New Word Needed for Stability

Sublime and pastoral nature are the extremes at each end. Sublime is the thunderstorm from the angry gods and pastoral is happy cows frolicking in the open pasture. Not everything in the world fits into these two categories. There are many things that are in between, which suggests that new terminology needs to be made. That is not to say that sublime and pastoral are necessarily wrong, simply that a new addition is needed. This new term could encompass many more things than either sublime or pastoral, because it would probably make up the majority of the world. In anatomy, we learned that the body maintains stability through homeostasis. Receptors detects a change in the environment and certain things happen in the body in order for it to remain in balance. I think this concept could relate to nature as well. Sublime nature will happen sometimes. But animals and humans will react to it and make changes until they get back to their stable life. The same goes for pastoral occurrences. For this reason, I think this new word should describe the balance that life should be at before a disturbance occurs.

Shamu Attacks!

Animals and the Media

We have all grown up watching the Lion King and the Little Mermaid and Free Willy. We have visited Seaworld and seen Shamu jump and flip around. We have grown up with such a pastoral view of nature from these films. Yet sublime usually comes up, and it usually creeps in with the same main characters. Bears and sharks, for example, are almost always portrayed as the "evil" ones. The media has selected a select few animals and always portrayed them in a negative connotation, thus influencing human's (especially American's) views on animals.

Movies that focus on animals have the good guys and the bad guys, like all movies should. However, these movies are like a sequel in that the bad guys are usually the same each time. Most water horror movies such as Jaws and Open Water focus on the shark. Land animals have more variety, including animals like bears, lions, and wolves. These animals all have the size factor in common: they are all large, most larger than humans. We naturally feel threatened by these animals, and are impulse is to put them in another category. We create an us versus them mentality where we as humans can band together to take over the tough animals. The media enhances our already fearful mentality of these creatures by always portraying them in movies with ominous music. These are usually the animals that inflict harm upon humans, which is what makes us so scared of them in the first place.

Disney sets up an interesting contrast between the "evil" animals of traditional movies and the "evil" animals of Disney movies. In the Lion King, for example, lions are the main characters. As viewers, we develop an attachment for the lions and they are personified in a way that humans can actually relate too. Although they kill for food, we don't view it as a bad thing because Mufassa explains to us about the "circle of life." By this simple explanation, the killing seems acceptable. There is also no scene in which the lions are seen as acting aggressively towards humans.

Another instance in which nature is portrayed differently in childhood media than normal movies is Shamu at Seaworld. Shamu is a killer whale who does flips and tricks for an audience to watch. Although killer whales are rather vicious and kill even the "evil" sharks, they are portrayed as cartoon-like creatures who are very tame. There is usually a trainer in the pool with Shamu, which gives a tense that killer whales and humans can have peaceful interactions. This however, is not always the case. (See video above.)

I think the reasons that killer whales are portrayed as more friendly than sharks is because of the amount of human interaction among the two. Killer whales for the most part are out in the open sea, and are usually only spotted by humans on whale watching tours or other rare occasions. Sharks, on the other hand, swim closer to shore and have occasional attacks with surfers, often leaving the human either dead or with missing limbs. For this reason, the fear humans have for sharks is greater, which is then made even greater by the view of sharks in the media. Overall, movies and the media have a huge effect on how we view specific animals in nature.

Seasons in Bambi

During any animated movie, or any movie for that matter, visual aids play a huge role in the viewer’s experience. The colors really show a parallel to what is happening in a particular scene. In particular, seasons play a huge role in Bambi, showing how different parts of the life cycle typically occur during different time periods.

            Bambi takes place over many years, thus passing through many seasons. Bambi is first born in the spring, which is typically viewed as the season for birth and re-growth. He is growing up in a safe environment with few natural predators or other roadblocks to hinder his growth. Bambi meets his friends in the winter, including Thumper the rabbit and Flower the skunk. Still in his first year, the first reference to the sublime occurs as winter draws near. A thunderstorm begins as Bambi is frolicking with Thumper. Thumper, although very young, knew that is was time to go back to his mom. This fear of the sublime has been engraved upon these animals so that they are aware of the fear even close to birth when they have not been taught to be scared of it yet. The coming of spring usually represents danger, especially out in the wild. However, Bambi’s first winter is rather uneventful. He realizes what snow is for the first time. In this instance, the snow is only on the ground; it is not flurrying down, as it will later in the movie. In this case, the snow is peaceful and playful, thus representing pastoral nature, despite the common belief that snow and winter are always sublime. Despite occasional glimpses of sublime, Bambi’s early childhood is filled with pastoral nature, even with the passing of all four seasons.

            As Bambi matures, tragedy strikes. Man kills Bambi’s mother. While Bambi is still calling for his mother, snow begins to fall heavily, signifying winter. The fact that the tragedy of a child losing a mother occurs in the winter is very fitting. Winter is the time for catastrophe, if there ever is a time. The entry of man, although the viewer never actually sees him, represents a shift to the sublime. Generally, sublime refers to a higher power intervention, often God. However, in this case, the sublime is man having the power over the animals. It is also interesting that man only is mentioned during the winter. This seems like Bambi and the other animals don’t worry about things during the seasons that appear to be peaceful.

            The movie progresses, and as Bambi continues to grow, the seasons keep changing.  Spring arrives, and although they are each disgusted by the thought at first, Flower, Thumper, and Bambi all find love. The newly “twitterpated” animals are finally happy in the springtime when unexpected sublime hits. A fire breaks out, caused by man. Bambi and the others race out of harms way, escaping being harmed by the forest fire. Generally, such a disaster like this would not be expected in springtime, the time of birth. Rather it would be expected in the winter. However, this fire was not caused by nature, but rather by man. This shows that the typical seasonal stereotypes of disasters are only applicable when it comes to natural events that are not influenced by man. When humans become involved, they throw off the entire circle of life to benefit themselves, thus altering the typical views of pastoral and sublime, and mixing elements of each.

Pastoral vs. Sublime Nature

So far in Tom Sawyer, the dominant view of nature has definitely been pastoral nature. It completely dominates life. However, the definitions of sublime and pastoral differ for different people in the novel. For example, Tom, who loves nature and wants to be a part of it as much as he can, sees almost all his interactions with nature as pastoral. For him, being in nature is peaceful and calming and an all around good feeling. He can "enter a dense wood, and pick his pathless way to the centre of it" quite easily. For Tom, that is natural; that is easy. It is being in the civil world that is difficult for him. So for Tom, nature in all its forms so far has been pastoral.

However, this view on nature is different for other people in the town. Aunt Polly, the teachers, and most of the adults are fearful of nature. They don't understand why Tom feels so comfortable out there, and are scared of things that are "natural." For them, a lot of the nature imagery shown so far is actually subtly sublime. Although not as obvious as a thunder storm suddenly coming down from the wrath of the gods, even a dense wood would be to them, unexplainable and a little scary. "Cardiff Hill lifted its soft green sides through a shimmering veil of heat, tinted with the purple of distance; a few birds floated on lazy wing high in the air; no other living thing was visible but some cows, and they were asleep" (57). This is the kind of nature that the adults like, with the cows who are already domesticated. But the nature that Tom likes, of the wood and wild and unexplored, they view almost as sublime.

This is a very interesting contrast of the different characters views on nature. So although pastoral has been much more prevalent throughout the novel, there have been some mentions of sublime as seen through other character's eyes. It will be interesting to see how much more of each type of nature there will be as the story progresses.

Tom Sawyer Close Reading

"He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while--plenty of company--and the fence had three coats of white of whitewash on it! If he hadn't run out of whitewash, he would have bankrupted every boy in the village.
Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it--namely, that in order to make a man or a boy a covet thing, it is only necessary to make it difficult thing to attain. If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do."

This passage shows Tom's views on human nature. He believes that the only difference between play and work is obligation. This is an important viewpoint because it shows that Tom has figured out a way how to manipulate people. If he can understand the foundation of human emotion, he can make people do the things he wants them to, as he ends up doing later in the book. This key law of human nature is the key to Tom's existence. If he hadn't learned this, he would not be able to go out and explore nature because he would not be done with his chores assigned.
The "fence" in this passage represents a boundary between the town and nature. The fact that he has to coat the fence three times shows that he must stay by the boundary for a long time. This causes a huge temptation for Tom to leave the civil and enter the primal. It is because he wants to venture into nature so badly that he uses the law of human nature that he discovers above to manipulate people in order to get into nature even faster.
The fact that the only thing that stopped Tom from continuing from taking from other was the lack of whitewash shows that he does not know limits. He cares only for himself and his own self-interest, which in most cases is escaping over the fence into the natural world. For Tom, everything is about nature.

Nature Writing through the Centuries

Each of these passages that we read had very different views of nature. The first one, which dates all the way back to 1620, writes about the nature of Cape Cod. He begins by talking of their journal on the ocean and how dangerous the ocean is, whereas the "firm and stable earth" is man's proper element. He thanks God for delivering them to the safety of land. Many times, God is thought to have the power not only to cause terrible, sublime nature, but also to protect man from nature and protect him from the awful power that he could cause. Another interesting quote in the passage was that they were happy to get out of the dangers "before night overtook them." This shows that the fear of nighttime in nature has long been present, even in the 1600s.

The second passage also demonstrates the power of God and praises God. "How excellent is He that dwells on high, Whose power and beauty by His works we know?" Anne Bradstreet attributes all of nature to God's awesome yet magical creation. "The more I looked, the more I grew amazed"..."No wonder some made thee a deity." It seems as though she is calling nature itself a god, which I find very interesting. She is not only saying that God created nature, but putting nature on the same pedestal as one puts a deity.

There is a big gap in the years between the next passages, from 1670 to 1928. This is very evident in the way this next story is written. In the previous passages, man has been afraid of nature and has put it on a pedestal. In this one however, the author is sleeping and living in nature and is almost trying to become one with nature. The night isn't portrayed as dangerous anymore, but rather peaceful. The author also tries to personify nature by mentioning the "ritual of the sun" and other human activities done by nature. The author also stressed that nature is always changing and being created. "Creation is here and now."

Henry Beston wrote in 1933 about his view of nature. He has a very different view from many other humans. "Only to the white men was nature a 'wilderness' and 'infested' with 'wild' animals and 'savage' people." He thought nature was tame. It was only when more humans started to come did it become "wild." This is a huge contrast to the usual view that it is animals that make something wild, not humans. This also showed me that a person's definition of nature and wild and all the definitions we wrote the first day of class would change drastically depending on where a person was from and what their background was.

Edward Abbey then writes and shows that nature can be beautiful in many forms. Some thinks that a lovely barren desert is beautiful, while others could not stand the thought of ever living there and instead need a blooming garden state. "If you had more water, more people could live here." The rest of the passage goes on to describe details on what to do if you are lost and alone in the middle of the desert. You could either find water and somehow survive, or you could find no water, and write your will in the sand and die. This passage talks about the desert as a "land of surprises, some of them terrible surprises. Terrible as derived from terror." Even in 1968, people still think of nature as a terrible thing of which humans have very little control over. You can search and search for water as long as you can, but there is always the possibility that you will not find it.

The last passage is the most recent, written only 3 years ago. It compares a desert to drugs and booze. When you are in a desert, there is "nothing left but the senses," and time goes in slow motion. It talks about the power of nature. In the earlier passages, nature was something to be feared. However, as the years went on, it seems as though nature has become more appreciated for its beauty, not only its terror.

Fantasia

As we watched Fantasia today, it was hard not to pay attention to the constant nature imagery. Especially in the pastoral symphony, there was almost a sense of fake nature. Everything was so perfect, so happy, so cheerful. The colors of the background were all pastel colors. In addition to this, everyone was happy. Unicorns and centaurs were frolicking in the fields, getting drunk and being merry. The interactions with each other were all full of love, whether friendly or most lustful. However, it almost seemed too good to be true. Nobody is every that happy and cheerful without something going wrong. And sure enough, thats when the sublime nature comes in. The gods threw down their lightning bolts laughing. It was almost as if they would not let the playful animals be happy for too long.

In all the scenes that we have watched so far, there has been aspects of both pastoral nature and sublime nature. I think that Fantasia is trying to suggest that one cannot exist without the other. There will be times of the pastoral happiness with some frolicking, but sublime will always come and swoop in, for however long the controlling power chooses.

Just in general with watching Fantasia, I think it is interesting how the music and the animation work so well together. You can always tell when a change in the plot was about to happen by the music. For example, right before Zeus came onto the cloud with his lightning bolts, the music sped up and got really intense. This was a clear sign that something was about to disrupt the serene pastoral scene. In the scene with the dinosaurs, this same pattern happened right before T-rex came in to fight.