fecundity

“I have to look at the landscape of the blue-green world again. Just think: in all the clean beautiful reaches of the solar system, our planet alone is a blot; our planet alone has death. I have to acknowledge that the sea is a cup of death and the land is a stained altar stone. We the living are survivors huddled on the flotsam, living on the jetsam. We are escapees. We wake in terror, eat in hunger, sleep with a mouthful of blood.”

annie dillard blows my mind.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is one of my all time favorite books.

i’m working on a paper about nature writing as a genre, specifically how writers respond to Darwin’s theories* (and the later outworking of those theories by Darwin’s contemporaries).

i was just going to use a little bit of Dillard. but i’m having trouble not quoting the whole book!

if you’ve never read her, try out this chapter:
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/73nov/dillard.htm

*Darwin. Have you ever actually read Origin of the Species? Or any of his work first-hand? You probably should. Readership of his work is frighteningly disproportionate given the level of impact of his theories on our culture. Don’t be intimidated; it’s readable to the non-scientist. Many things you thought Darwin said or proved were actually not said or proven by him. All free access here, so no excuses! http://darwin-online.org.uk/contents.html

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