Virgin Forest: Meditations on History, Ecology, and Culture

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 169 pages
• Published by: University of Georgia Press March 2000
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0820322008
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0820322001
• Book Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 9 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
At the outset of this essay, Zencey (Panama) asks: "How do we make ourselves a place?politically, morally, practically" in a "post-Nature" world? Perhaps it is not surprising that a professor of history (at Goddard College, Vermont) should look to history for the answer. These 12 essays?11 of which were previously published, mostly in North American Review?are thematically connected to this premise, although to consider them "one extended essay," as Zencey conceived it, is a stretch. The author is at his best when he is concrete and practical: lambasting migratory academics, or exposing the mythos of the virgin forest, or learning patience?"shopper's gait, that languid pumping, a sort of meditation"?in a mall. There are moments of exuberant prose, when he steers readers from mundane observations to profound insight: "The richest life is lived in an awareness of the maximum number of connections backwards and forwards in time, all of which are brought together in the individual's experience of the narrow moment of 'now.'" But too often the book's momentum bogs down, as when Zencey offers no fewer than 12 extensive reasons why the law of entropy seems (to him) to crop up as a metaphor in popular culture, or when he devotes an entire essay to the dubious task of discovering "The Contemporary Relevance of Henry Adams." But Zencey still offers many erudite and reflective lessons on nature and our place in it. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
In a passionate call for our world's ecological health, nationally acclaimed novelist Eric Zencey takes us on a mind-altering journey through many places--from northern woods during hunting season to the salt marshes of Delaware to abandoned mill ponds in Vermont, and more--we are shown a world outside our preconceptions. Zencey changes the way we think about nature by changing how we think about history. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.