Distinction but Not Separation: Edward Abbey’S Conceptualization of Nature
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Distinction but not Separation: Edward Abbey’s Conceptualization of Nature Werner Bigell A dissertation for the degree of Doctor Philosophiae UNIVERSITY OF TROMSØ Faculty of Humanities Department of English August 2006 Table of Content Sammendrag [in Norwegian] 6 Biographical Sketch of Edward Abbey 7 1. Introduction 1.1 Aims 8 1.2 Categorizing Abbey’s texts 9 1.2.1 Romanticism and nature writing 9 1.2.2 Nature writing 12 1.2.3 Pastoralism 14 1.2.4 Abbey and pastoral Nature Writing 15 1.2.5 Definitions: Deep Ecology and biocentrism 18 1.2.6 Abbey in the context of environmental literature 20 1.2.7 Fiction and nature writing 22 1.2.8 Abbey and environmentalism 27 1.3 The notion of distinction 30 1.4 Theoretical considerations 1: Ecocriticism 32 1.5 Theoretical considerations 2: Constructivism and realism 40 1.6 The concept of heterotopia 49 2. Abbey and the Imagery of “Mother Nature” 2.1 Gendering nature 60 2.2 The notion of intrinsic rights of nature 65 3. The Existential Conceptualization of Nature in Abbey 3.1 Introduction 68 3.2 Abbey and Peter Wessel Zapffe 74 3.3 Heterotopian spaces: White spots on the mental map 84 3.4 Existential nature in Black Sun 86 3.5 Conclusion 93 4. Deus absconditus : The Experience of Calvinist Nature 4.1 Introduction 94 4.2 The Calvinist concept of nature 97 4.3 Calvinist morality and aesthetics: Whirlwinds in the desert 104 4.4. Calvin and Luther 105 4.5 Nature in Jonathan Edwards 106 4.6 Nature as a testing ground 107 4.7 The concept of nature in later Calvinist thinkers: An overview 108 4.8 Robinson Jeffers and Calvinism 111 4.9 The Calvinist desert of The Sheltering Sky 115 3 4.10 Edward Abbey’s Calvinist tragic and comic modes 118 4.11 Conclusion 127 5. Abbey and Science 5.1 The romantic ambivalence towards science 130 5.2 Science and the sense of wonder 130 5.3 Abbey’s mad scientist argument 135 5.4 Science and affective engagement 136 5.5 Science and humanism 137 5.6 Science and postmodern criticism 139 5.7 Conclusion 144 6. The Modern Desert of Edward Abbey 6.1 Introduction 145 6.2 Abbey and radical environmentalism 145 6.3 Abbey and reason 148 6.4 Abbey and the city 150 6.5 Abbey and modernism 156 6.6 Abbey’s search for urban nature 160 6.7 The “best of both worlds” 168 6.8 Heterotopia 171 6.9 Abbey and people 175 6.10 Abbey and the experience of instability 179 6.11 Abbey and existentialism 179 6.12 Abbey and travel 180 6.13 The aesthetics of the desert 182 6.14 Abbey’s distinction between civilization and culture 184 6.15 The status of private and public land in Abbey 186 6.16 Anarchism and modernism 189 6.17 Conclusion: Constituting modernity 192 7. The Right to Nature: Social Class in Edward Abbey 7.1 Introduction 194 7.2 Abbey’s working class background 195 7.3 Elements of working class culture in Abbey’s texts 206 7.4 Radicalism and the working class 208 7.5 Abbey’s role as an educator 210 7.6 The form of the novel 212 7.7 Physical immediacy of experience 213 7.8 Masculinity 215 7.9 Language and humor 217 7.10 Patterns of recreation 221 7.11 Abbey and the romantic aspects of environmentalism 226 7.11.1 The pastoral and the city 226 7.11.2 Industrialization 228 7.11.3 Authenticity 230 7.11.4 Spirituality 233 4 7.12 Abbey and the countercultural movement 235 7.13 Abbey—a middle class maverick? 242 7.14 Abbey and the struggle over contested land 243 7.15 Conclusion 244 8. The Blue Collar Appeal of Hayduke Lives! 8.1. Introduction 246 8.2 The readers of Hayduke Lives! and The Monkey Wrench Gang 247 8.3 Target reader and language in Hayduke Lives! 251 8.4 The characters in Hayduke Lives! 253 8.4.1 Bishop Love and Virginia 253 8.4.2 Hayduke 266 8.4.3 Erika 271 8.4.4 Seldom Seen Smith 282 8.4.5 The journalist 282 8.4.6 Doc and Bonnie 284 8.4.7 The G.E.M. 284 8.4.8 Mary 287 8.4.9 The FBI agents 288 8.4.10 The colonel 290 8.4.11 Oral Hatch 293 8.5 Conclusion 294 9. Desert Solitaire : An Exploration of Natures 9.1 Introduction 296 9.2 The notion of distinction 297 9.2.1. The morality of distinction: The Husk family 307 9.3 Representation and naming 309 9.4 Heterotopia 312 9.5 Education and administration 314 10. Fool’s Progress : A Fictional Autobiography 10.1 Introduction 317 10.2 Spirituality 318 10.3 The modern city 321 10.4 Heterotopia 323 10.5 Social class 326 10.6 Place and placelessness 330 10.7 Henry, a tragic hero? 333 11. Conclusion 335 12. Literature Cited 340 5 Sammendrag Edward Abbey (1927-1989) har blitt en av de mest kjente og kontroversielle amerikanske forfattere i feltet ”nature writing.” Han blir ansett som en del av den radikale miljøbevegelsen i USA, og det blir ofte hevdet at naturbegrepet hans er basert på Arne Næss sin ”dypøkologi” som er et program for å re-integrere mennesket i naturen. I en analyse av Abbeys arbeid derimot viser det seg at det mest fremtredende element i hans forfatterskap er distinksjon—individets eller menneskets distinksjon som erfares gjennom en sterkt fysisk nærhet til naturen. Dette naturkonseptet har, i Abbeys tilfelle, sitt opphav i en kalvinistisk naturforståelse som har utviklet seg til en slags natureksistensialisme og som viser fellestrekk med den norske forfatteren og filosofen Peter Wessel Zapffe. Abbey ser naturen hovedsakelig som et ”heterotopia”, et rom innenfor en kultursammenheng, men med avvikende regler. Naturen blir ikke til et alternativ til kulturen, men naturen er et rom hvor kulturelle erfaringer kan bli gjort. Abbey har et ambivalent forhold til det moderne samfunnet, på den ene siden beskriver og forsvarer han former for naturbruk som er kompatible med et moderne samfunn, og på den andre siden advarer han mot destruktive tendenser i det samme moderne samfunnet. Videre har Abbey et ambivalent forhold til miljøbevegelsen: Han støtter de praktiske målene deres, men er kritisk til dens dypøkologiske fundamentet og også til dens fokusering på middelklassen. I en del av Abbeys verker er sosial klasse et hovedtema. Naturbegrepet har alltid vært et problematisk begrep, og denne analysen er basert på en posisjon mellom konstruktivisme og realisme; natur blir betraktet som en ekstern virkelighet som blander seg opp i den kulturelle konstruksjonen av virkeligheten uten å bestemme den. Abbey beskriver hvordan naturrom blir brukt og appropriert på en temporær måte uten at det kan brukes som grunnlag for kulturelle meninger. 6 Biographical Sketch of Edward Abbey Edward Abbey was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania in 1927 and grew up on a small farm in the neighboring village Home, Pennsylvania in the Appalachian Mountains. In 1944 he traveled to the West to see his country before he was drafted into the army. He served as a military policeman in Italy from 1945 until 1948 and later studied philosophy at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and for one year at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. During his year in Europe he traveled extensively, to Scandinavia, Spain, Austria, and other countries and started writing his first novel ( Jonathan Troy ). After his studies he worked as a seasonal park ranger in the Southwest and in several part-time jobs, among others as a welfare case worker in New York. After the publication of Desert Solitaire in 1968 he could support himself as a writer. He was married four times (one of his wives died), and fathered four children. Abbey died in Tucson, Arizona in 1989. 1 Important works: Novels: • Jonathan Troy (1954) • The Brave Cowboy (1956) • Black Sun (1971) • The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975) • Good News (1980) • The Fool’s Progress (1988) • Hayduke Lives! (1989) Essay collections: • Desert Solitaire (1968) • The Journey Home (1977) • Abbey’s Road (1979) • Down the River (1982) Excerpts from his journal : Confessions of a Barbarian (1994) Abbey wrote the introduction to the environmental sabotage manual Ecodefense (1985). In addition Abbey has published a number of coffee table books such as Appalachian Wilderness (1970), Slickrock (1971), and Cactus Country (1973) and wrote contributions for a number of others. 1 Sources: http://www.abbeyweb.net/bibliography.html , http://www.ecotopia.org/ehof/abbey/bio.html 7 1. Introduction 1.1 Aims Edward Abbey, whom Larry McMurtry calls the “Thoreau of the American West,” is usually characterized as a nature writer and a radical environmental activist who is influenced by the philosophy of Deep Ecology. The branch of nature writing that has been influenced by Deep Ecology and its central idea of biocentrism has seen a revival of a pastoral conceptualization of nature, often coupled with an activist attitude. I assess the idea of nature in Abbey’s texts and in biographical information on the author, and my central claim is that Abbey’s conceptualization of nature is not based on a biocentric version of pastoralism. Abbey does not seek reconciliation with nature or try to re-integrate humanity into an ecosystem. To the contrary: his conceptualization of nature is based on the idea of distinction and is not derived from pastoralism but is rooted in a Calvinist tradition that has evolved into a form of existentialism.