A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial
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MYTHOPOEIA SYLVATICA: A CRITICAL TOPOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATION OF THE ONCE AND FUTURE FORESTS OF NORTH AMERICA THROUGH SIX WITNESS TREES A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences TRENT UNIVERSITY Peterborough, Ontario, Canada © Copyright by Amalia C. Moir, 2016 Theory, Culture and Politics M.A. Program September 2016 Abstract MYTHOPOEIA SYLVATICA: A CRITICAL TOPOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATION OF THE ONCE AND FUTURE FORESTS OF NORTH AMERICA THROUGH SIX WITNESS TREES Amalia C. Moir Since British colonization of North America and the beginning of Anglo-speaking Euro- Canada and the United States, myth-making or representations of the forests have witnessed degradation and loss of old-growth forest ecosystems or intact sylvan landscapes. Canadian and American versions of the story of the North American Forests share the same trajectory: forests as ‘wasted-land’ or the sylvan wilderness (terra nullius) divided into properties and cleared to “improve” the land for settlement/agriculture, forests as storehouses for timber and imperial expansion, forest landscapes and specific forest trees as identity politics and sources of industrial and economic power. While forests are recognized according to various stakeholders’ values today, what is commonly accepted as a forest varies widely. The meaning given to “forest” determines related terms and concepts, such as “sustainable forestry” and “reforestation.” This thesis addresses the issue of social-bioecological degradation, loss, and dis(re)membering of old-growth forests and problematizes traditional Western relationships with old wildwoods shaped by notions of space, politics, and economy. In the forest topos, the core question becomes which forest(s) are being imagined, represented, and remembered? Whose environmental imagination is shaping the landscape? As a critical topographical exploration of the North American forests through six witness trees, this thesis demonstrates how the meanings imbued in trees and wild woods come to determine the fate of the forests. It reveals how colonial values and trends persist in our societies still, and calls for an ethical social-ecological reimagining of the forests through traditions of ethical storytelling and environmental witnessing. Keywords: witness trees, wildwoods, old-growth forests, landscape, memory, storytelling, narrative, critical topography, North America, social-ecological loss, monumentalism, counter-monument, environmental generational amnesia, environmental imagination. ii Dedicated in loving memory to, Vivian Mary Moir Beloved mother, muse, physician, and storyteller iii “Philomythus to Misomythus You look at trees and label them just so, (for trees are ‘trees’, and growing is ‘to grow’); you walk the earth and tread with solemn pace one of the many minor globes of Space: a star’s a star, some matter in a ball compelled to courses mathematical amid the regimented, cold, Inane, where destined atoms are each moment slain. […] Yet trees are not ‘trees’, until so named and seen – and never were so named, till those had been who speech’s involuted breath unfurled, faint echo and dim picture of the world, but neither record nor a photograph, being divination, judgement, and a laugh, response of those that felt astir within by deep monition movements that were kin to life and death of trees, of beasts, of stars: free captives undermining shadowy bars, digging the foreknown from experience and panning the vein of spirit out of sense… […] Yet trees are not ‘trees’, until so named and seen – and never were so named, till those had been who speech’s involuted breath unfurled, faint echo and dim picture of the world, but neither record nor a photograph, being divination, judgement, and a laugh, response of those that felt astir within by deep monition movements that were kin to life and death of trees, of beasts, of stars: free captives undermining shadowy bars, digging the foreknown from experience and panning the vein of spirit out of sense …” – J.R.R. Tolkien, “Mythopoeia,” Tree and Leaf, pp. 97, 98, 100 iv Acknowledgements No journey leaves its traveler unchanged. What began as an academic sojourn, a scholastic ‘saunter,’ outside my earlier discipline quickly led into something far more meaningful. For that, I give my sincerest gratitude to the members of my supervisory committee, peers, family, and friends for their support in helping me reach this point. I would like to express great appreciation to Dr. Jonathan Bordo for his teachings, patient guidance, and, in particular, his enthusiastic encouragement; and for introducing me to Henry David Thoreau, critical topography, and numerous lieux de mémoire. I also extend deep appreciation to Dr. Sean Kane for sharing with me invaluable insights, wise counsel, and helpful edits; as well as for suggesting the myth “Spirit Being Going Naked” for contemplation, for it was a humbling and strengthening mental exercize. To Dr. David Holdsworth, I give my thanks for helping me appreciate the bridge between the arts and sciences through many intellectually stimulating discussions during my studies in Theory, Culture, and Politics. My many thanks to Dr. Stephanie Rutherford for her time, effort, and constructive and detailed comments and insights throughout my text; and to Dr. James (Jim) Parker for sharing reflective readings and some personal insights from the west coast, as well as for his time and effort as a member of my committee. To my whole family I give my most heartfelt thanks for their loving and tireless support; in particular, to my mother for the many long and lighthearted hours spent helping me with revisions, to my father for encouraging me to ‘feed the right wolf,’ and to my brother, Oliver, for helping with final edits. I am also grateful to Adam D.J. Marques for his caring support. Last but not least, to the Standing People—the many old trees whose boughs I grew up beneath and spent many hours climbing, and all those from whom I continue to learn and take much inspiration—I give my thanks. v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. v INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1 Background: The Forest of Forgetting .......................................................................... 15 Purpose .......................................................................................................................... 31 Rationale ........................................................................................................................ 32 Approach ....................................................................................................................... 38 CHAPTER ONE: Bounded Beginnings in the Eastern Forests ............................................. 50 “Beech” and Fagus Grandifolia .................................................................................... 51 The Jack Pine and Pinus Banksiana .............................................................................. 81 CHAPTER TWO: Terrestrial ‘Whaling’ from the East to the West .................................... 101 Monumental White Pines and Pinus Strobus .............................................................. 102 Big Lonely Doug and Pseudotsuga Menziesii ............................................................ 131 CHAPTER THREE: Between Ocean Floor and Mountain Top, the Western Woods ......... 181 The Gwaii Haanas Legacy Pole and Thuja Plicata ..................................................... 182 The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine, Prometheus and Pinus Longaeva ......................... 229 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 252 APPENDIX: Maps .............................................................................................................. 262 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 268 vi INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Forests have been a mirror of sorts, reflecting back whatever humans wished to see. – David Orr1 When I'm critical of modern approaches to ecology, I'm really trying to remind my reader of the long relationship that Western civilization has had to these forests that define the fringe of its place of habitation, and that this relationship is one that has a rich history of symbolism and imagination and myth and literature. So much of the Western imagination has projected itself into this space that when you lose a forest, you’re losing more than just the natural phenomenon or biodiversity; you’re also losing the great strongholds of cultural memory. – Robert Pogue Harrison2 Germany, 1981: the term Waldsterben (“forest death”) was first used by the journal Der Spiegel to evoke an emotive response from the public and draw their attention to what was believed to be, at the time, an ecological crisis caused by industrial pollution—acid rain and toxic emissions that threatened to destroy the nation’s forests. Interestingly, the journal chose to pair Wald (“forest”) with the word sterben instead of eingehen; whereas the former