The creativity that produces art is, as stated by American writer Gary Snyder in A Place in Space: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Watersheds, “.. That consciousness, mind, imagination, and language are fundamentally wild […] richly interconnected, interdependent, and incredibly complex. […] The ‘art of the wild’ is to see art in the context of the process of nature-nature as process rather than as product or commodity-because “wild’ is a name for the way that phenomena continually actualize themselves. … So language does not impose order on a chaotic universe, but reflects its own wildness back.” Through contrasting and analysis of Rebecca Johnson’s “New Moon over Roxbury: Reflections on Urban Life and the Land,” and “Where Have All the Animals Gone?” by Charles Siebect, one may see how their ideas connect with Snyder’s idea of “art of the wild’ in context with the process of nature.”
Due to the social nature of human beings, we gather in communities to fair for one another; in essence however, human beings are governed by laws to prevent injustice. However, human beings by nature are not just at all. Therefore, laws are imposed onto us not by nature, but by the fear of being penalized. That very fear imposed on us is there to prevent our inner animal like instincts from accessing our wisdom. Wisdom prompts humans to increase in resources, whether financial or otherwise, while also securing essential necessities for our families. That is the nature of human.
Johnson is aware that, “Humans are social beings and have always gathered to create settlements. There may have been a time when these settlements were synchronous with the natural environment, a wholeness built, but not artificial, and reflecting back the wholeness it sought to imitate. [.] Cities are the cause for and creator of much of the destruction of the natural world. […] Yet, in our cities music and art reside and many search for better lives,” (64). Whence human kind collaborated to establish cities, a clear choice to increase production of resources through the land was to enslave other humans and have them labor over the land so that the masters could profit. Johnson mentions of traditions that of which survive through, “unconscious forms for most of the centuries of captivity, slavery, and Jim Crow ‘freedom,” (68). The nature of humans to take advantage of other humans for gains is explored in Johnson’s segment titled: The Hunter ‘S Moon, “A gang of black teen men were out Halloween night looking to rob a prostitute’ I..] Kimberly was raped by several of the defendants, beaten witha tree limb and stabbed with a broken beer bottle and knife… sources said the stab wounds more than 100 were in her stomach, abdomen, back and buttocks,” (69). The unconscious tradition that ultimately had a role in this is explained when Johnson says, “These young men have come to see their lives, and everyone else’s life, as expendable,” (69). Through the title of the segment, one may infer that the moon has an influence on the subconscious mind; though many factors ultimately combine in order for such a tragedy to occur: cities are created by humans, laws are created to even out the battlefield of collecting resources for families-but the truth may be distorted in the facts.
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The title Siebect uses: “Where Have All the Animals Gone?” is equivocal-humans, essentially, are animals. He speaks of “cage-less natural habitats” and more explicitly, “That most of the world’s remaining natural habitats are, in fact, caged or fenced to keep us out and the animals in,” (13). Such habitats no longer exist for humans, for we are born into urban cities that of which are manmade. However, the creation of zoos and, “The animals more subtly contained -better perhaps, for the animals and certainly for us, for our consciences,” means that we are essentially, “trying to conceal from ourselves the zoo as living evidence of our natural antagonism toward nature […] fitful progress toward understanding the animals has always been coterminous with conquering and containing them,” (16). In a comprehensive scope, as humans we are nature-the nature within us is to essentially use our instincts in order to flourish in this realm; however, through the blessings of humanitarian studies and literate arts, we no longer have to choose to let our instincts rule -rather, we can be the ruler of our instincts.
