and uses this to his advantage. He pairs the words and imagery together of “the brown fog” (the dirty) with “a winter dawn”, with winter evoking sterile white, clean imagery. Eliot’s poem works in a similar way. The contrast of Eliot’s techniques, poetic and non-poetic, stands out more when thrown in together. The broken pieces of the poem would not be as noticeable if they were separated into their own short little poems. However the fragmented nature of the poem is more noticeable when it is mixed together, contrasting much like clean nature highlights pollution.

Another interesting note is how directly after the mention of a brown fog, Eliot mentions, “a crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not though death had undone so many”. The rapid growth of humans seems to be creating a different form of pollution. While their actions effect nature, the growth of the population could be affecting the city itself. Perhaps its meant to suggest the larger crowds dirtying the city like the fog dirties the air. Perhaps the crowd pollutes the city by another means? The line “I had not though death had undone so many” makes the crowd seem like walking corpses. However, Elliot might be suggesting that the crowds are only behaving like corpses. As the city grows, so does society and they way people act in a big city is far different from a small town. Society makes the crowd behave a certain way, polluting their individualism into something the fits in line more with society. Elliot sees them as being “undone” because they have been polluted by society.

Dead land, dull roots, dried tubers. These are all images of dead or dying nature. However, in the winter this is not visible. Because in the winter, everything is covered in forgetful snow. The snow covers the land and hides all the broken and dead images under its snow-white blanket. White is the color of innocence. As long ans the land is covered in snow pollution seems to be non existent or at least forgotten for some time.

However, as soon as the snow melts, the cruel reality shows its face again. That is why April is described as the cruelest of all months. It is the month that confronts mankind with the damages it has done to nature. Over the winter men could forget about pollution, because they could not see it as well as in the other seasons, when it was not covered by “forgetful snow”. Now that it melts the dull roots, and the dead land become visible again. Memory and desire get mixed. The memory of pollution and the desire that it was not there. But it is and April shows it, when it start waking up the dying land. The “spring rain” washes away the “forgetful snow” and confronts people with their hidden secrets. Nothings stays hidden forever.

The poem, therefore, starts with a relevation of pollution by the melting snow. As the poem goes on it explores and examines this relevation of pollution further.

Eliot explores the themes of nature and non-nature, focusing specifically within the themes on the motif of pollution. Pollution exists as the link between nature and non-nature. In this case the “river” signifies nature whilst “Oil and tar” signify non-nature. It is only through spoiling nature, that “Oil and tar” become pollution. Eliot successfully captures the industrial state of America during the 1920s through the motif of pollution. Due to the huge boom in industry, more and more waste was subsequently created. Eliot effectively forms a commentary on the negative ways in which society therefore spoils nature through the waste and by-products it creates. The image of pollution spreading throughout water is particularly effective as it suggests how pollution formed by society becomes almost uncontainable after it has been created. As “Oil and tar” continue to spread further down the river, pollution too continues to spread, spoiling nature and leaving it in a state of ruin.

Additionally through Eliot’s choice of oil and tar as the materials to represent pollution he emphasises the extreme nature and impact that society has upon nature. As the process of removing oil and tar from water is particularly challenging, Eliot suggests the severe significance of the pollution created by society, even perhaps proposing its irreversible nature.

The motif of pollution runs throughout the poem however it could also be said that the poem itself is polluted. The poem being a combination of fragments appears almost jumbled together, each stanza different to another. Pollution in the form of waste or rubbish is jumbled together in a similar way, each fragment within the poem can therefore be interpreted as a different piece of waste that collectively forms pollution.

A corpse flower is a certain sort of flower. With this meaning, the sentence could be read literally as a question about the flowers the person planted. However, there is a double meaning in this line. Corpse can also mean “dead body”. A dead body is a impurfying entity. A possible interpretation of this line would, therefore, be that mankind even pollutes their self-created nature by burying dead bodies in their gardens.

Gardens are a symbol of men wanting to dominate and control nature. They appear several times in the poem. There is the Hyacinth garden, there are the gardens with the frosty silence and other gardens in the Unreal City. In the form of these gardens, men create their own nature, within their range of control. Gardens are orderly and beautiful and predictable. Nature outside of gardens, real nature, however, is anything but predictable. It can be harsh and cruel and deadly. These features are taken from it, when creating gardens. Gardens are some kind of “fake nature”, that only present the good features of nature. They are not threatening. They should be beautiful and pure.

Pollution, however, does not make a exception for them. Mankind is, therefore, even polluting their own creation. They are not only polluting the wild, untamable nature outside of their control, but also their very own gardens. Pollution is slowly turning all kinds of nature, no matter whether inside or outside of society, into a Wasteland.

The dead body is, furthermore, polluting not only nature but society as well. Gardens are part of domesticity, the household of a person. By burying a dead body in ones household, this household or domestic realm of a person gets polluted and contaminated.

This line is also connected to the very opening of the poem: “April is the cruelest month”. In April the first flowers start to sprout, the snow that covers everything in forgetfulness and hides the secrets and sins of everyone, is melting and leaves behind the cruel reality. Pollution becomes visible in April, because there is no longer snow to cover it and everything that had be buried comes back to the surface.

Perhaps another example of human impact on the natural world?

I feel like this subtly captures the natural world vs. modern world hints we discussed last class.

Another hint to water shortage.

Water is an important motif in "The Wasteland". It is one representation of nature and now by the end of the poem it seems to have run out. There is no water left. Earlier in the poem the pollution of water is described, the power of water to take a human life. Water is the most valuable good on earth. Without water there would be no life. Maybe Eliot is hinting to the wast of water and the danger that having no water would oppose to human society.

this image reminds me of the smog that covers some big cities. Emissions pollute the air and accumulate in a cloud of brown fog above the roofs of the city. The Unreal city is causing pollution and destroying nature.

The wast of society polluting the river and nature in general.

Persinification of thunder. nature gets personified

Interesting imagery here. Under what kind of tent did the river exist/dwell?

Rather than a real, natural sylvan scene seen through a window, an image of a natural scene unnaturally depicted in a painting hanging in a wholly unnatural, sumptuously decorated room - material objects/displays of wealth used as a substitute for nature here.

Makes me think of UV-rays

the power of nature to take lives.

this description reminds me of a roboter hand.

nature invading non-nature, or maybe the door keeps the wind (nature) outside.

synthetic is unnatural

Is it autumn when leaves fall off trees?

Can it be said that the term "built environment" refers to how humans are implementing their presence throughout nature?

Nice move.

This isn't a wish, it's a property of our evolution. We evolved in a social world as well as a physical world. As a social primate, it's something we do naturally. OH SHIT, NATURE!

This is so darkly true. We tend to praise our impact on the world, but it's very much something we believe to be true, but is not. If human kind disappeared tomorrow, the Earth would be back to awesome in about 500 years (I think, there is a whole book about this. Correct this if you have read the book and recall better than I).

Although are all birds as good as flying as the others and horses at running? There has to be some variance, and not from lack of repetition. In the same line of reasoning, even if all men were born to "activity and sagacity of understanding," some must have more innate gifts with it. The rest of this paragraph seems to credit persistence with progress, but nature does play at least some sort of role. After all, we can't all be basketball players, no matter how hard we try.

This aligns with Confucius thinker Xunzi's attitude on properly cultivating morality in others. We are guided by our desires: whatever we feel a sense of lack in, we desire that object. It is the role of those with cultivated morality (gentlemen, sages) to act as an exemplar of moral goods, so that others who have yet to be cultivated desire what they have.

need both

Nature versus nurture

I find this quote to fascinating. Isocrates isn't necessarily a cynic, but he certainly is not the happiest of philosophers.