WEBVTT 00:01.600 --> 00:03.166 align:left position:32.5%,start line:89% size:57.5% - Good evening! 00:03.266 --> 00:05.200 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% My name's Paul Robbins, I'm the director of 00:05.300 --> 00:07.433 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies 00:07.533 --> 00:09.366 align:left position:22.5%,start line:89% size:67.5% here at the UW-Madison, 00:09.466 --> 00:13.200 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% and it is an enormous honor to have been invited 00:13.300 --> 00:15.400 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% to introduce tonight's speaker. 00:15.500 --> 00:16.966 align:left position:15%,start line:89% size:75% Jed Purdy wrote very recently 00:17.066 --> 00:19.533 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% that this country, the United States, 00:19.633 --> 00:21.666 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% is "a country whose environmental politics 00:21.766 --> 00:24.433 align:left position:12.5%,start line:89% size:77.5% "has always been Anthropocene, 00:24.533 --> 00:27.766 align:left position:30%,start line:83% size:60% "though often not self-consciously so." 00:27.866 --> 00:30.900 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% And that, but that's an interesting thing to say. 00:31.000 --> 00:33.266 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% It's interesting to say for at least three reasons, 00:33.366 --> 00:36.433 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% which I think captures some of what's special 00:36.533 --> 00:38.466 align:left position:30%,start line:89% size:60% about Jed Purdy. 00:38.566 --> 00:40.366 align:left position:22.5%,start line:89% size:67.5% First, it's extremely, 00:40.466 --> 00:42.733 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% it's a counterintuitive notion that the Anthropocene, 00:42.833 --> 00:45.133 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% that name that we would give to a geologic era 00:45.233 --> 00:47.500 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% formed by human beings, which calls upon us 00:47.600 --> 00:49.833 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% for all of its novelty and all of its difference 00:49.933 --> 00:51.533 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% and how different everything is, 00:51.633 --> 00:53.466 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% the idea that it would be driven back 00:53.566 --> 00:55.900 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% into the violent beginnings of American history 00:56.000 --> 00:58.533 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% is counterintuitive, and it says something 00:58.633 --> 01:01.900 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% very complicated in an extremely accessible way. 01:02.000 --> 01:04.033 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% This is an accessible writer. 01:04.133 --> 01:06.833 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% Two, it would take a pretty formidable reading 01:06.933 --> 01:10.000 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% and understanding of American history to prove it. 01:10.100 --> 01:12.466 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% (audience laughs) It would. 01:12.566 --> 01:15.733 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% That history would have to hinge on a lot of legal 01:15.833 --> 01:17.233 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% and policy history. 01:17.333 --> 01:19.000 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% You'd have to know a lot about the law, 01:19.100 --> 01:21.866 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% not just about American history, to get that right. 01:21.966 --> 01:23.933 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% It would have to be rigorous, 01:24.033 --> 01:25.900 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% accessible and rigorous. 01:26.000 --> 01:28.000 align:left position:30%,start line:83% size:60% And it's also an observation, I think, 01:28.100 --> 01:30.300 align:left position:30%,start line:83% size:60% that opens doors for new politics 01:30.400 --> 01:31.966 align:left position:37.5%,start line:83% size:52.5% because the Anthropocene politics 01:32.066 --> 01:33.500 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% actually aren't all that new, 01:33.600 --> 01:35.766 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% like it actually gives us space of possibilities, 01:35.866 --> 01:38.466 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% like there's something we can do instead of gnash our teeth, 01:38.566 --> 01:42.700 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% which makes it poignant, accessible, rigorous, 01:42.800 --> 01:44.200 align:left position:40%,start line:5% size:50% poignant. 01:44.300 --> 01:47.166 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% Jedediah Purdy is the Robinson O. Everett Professor of Law 01:47.266 --> 01:49.433 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% at the Duke University School of Law. 01:49.533 --> 01:51.933 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% He holds a J.D. from the Yale Law School 01:52.033 --> 01:55.600 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% and a B.A. summa cum laude from Harvard College. 01:55.700 --> 01:57.000 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% He's author of six books, 01:57.100 --> 01:58.733 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% the first of which was written in 1999, 01:58.833 --> 02:03.766 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% which must've been like the first year of your J.D. 02:03.866 --> 02:04.966 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% (audience laughs) 02:05.066 --> 02:07.566 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% I haven't read them, except this one. 02:07.666 --> 02:11.566 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% They got great titles, including a 2009 Knopf title 02:11.666 --> 02:13.066 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% "A Tolerable Anarchy." 02:13.166 --> 02:16.466 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% That title alone is sending me home for some reading. 02:16.566 --> 02:19.000 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% His 2015 book is the one I hold here, 02:19.100 --> 02:21.766 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% "After Nature: Environmental Law, Politics, and the Ethics 02:21.866 --> 02:24.633 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% of the Anthropocene," and I recommend it to everyone. 02:24.733 --> 02:28.466 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% He has countless chapters, reviews, and essays, 02:28.566 --> 02:31.333 align:left position:35%,start line:83% size:55% especially in rigorous law journals, 02:31.433 --> 02:33.666 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% the Harvard Law Review, Columbia Law Review. 02:33.766 --> 02:35.033 align:left position:15%,start line:89% size:75% He's taught countless courses 02:35.133 --> 02:37.433 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% at Duke University and elsewhere, 02:37.533 --> 02:39.800 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% and if I was only allowed to take three of them, 02:39.900 --> 02:42.366 align:left position:15%,start line:83% size:75% they would be Past and Future of Capitalist Democracy, 02:42.466 --> 02:45.166 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% - That's two semesters. (audience laughs) 02:45.266 --> 02:47.433 align:left position:25%,start line:83% size:65% - Well, I'd fail the first semester and 02:47.533 --> 02:49.233 align:left position:22.5%,start line:89% size:67.5% then I'd have an excuse 02:49.333 --> 02:51.933 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% to take The Conversation of Law and History 02:52.033 --> 02:56.800 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% and then his class on The Occupy Movement in 2012. 02:56.900 --> 02:59.200 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% There's a lot here that I don't have to tell you about. 02:59.300 --> 03:01.166 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% I think, well, some of the other things 03:01.266 --> 03:03.466 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% that stand out are his popular essays and reviews. 03:03.566 --> 03:05.833 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% He has written for The New Yorker, The Daily Beast, 03:05.933 --> 03:09.066 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% The Huffington Post, accessibly. 03:09.166 --> 03:13.033 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% And finally, he's got a lot of media appearances, 03:13.133 --> 03:14.466 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% Morning Edition and The Connection 03:14.566 --> 03:17.100 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% and Talk of the Nation, you know, lefty radio, 03:17.200 --> 03:21.266 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% but also a lot of other outlets that I think we'd understand 03:21.366 --> 03:23.533 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% to be extremely mainstream 03:23.633 --> 03:26.066 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% and an important voice 03:26.166 --> 03:29.666 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% for these complicated issues to the broader public. 03:29.766 --> 03:32.700 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% I'll close by reading from the conclusion 03:32.800 --> 03:35.433 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% of this terrific book, "After Nature," 03:35.533 --> 03:37.366 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% to speak to this question of poignancy 03:37.466 --> 03:40.400 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% because he suggests that writing this legal history, 03:40.500 --> 03:45.166 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% of a legal American environmental history, he suggests that 03:45.266 --> 03:49.100 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% "people are best able to change their ways 03:49.200 --> 03:51.100 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% "when they find two things at once in nature, 03:51.200 --> 03:54.766 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% "something to fear and also something to love." 03:54.866 --> 03:58.066 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% Now, "Either impulse," he says, "can stay the human hand, 03:58.166 --> 04:02.066 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% "but the first stops it just short of being burnt or broken. 04:02.166 --> 04:04.866 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% "The second keeps the hand poised, 04:04.966 --> 04:07.833 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% "extended in greeting or in offer of peace. 04:07.933 --> 04:09.866 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% "This gesture is the beginning of collaboration, 04:09.966 --> 04:12.100 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% "among people but also beyond us, 04:12.200 --> 04:13.766 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% "in building our new home." 04:13.866 --> 04:17.100 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% And that home, I take it, is the Anthropocene, 04:17.200 --> 04:20.166 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% and I can't really think of a better architect. 04:20.266 --> 04:22.133 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% Thank you and welcome Jed Purdy. 04:22.233 --> 04:26.400 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% (audience applauds) (faint speaking) 04:31.100 --> 04:35.733 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% - Wow, thanks for that really, really generous introduction. 04:35.833 --> 04:38.433 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% Thank you to the people who brought me here, 04:38.533 --> 04:41.766 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% and thank you to all of you who are, 04:41.866 --> 04:43.300 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% who can't hear me. 04:43.400 --> 04:45.033 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% (audience laughs) 04:45.133 --> 04:49.300 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% I think we need a little more vocals in the mic maybe. 04:52.633 --> 04:55.766 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% So it's obviously a, can you hear me now? 04:55.866 --> 04:57.400 align:left position:45%,start line:5% size:45% - No. - No, all right. 04:57.500 --> 04:58.733 align:left position:40%,start line:5% size:50% Oh, wait! 04:58.833 --> 05:00.866 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% There's a button. 05:00.966 --> 05:03.133 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% (audience laughs) 05:03.233 --> 05:04.633 align:left position:35%,start line:5% size:55% There we are. 05:05.700 --> 05:09.533 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% So I really appreciate the generous introduction. 05:09.633 --> 05:12.100 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% I also really appreciate the work people have done 05:12.200 --> 05:15.966 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% to bring me here and all of you coming out on what feels, 05:16.066 --> 05:17.733 align:left position:25%,start line:83% size:65% from the perspective of North Carolina, 05:17.833 --> 05:22.700 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% like a cold winter evening. (audience laughs) 05:22.800 --> 05:25.866 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% It's also really great to be asked 05:25.966 --> 05:30.333 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% and exciting to be asked to speak at Wisconsin. 05:30.433 --> 05:33.200 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% Although I come to you from a law school, 05:33.300 --> 05:35.533 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% the kind of thinking that I try to do, 05:35.633 --> 05:38.900 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% in this book and elsewhere, would be much harder even 05:39.000 --> 05:41.566 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% to imagine without the work of Bill Cronon, 05:41.666 --> 05:44.266 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% whom I've admired for years 05:44.366 --> 05:47.300 align:left position:35%,start line:5% size:55% and whom it's touching to see here. 05:49.066 --> 05:52.000 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% And behind him, people like Willard Hurst 05:52.100 --> 05:53.866 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% and Charles Van Hise. 05:53.966 --> 05:56.866 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% These names may not all be meaningful to all of you, 05:56.966 --> 06:00.700 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% but they are people who've thought about the interplay 06:00.800 --> 06:05.400 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% of landscape and law, humanity and the non-human world 06:05.500 --> 06:09.666 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% in Wisconsin and at Wisconsin for a very long time. 06:11.433 --> 06:18.966 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% So, I want to talk about 06:19.066 --> 06:21.266 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% what we do when we look at a landscape, 06:21.366 --> 06:25.566 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% though to speak of a part of the world as a landscape 06:25.666 --> 06:28.800 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% is to consider it in a specific way, 06:28.900 --> 06:31.500 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% as a terrain that's viewed, 06:31.600 --> 06:36.066 align:left position:32.5%,start line:83% size:57.5% that's seen and organized by the eye, 06:36.166 --> 06:38.700 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% even, especially, 06:38.800 --> 06:40.566 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% the mind's eye. 06:40.666 --> 06:43.200 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% A landscape is a place 06:43.300 --> 06:47.000 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% organized by the meanings it has for people, 06:47.100 --> 06:49.533 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% and I'm going to talk about some of the ways 06:49.633 --> 06:52.900 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% that our meanings form and organize landscapes. 06:54.500 --> 06:55.933 align:left position:37.5%,start line:5% size:52.5% The first, 06:56.033 --> 06:58.666 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% we may understand 06:58.766 --> 07:01.033 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% a landscape as an origin. 07:01.133 --> 07:02.933 align:left position:40%,start line:5% size:50% Famously, 07:03.033 --> 07:04.366 align:left position:42.5%,start line:89% size:47.5% nature, 07:04.466 --> 07:05.666 align:left position:42.5%,start line:89% size:47.5% nation, 07:05.766 --> 07:07.000 align:left position:42.5%,start line:89% size:47.5% native, 07:07.100 --> 07:09.066 align:left position:22.5%,start line:89% size:67.5% all have the same root, 07:09.166 --> 07:14.000 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% birth, the place where life arises and renews itself. 07:14.100 --> 07:18.100 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% And nature, in this sense, means the world, 07:18.200 --> 07:21.666 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% viewed in light of its life-making powers, 07:21.766 --> 07:25.500 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% the origin of each of us and every other living thing, 07:25.600 --> 07:27.766 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% and, ultimately, of every thought 07:27.866 --> 07:31.633 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% that we could have about it or about one another. 07:31.733 --> 07:33.700 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% And by the same token, 07:33.800 --> 07:36.600 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% nature is linked to nationalism, 07:36.700 --> 07:38.133 align:left position:35%,start line:5% size:55% to nativism, 07:38.233 --> 07:42.600 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% and other doctrines that have been demanding our attention. 07:42.700 --> 07:44.766 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% I want to start at this etymology, 07:44.866 --> 07:48.900 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% this common root of words that name the very idea of roots, 07:49.000 --> 07:52.433 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% because it's especially vexed and vexing. 07:52.533 --> 07:57.033 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% The talking of origins is always partly fictional. 07:57.133 --> 08:00.166 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% In a sense, because we're born of nature, 08:00.266 --> 08:02.966 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% we come from the whole world. 08:03.066 --> 08:05.600 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% In a sense, because we're born, 08:05.700 --> 08:08.900 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% we're native to just one other person. 08:09.000 --> 08:10.566 align:left position:40%,start line:5% size:50% A nation, 08:10.666 --> 08:12.466 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% with the same root, 08:12.566 --> 08:15.333 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% is famously an imagined community, 08:15.433 --> 08:18.300 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% a story about an us and a them, 08:18.400 --> 08:20.500 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% a kind of story that's done a lot of harm 08:20.600 --> 08:23.366 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% and is not finished doing harm. 08:23.466 --> 08:27.400 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% So saying these things about how origins are fictional 08:27.500 --> 08:30.700 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% and nations, like nature, are constructed 08:30.800 --> 08:34.600 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% is easy in my generation of the academic humanities. 08:34.700 --> 08:36.833 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% You might even say that it comes naturally, 08:36.933 --> 08:39.633 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% that it's second nature to say it. 08:39.733 --> 08:42.800 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% But I think there's something else also worth naming, 08:42.900 --> 08:45.500 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% in the idea that a landscape of origin, 08:45.600 --> 08:47.800 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% of your birth, where you're native, 08:47.900 --> 08:51.900 align:left position:25%,start line:83% size:65% is also your nature, who and how you are. 08:52.000 --> 08:55.600 align:left position:15%,start line:83% size:75% There's an image that people come to again and again 08:55.700 --> 08:58.700 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% of being born from their terrain. 08:58.800 --> 09:01.166 align:left position:32.5%,start line:89% size:57.5% A few examples, 09:01.266 --> 09:04.233 align:left position:25%,start line:83% size:65% E.P. Thompson's great historical study, 09:04.333 --> 09:07.100 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% "The Making of the English Working Class," 09:07.200 --> 09:08.933 align:left position:15%,start line:89% size:75% is very nearly the antithesis 09:09.033 --> 09:11.600 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% of picturesque landscape writing. 09:11.700 --> 09:14.000 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% And nevertheless, the book has 09:14.100 --> 09:17.800 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% a steady rhythm of place-names and terrain 09:17.900 --> 09:20.366 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% that infuses, at least to me, 09:20.466 --> 09:24.900 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% an earthborn quality into the human actions he details, 09:25.000 --> 09:27.566 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% and once he comes out and says it. 09:27.666 --> 09:29.233 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% Writing of Dan Taylor, 09:29.333 --> 09:32.500 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% "a Yorkshire collier," a coal miner, 09:32.600 --> 09:35.066 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% "who had worked in the pit from the age of five, 09:35.166 --> 09:37.733 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% "who had been converted by the Methodists," 09:37.833 --> 09:42.233 align:left position:15%,start line:83% size:75% who, still quoting Thompson, "built his own meeting-house, 09:42.333 --> 09:45.966 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% "digging the stone out of the moors above Hebden Bridge 09:46.066 --> 09:50.400 align:left position:12.5%,start line:89% size:77.5% "and carrying on his own back" 09:50.500 --> 09:52.200 align:left position:27.5%,start line:89% size:62.5% and went on to walk 09:52.300 --> 09:54.766 align:left position:17.5%,start line:89% size:72.5% 25,000 miles across England 09:54.866 --> 09:58.500 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% to preach 20,000 sermons of low church radicalism. 09:58.600 --> 10:00.433 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% And Thompson concludes, 10:00.533 --> 10:02.933 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% "he came from neither the Particular 10:03.033 --> 10:05.933 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% "nor the General Baptist Societies, 10:06.033 --> 10:09.700 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% "spiritually, perhaps, he came from Bunyan's inheritance," 10:09.800 --> 10:12.000 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% that is Pilgrim's Progress, 10:12.100 --> 10:14.666 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% but, still quoting, "but literally 10:14.766 --> 10:17.533 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% "he just came out of the ground." 10:19.000 --> 10:22.866 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% And here, is Wendell Berry, the Kentucky agrarian writer, 10:22.966 --> 10:26.233 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% in an essay from the 1960s called "A Native Hill," 10:26.333 --> 10:27.700 align:left position:30%,start line:89% size:60% that word again. 10:27.800 --> 10:29.266 align:left position:22.5%,start line:89% size:67.5% Berry writes of a place 10:29.366 --> 10:32.000 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% "where his face is mirrored in the ground." 10:32.100 --> 10:35.266 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% He imagines his own death and decay on his native hill 10:35.366 --> 10:38.900 align:left position:32.5%,start line:83% size:57.5% and concludes, "When I move to go, 10:39.000 --> 10:42.366 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% "it is as if I rise up out of the world." 10:43.900 --> 10:46.200 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% I could multiply examples, 10:46.300 --> 10:47.900 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% but I think these will do enough 10:48.000 --> 10:50.733 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% to get at the thought or feeling that I'm after here. 10:50.833 --> 10:52.566 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% I'll come back to it. 10:54.266 --> 10:57.100 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% Second, when they look at a landscape 10:57.200 --> 10:59.533 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% as a record of wounds, 10:59.633 --> 11:03.866 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% a landscape is also, is always partly 11:03.966 --> 11:07.733 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% a place that is held in memory in a certain way. 11:07.833 --> 11:11.100 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% The Polish-Lithuanian poet Czeslaw Milosz wrote, 11:11.200 --> 11:13.733 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% "It's possible that there is no memory 11:13.833 --> 11:15.933 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% but the memory of wounds." 11:16.033 --> 11:17.700 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% And it's surely true that the way 11:17.800 --> 11:20.833 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% a landscape memorializes us, 11:20.933 --> 11:23.100 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% how it holds our memory, 11:23.200 --> 11:25.700 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% is largely in the harm we do 11:25.800 --> 11:29.133 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% in our use and habitation of it. 11:29.233 --> 11:31.900 align:left position:15%,start line:83% size:75% In the passage where Wendell Berry imagines rising 11:32.000 --> 11:34.333 align:left position:30%,start line:83% size:60% from the hill of his native land, 11:34.433 --> 11:38.933 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% he also reflects that his path is several feet below 11:39.033 --> 11:41.866 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% where he would once have walked and where he would walk 11:41.966 --> 11:45.233 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% today if his ancestors had not cut the land in ways 11:45.333 --> 11:48.433 align:left position:15%,start line:89% size:75% that cost it all its topsoil. 11:48.533 --> 11:53.833 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% The Appalachian hills where I grew up 11:53.933 --> 11:56.233 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% are much steeper than his. 11:56.333 --> 11:58.766 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% They're a beautiful place of wreckage. 11:58.866 --> 12:01.800 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% Mature red oaks collapse with their roots out 12:01.900 --> 12:04.166 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% because the soil is thin. 12:04.266 --> 12:06.300 align:left position:17.5%,start line:89% size:72.5% Gullies slash the hillsides 12:06.400 --> 12:09.266 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% where people farmed sheep during World War One, 12:09.366 --> 12:12.366 align:left position:15%,start line:83% size:75% answering a lucrative demand for wool to make uniforms, 12:12.466 --> 12:16.633 align:left position:15%,start line:83% size:75% which was a very rare chance to turn that land into money. 12:17.800 --> 12:19.800 align:left position:32.5%,start line:83% size:57.5% The streams are sluggish and muddy 12:19.900 --> 12:22.066 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% because all the topsoil has run through them 12:22.166 --> 12:25.500 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% on the way to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. 12:25.600 --> 12:28.066 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% And that is nothing compared 12:28.166 --> 12:30.200 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% with the condition of the coalfields, 12:30.300 --> 12:31.800 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% just an hour's drive south, 12:31.900 --> 12:35.900 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% and less if you know exactly where you're going. 12:36.000 --> 12:37.766 align:left position:30%,start line:83% size:60% You may know some of the basic facts 12:37.866 --> 12:40.500 align:left position:30%,start line:83% size:60% about mountaintop removal strip-mining, 12:40.600 --> 12:44.100 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% which combines dynamite to blast mountains apart 12:44.200 --> 12:47.400 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% with earth-moving equipment that can pick up 130 tons 12:47.500 --> 12:49.566 align:left position:25%,start line:89% size:65% of rubble at a bite. 12:49.666 --> 12:52.266 align:left position:25%,start line:83% size:65% You may know that the blasting lowers ridges 12:52.366 --> 12:55.400 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% and mountaintops by as much as 600 feet 12:55.500 --> 12:58.133 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% in a region where that is about the usual clearance 12:58.233 --> 13:00.433 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% between valley and ridge. 13:00.533 --> 13:04.000 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% You may have heard that 2,000 13:04.100 --> 13:06.800 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% miles of headwater streams have been buried 13:06.900 --> 13:09.633 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% under hundreds of feet of the resulting rubble 13:09.733 --> 13:14.233 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% and that that 2,000 miles is a very conservative estimate, 13:14.333 --> 13:16.933 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% that 500 individual mountains have been destroyed, 13:17.033 --> 13:19.900 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% and that 1.4 million acres of native forest 13:20.000 --> 13:22.400 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% have been cleared in the process. 13:22.500 --> 13:24.333 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% Where mining has been, 13:24.433 --> 13:26.766 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% the terrain is now something utterly different 13:26.866 --> 13:28.700 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% from what it used to be. 13:28.800 --> 13:32.133 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% A terrain dominated by steep hillsides has been replaced 13:32.233 --> 13:36.566 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% by a mix of plateaus with remnant or reconstructed hillsides 13:36.666 --> 13:40.633 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% that are shorter and blunter than before mining. 13:40.733 --> 13:43.300 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% The most common pre-mining landform there 13:43.400 --> 13:46.000 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% was a slope with a pitch of 28 degrees, 13:46.100 --> 13:48.033 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% about as steep as the upper segments 13:48.133 --> 13:49.866 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% of the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge 13:49.966 --> 13:52.566 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% or similar bridges from the same period. 13:52.666 --> 13:55.833 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% And today, the most common is a plain 13:55.933 --> 14:00.166 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% with a slope of two degrees, that is, level but uneven. 14:01.800 --> 14:04.133 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% Mining has filled a steep terrain 14:04.233 --> 14:07.733 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% with pockets of nearly flat ground. 14:07.833 --> 14:11.600 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% And what does this terrain show about us? 14:11.700 --> 14:13.866 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% Henry Thoreau wrote about wild places, 14:13.966 --> 14:15.733 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% that we go there, quote, 14:15.833 --> 14:19.033 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% "to see our serenity reflected in them." 14:19.133 --> 14:23.800 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% Continuing, "when we are not serene, we go not to them." 14:23.900 --> 14:27.100 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% He was talking about the period when Boston was in turmoil 14:27.200 --> 14:30.566 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% over the return of an enslaved man to the South 14:30.666 --> 14:33.633 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% under the Fugitive Slave Act. 14:33.733 --> 14:36.600 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% But what about when landscapes show back to us 14:36.700 --> 14:40.533 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% a breaking of the land on a geological scale? 14:40.633 --> 14:43.233 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% What we find there is ecological derangement. 14:43.333 --> 14:46.900 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% And what can we say that it reflects of us? 14:48.500 --> 14:51.700 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% It's partly because this question is unpleasant 14:51.800 --> 14:55.300 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% that a third way of viewing landscapes has been so appealing 14:55.400 --> 14:56.900 align:left position:27.5%,start line:89% size:62.5% to many Americans. 14:57.966 --> 15:00.433 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% This is a painterly view 15:00.533 --> 15:04.900 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% of landscapes as instances of aesthetic ideals. 15:05.000 --> 15:06.200 align:left position:25%,start line:89% size:65% Viewed in this light, 15:06.300 --> 15:09.333 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% we may catalog the qualities of landscapes 15:09.433 --> 15:11.766 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% in the way that Frederick Law Olmsted did those 15:11.866 --> 15:14.666 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% of Yosemite Valley, which, he wrote in the 1860s, 15:14.766 --> 15:16.966 align:left position:22.5%,start line:89% size:67.5% combined the following, 15:17.066 --> 15:18.200 align:left position:42.5%,start line:89% size:47.5% beauty, 15:18.300 --> 15:21.766 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% the look of a welcoming, regular, gentle world 15:21.866 --> 15:24.166 align:left position:15%,start line:89% size:75% where you could feel at home, 15:24.266 --> 15:25.666 align:left position:32.5%,start line:89% size:57.5% and sublimity, 15:25.766 --> 15:28.933 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% the wild, strange, even frightening extremity 15:29.033 --> 15:30.566 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% of a world that was not made 15:30.666 --> 15:33.100 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% for your comfort or safety at all, 15:33.200 --> 15:35.833 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% that was vastly bigger than your powers 15:35.933 --> 15:39.100 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% and maybe even bigger than your imagination. 15:39.200 --> 15:42.066 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% These aesthetic principles were also psychological, 15:42.166 --> 15:44.566 align:left position:17.5%,start line:89% size:72.5% even spiritual principles. 15:44.666 --> 15:46.966 align:left position:32.5%,start line:83% size:57.5% They tuned your mind a certain way, 15:47.066 --> 15:49.033 align:left position:25%,start line:89% size:65% toward peace and calm 15:49.133 --> 15:51.866 align:left position:25%,start line:83% size:65% or toward inspiration and wonder. 15:53.066 --> 15:57.566 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% If this is a painterly ideal, what's the brush? 15:57.666 --> 15:59.800 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% Whoever made the world, whatever made the world, 15:59.900 --> 16:01.466 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% of course, is one answer, 16:01.566 --> 16:03.733 align:left position:12.5%,start line:89% size:77.5% but another answer, also true, 16:03.833 --> 16:07.400 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% is the law that picks out these places as special 16:07.500 --> 16:09.666 align:left position:30%,start line:83% size:60% and preserves and manages them according 16:09.766 --> 16:12.266 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% to aesthetic principles. 16:12.366 --> 16:15.833 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% In national parks, monuments, and wilderness areas, 16:15.933 --> 16:18.366 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% the law has picked out hundreds of millions 16:18.466 --> 16:22.766 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% of acres of land as the exemplary American nature, 16:22.866 --> 16:25.966 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% the places where what's best in the world 16:26.066 --> 16:30.233 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% reflects what's best in us, and the other way around. 16:31.733 --> 16:33.966 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% In what may be the most widely read 16:34.066 --> 16:36.866 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% of all his amazing and invaluable work, 16:36.966 --> 16:39.433 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% Bill Cronon has taught now more than a generation 16:39.533 --> 16:41.100 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% of scholars and students 16:41.200 --> 16:45.100 align:left position:25%,start line:83% size:65% that the ideal of the exemplary, nearly sacred place 16:45.200 --> 16:49.666 align:left position:25%,start line:83% size:65% is connected with the sacrifice of the fallen place. 16:49.766 --> 16:53.233 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% In prizing what we prize, we also give ourselves license 16:53.333 --> 16:56.133 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% to neglect or wreck what we do not 16:56.233 --> 16:58.900 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% so that more than atmospheric carbon levels 16:59.000 --> 17:02.166 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% connect Yosemite with the coalfields. 17:04.200 --> 17:07.600 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% Parks and wilderness areas suggest a connection 17:07.700 --> 17:10.466 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% between the more abstract and literary ideas 17:10.566 --> 17:13.366 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% about the nature of nature 17:13.466 --> 17:15.966 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% and why it matters to human beings, 17:16.066 --> 17:20.066 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% and the most material facts about the world, 17:20.166 --> 17:22.900 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% the landscapes that compose it. 17:23.000 --> 17:26.300 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% The link between the two, which completes the circuit, 17:26.400 --> 17:29.166 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% is often the law. 17:29.266 --> 17:31.566 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% The circuit that law completes 17:31.666 --> 17:33.933 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% is very clear when we're looking 17:34.033 --> 17:38.100 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% at legislation as a kind of landscape architecture, 17:38.200 --> 17:41.366 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% rather like the aristocratic gardens of England and France, 17:41.466 --> 17:45.166 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% except that, as Frederick Law Olmsted emphasized, 17:45.266 --> 17:50.466 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% Olmsted, again, in an 1864 report on Yosemite, 17:50.566 --> 17:53.733 align:left position:15%,start line:83% size:75% recommending its adoption as a state park in California, 17:53.833 --> 17:56.300 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% here they should be thought of as parks for citizens, 17:56.400 --> 17:59.100 align:left position:15%,start line:89% size:75% not for aristocratic owners, 17:59.200 --> 18:00.833 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% and for that reason they must be shaped 18:00.933 --> 18:05.400 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% by a sovereign's power rather than a proprietor's. 18:05.500 --> 18:09.066 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% But just as law can perform landscape architecture 18:09.166 --> 18:14.933 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% when it has a very clear, painterly template, 18:15.033 --> 18:18.100 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% in the same way it can shape other landscapes 18:18.200 --> 18:21.466 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% in line with other ways of seeing. 18:21.566 --> 18:25.466 align:left position:15%,start line:83% size:75% So, for example, we might see a landscape in a fourth way, 18:25.566 --> 18:27.633 align:left position:30%,start line:83% size:60% as a stockpile of resources to use 18:27.733 --> 18:30.266 align:left position:15%,start line:89% size:75% for our utilitarian purposes. 18:30.366 --> 18:32.166 align:left position:15%,start line:89% size:75% And this is the way of seeing 18:32.266 --> 18:35.466 align:left position:15%,start line:83% size:75% that the U.S. Forest Service was created to implement 18:35.566 --> 18:37.400 align:left position:12.5%,start line:89% size:77.5% in the almost 200 million acres 18:37.500 --> 18:40.200 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% of national forests that it manages, 18:40.300 --> 18:44.033 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% an area almost the size of five Wisconsins. 18:44.133 --> 18:47.266 align:left position:15%,start line:83% size:75% This idea was very important to utilitarian reformers 18:47.366 --> 18:50.400 align:left position:25%,start line:83% size:65% in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 18:50.500 --> 18:53.433 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% It was connected with ideas of the American nation 18:53.533 --> 18:56.100 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% and the American state, 18:56.200 --> 19:01.066 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% and the national forests dedicate terrain to the idea. 19:01.166 --> 19:04.766 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% They make it real. They make it as real as dirt. 19:05.766 --> 19:07.866 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% Or you might see a landscape 19:07.966 --> 19:11.833 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% as ratifying a national mission and identity. 19:11.933 --> 19:14.533 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% The idea was widespread in the early republic 19:14.633 --> 19:17.466 align:left position:12.5%,start line:89% size:77.5% that the world, by its nature, 19:17.566 --> 19:20.266 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% belonged to the people who could make it bloom, 19:20.366 --> 19:23.033 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% and blooming meant being economically productive, 19:23.133 --> 19:25.233 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% according to the paradigm of the agriculture 19:25.333 --> 19:28.566 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% and the commodity markets of northern Europe. 19:28.666 --> 19:31.433 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% People who settled, timbered, and planted land 19:31.533 --> 19:33.300 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% could become its owners. 19:33.400 --> 19:37.400 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% Those who merely hunted or lived transient lands there 19:37.500 --> 19:39.366 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% were not owners. 19:39.466 --> 19:43.033 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% They passed over it like deer, the lawyers of the time said, 19:43.133 --> 19:45.100 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% or like ships at sea. 19:46.300 --> 19:51.333 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% All of this doctrine had the convenient effect of showing, 19:51.433 --> 19:53.166 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% to the satisfaction of the demonstrators, 19:53.266 --> 19:55.166 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% that Native Americans had never become, 19:55.266 --> 19:59.766 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% legally or morally speaking, rooted in the place. 19:59.866 --> 20:02.233 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% Only Europeans did that. 20:02.333 --> 20:03.733 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% John Marshall, 20:03.833 --> 20:06.000 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% the second chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, 20:06.100 --> 20:09.433 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% explained in one of the more candid treatments of this issue 20:09.533 --> 20:11.933 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% that although the European claim to North America 20:12.033 --> 20:14.833 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% offended one's sense of natural justice, 20:14.933 --> 20:16.900 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% it had to prevail. 20:17.000 --> 20:20.166 align:left position:15%,start line:83% size:75% The alternative was to leave the continent a forest, 20:20.266 --> 20:23.933 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% a wilderness, unowned, legally uninhabited. 20:25.833 --> 20:27.633 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% The image of the continent 20:27.733 --> 20:30.066 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% and the national mission it called forth 20:30.166 --> 20:31.866 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% is, of course, intimately linked 20:31.966 --> 20:36.100 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% with the expropriation and genocide of Native Americans. 20:36.200 --> 20:39.400 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% And, contrary to certain historical images, 20:39.500 --> 20:41.533 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% very little about the clearing and settlement 20:41.633 --> 20:44.700 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% that it set in motion was spontaneous. 20:44.800 --> 20:48.133 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% Much of American law in the first century of independence 20:48.233 --> 20:52.866 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% was dedicated to converting frontier into private property. 20:52.966 --> 20:56.166 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% Federal statutes offered a series of bargains. 20:56.266 --> 20:58.566 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% You could become an owner, a proprietor, 20:58.666 --> 21:00.366 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% by settling a place, 21:00.466 --> 21:02.733 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% by cutting trees in forest land 21:02.833 --> 21:05.966 align:left position:12.5%,start line:89% size:77.5% or planting them in grassland, 21:06.066 --> 21:09.400 align:left position:25%,start line:83% size:65% by draining wetlands or irrigating drylands, 21:09.500 --> 21:11.266 align:left position:17.5%,start line:89% size:72.5% by mining valuable minerals 21:11.366 --> 21:15.533 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% or, in some cases, simply gathering stone. 21:15.633 --> 21:18.600 align:left position:32.5%,start line:83% size:57.5% The key was to transform something 21:18.700 --> 21:20.800 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% in a way that drew economic value from it 21:20.900 --> 21:24.333 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% and brought it into the legal terms of ownership. 21:24.433 --> 21:28.466 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% The landscapes we mostly know, personally, 21:28.566 --> 21:31.533 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% the private land of the East and the Midwest, 21:31.633 --> 21:34.000 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% began in these ways. 21:34.100 --> 21:36.366 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% John Locke's famous parable, 21:36.466 --> 21:40.166 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% that people made property by mixing their labor with nature, 21:40.266 --> 21:45.033 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% happened again and again under the aegis of American law, 21:45.133 --> 21:48.633 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% often enough via the labor of enslaved people. 21:48.733 --> 21:50.833 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% In North Carolina, where I live now, 21:50.933 --> 21:53.433 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% and in other Southern jurisdictions, 21:53.533 --> 21:56.133 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% settlers could claim extra acres 21:56.233 --> 21:59.400 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% for each body the law said they owned. 22:00.600 --> 22:03.466 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% So a few points are emerging here. 22:03.566 --> 22:06.633 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% One is that different kinds of landscapes are produced 22:06.733 --> 22:10.900 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% by different kinds of legal landscape architecture. 22:12.000 --> 22:14.166 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% Laws creating and managing parks 22:14.266 --> 22:16.133 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% are only the most obvious example, 22:16.233 --> 22:18.266 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% the way in, so to speak. 22:18.366 --> 22:21.866 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% In fact, for every part of every landscape, 22:21.966 --> 22:24.400 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% the soil, the trees and other plants, 22:24.500 --> 22:26.266 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% the animals, the water, 22:26.366 --> 22:29.466 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% the oil or gas or metals underground, 22:29.566 --> 22:32.033 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% the law has said, in some respects, 22:32.133 --> 22:33.833 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% what shall be done with it, 22:33.933 --> 22:36.666 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% and, in every case, has said 22:36.766 --> 22:39.333 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% who will make that decision. 22:39.433 --> 22:41.866 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% The sum of these two questions, 22:41.966 --> 22:45.933 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% what will be done and who decides what will be done, 22:46.033 --> 22:47.800 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% is our collective, 22:47.900 --> 22:51.133 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% often implicit landscape making, 22:51.233 --> 22:52.833 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% whether it's the cathedrals 22:52.933 --> 22:55.233 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% of Yosemite and Glacier that we make 22:55.333 --> 22:59.866 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% or the geology of wreckage in the Appalachian coalfields, 22:59.966 --> 23:03.100 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% which you can trace through property deeds, 23:03.200 --> 23:05.266 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% the legislative compromises that produced 23:05.366 --> 23:09.900 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1978, 23:10.000 --> 23:12.500 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% and the interpretation of the Clean Water Act 23:12.600 --> 23:14.566 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% that allows the burial of streams 23:14.666 --> 23:17.600 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% in disposing of mining rubble. 23:17.700 --> 23:20.000 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% Not every way of seeing a landscape 23:20.100 --> 23:22.600 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% corresponds to a legal regime 23:22.700 --> 23:25.166 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% as neatly as the ones I've been discussing, 23:25.266 --> 23:29.066 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% but when a way of seeing shapes a terrain, 23:29.166 --> 23:33.633 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% when ideas and materiality rise and meet each other 23:33.733 --> 23:35.666 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% in a changing landscape, 23:35.766 --> 23:39.266 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% law is often the circuit that links them. 23:40.700 --> 23:42.933 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% A second point is that, 23:43.033 --> 23:46.300 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% although I have been naming a landscape 23:46.400 --> 23:49.133 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% to instance each way of seeing, 23:49.233 --> 23:52.533 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% every landscape in which people have taken an interest 23:52.633 --> 23:55.466 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% is also a landscape of conflict. 23:55.566 --> 23:59.466 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% They're cross-cut by competing visions and narratives. 23:59.566 --> 24:03.966 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% In Appalachia, for instance, my way of telling the story 24:04.066 --> 24:05.700 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% will run up against another 24:05.800 --> 24:08.233 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% in which the survival of coal mining 24:08.333 --> 24:12.500 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% against environmentalist intrusion is heroic self-defense. 24:13.633 --> 24:15.400 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% And as recently as the 1970s, 24:15.500 --> 24:17.766 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% there was a third narrative there, 24:17.866 --> 24:20.066 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% advanced by the insurgent labor movement, 24:20.166 --> 24:22.100 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% the Miners for Democracy, 24:22.200 --> 24:24.100 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% which held that miners should work 24:24.200 --> 24:26.700 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% in a way that preserved their own health 24:26.800 --> 24:28.533 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% and the health of the land, 24:28.633 --> 24:30.366 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% and should strike 24:30.466 --> 24:34.266 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% when they were asked to dig coal in ways that either 24:34.366 --> 24:36.500 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% threatened to give workers black lung 24:36.600 --> 24:39.266 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% or trapped them in mine collapses, 24:39.366 --> 24:43.066 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% or promised to destroy streams and mountains. 24:44.500 --> 24:49.133 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% Now that version of the coalfields is gone, 24:49.233 --> 24:51.500 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% along with most of the power of its union, 24:51.600 --> 24:53.333 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% the United Mine Workers, 24:53.433 --> 24:58.266 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% and the meaning of this land is split between two poles. 24:59.733 --> 25:03.766 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% From one, the sacrifice of a region for a few decades 25:03.866 --> 25:06.866 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% of marginally cheaper energy is one of the great pieces 25:06.966 --> 25:09.966 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% of environmental injustice in our age. 25:10.066 --> 25:13.500 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% From the other, the victims of environmental injustice 25:13.600 --> 25:17.633 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% are the miners themselves, expelled from their work, 25:17.733 --> 25:19.833 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% much as farmers were expelled from the land 25:19.933 --> 25:23.333 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% that became the Shenandoah National Park nearby, 25:23.433 --> 25:26.300 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% a few hours to the east of the coalfields. 25:26.400 --> 25:28.366 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% I don't share the second view. 25:28.466 --> 25:30.400 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% I think it's ill-founded, 25:30.500 --> 25:33.066 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% but I don't find it mysterious. 25:35.000 --> 25:38.033 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% By the way, I never use slides, 25:38.133 --> 25:40.533 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% so my fingers are figuring out how to use them. 25:40.633 --> 25:41.766 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% (audience chuckles) 25:41.866 --> 25:43.666 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% The lecture is about the words always, 25:43.766 --> 25:47.933 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% but I felt, in this case, that some images would help. 25:50.033 --> 25:52.366 align:left position:27.5%,start line:89% size:62.5% In some landscapes, 25:52.466 --> 25:55.633 align:left position:22.5%,start line:89% size:67.5% the lines of conflict-- 25:55.733 --> 25:59.033 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% Actually, I'm not going to talk about those 25:59.133 --> 26:00.633 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% because we need the time. 26:00.733 --> 26:03.200 align:left position:25%,start line:83% size:65% The conflict that I'm talking about here 26:03.300 --> 26:06.200 align:left position:25%,start line:83% size:65% is not just notional or metaphoric. 26:06.300 --> 26:09.333 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% These overlapping, competing landscapes 26:09.433 --> 26:11.700 align:left position:17.5%,start line:89% size:72.5% have their constituencies, 26:11.800 --> 26:13.533 align:left position:12.5%,start line:89% size:77.5% people invested in certain ways 26:13.633 --> 26:15.533 align:left position:32.5%,start line:83% size:57.5% of relating to the natural world, 26:15.633 --> 26:17.033 align:left position:12.5%,start line:89% size:77.5% in the ways they make a living, 26:17.133 --> 26:19.700 align:left position:32.5%,start line:83% size:57.5% but also at the level of identity. 26:19.800 --> 26:22.800 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% To take an extreme example, those militia types 26:22.900 --> 26:25.266 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% who occupied the Malheur Wildlife Refuge 26:25.366 --> 26:27.966 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% in Southeastern Oregon last spring 26:28.066 --> 26:32.766 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% were carrying forward the view that land really belongs 26:32.866 --> 26:35.833 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% to those who work it and make it productive. 26:35.933 --> 26:39.733 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% Their beef was with the visions and laws 26:39.833 --> 26:42.366 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% of each ensuing generation, 26:42.466 --> 26:44.633 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% with federal land managers, 26:44.733 --> 26:48.233 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% with romantic aficionados of undisturbed beauty, 26:48.333 --> 26:51.433 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% and, of course, with ecologists who can explain 26:51.533 --> 26:54.066 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% how cattle grazing harms the waterways 26:54.166 --> 26:58.033 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% where migratory birds rest in the Malheur. 26:58.133 --> 27:02.233 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% These landscapes are overburdened with conflicting uses, 27:02.333 --> 27:06.000 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% conflicting laws, conflicting meanings, 27:06.100 --> 27:09.433 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% and sometimes the lines of tension snap. 27:11.500 --> 27:15.033 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% These landscapes of conflict, it seems to me, 27:15.133 --> 27:17.133 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% are very concrete expressions 27:17.233 --> 27:21.433 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% of something that is often said in grandly abstract terms, 27:21.533 --> 27:24.666 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% that the world has entered a new geological era, 27:24.766 --> 27:27.266 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% which some earth scientists and others call 27:27.366 --> 27:30.600 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% the Anthropocene, the epoch of humanity. 27:30.700 --> 27:33.166 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% I think the Anthropocene idea 27:33.266 --> 27:36.300 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% is best broken down into two ideas, 27:36.400 --> 27:39.700 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% which are distinct but entangled together. 27:39.800 --> 27:43.333 align:left position:35%,start line:5% size:55% First is the Anthropocene condition, 27:43.433 --> 27:47.100 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% the intensity and pervasiveness of human influence 27:47.200 --> 27:50.033 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% on the world's biological and chemical orders, 27:50.133 --> 27:52.466 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% which means that, from here forward, 27:52.566 --> 27:56.500 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% the world we inhabit will be the world we have made, 27:56.600 --> 27:57.833 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% shared with the other life 27:57.933 --> 28:00.500 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% that we've valued enough to preserve it, 28:00.600 --> 28:03.466 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% on the landscapes that match our visions, 28:03.566 --> 28:07.800 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% or, as with the coalfields and, in some respects, 28:07.900 --> 28:10.400 align:left position:37.5%,start line:5% size:52.5% with every climate-changed place, 28:10.500 --> 28:12.966 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% our unspoken priorities, 28:13.066 --> 28:17.233 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% even if not the ideas many of us would stand up to claim. 28:18.733 --> 28:24.200 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% Second, is the Anthropocene insight, 28:24.300 --> 28:27.766 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% the recognition that all these competing ideals of nature 28:27.866 --> 28:31.800 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% and the human place in it are cultural creations, 28:31.900 --> 28:36.033 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% ways that we've learned to see and to be, 28:36.133 --> 28:38.966 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% and, usually, ways of arguing 28:39.066 --> 28:42.233 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% about our political, economic and cultural lives 28:42.333 --> 28:45.533 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% as much as about the non-human world. 28:45.633 --> 28:48.233 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% Once we've peeled away the layers 28:48.333 --> 28:51.300 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% of human activity that shape these landscapes 28:51.400 --> 28:54.100 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% and appreciated the many angles of vision 28:54.200 --> 28:56.033 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% from which they can make sense, 28:56.133 --> 29:00.433 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% there's no avoiding that they are Anthropocene landscapes. 29:00.533 --> 29:04.766 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% What else could they be, as long as we are in them? 29:06.433 --> 29:10.166 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% And what, then, could be the value 29:10.266 --> 29:14.066 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% of imagining that you rise from a piece of land, 29:14.166 --> 29:18.633 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% continuous somehow with its spirit and meaning, 29:18.733 --> 29:21.966 align:left position:35%,start line:5% size:55% the idea of a landscape as an origin, 29:22.066 --> 29:25.866 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% the place where I began this lecture? 29:25.966 --> 29:28.633 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% I'd like to return to that idea now, 29:28.733 --> 29:30.533 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% but along a different path, 29:30.633 --> 29:35.366 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% by thinking of a landscape not as an origin exactly 29:35.466 --> 29:40.000 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% but, in one sense, the opposite, as a sanctuary, 29:40.100 --> 29:41.566 align:left position:42.5%,start line:5% size:47.5% a place 29:41.666 --> 29:44.233 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% of respite and reprieve, 29:44.333 --> 29:46.500 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% not the place where you come from, 29:46.600 --> 29:48.766 align:left position:17.5%,start line:89% size:72.5% but the place you flee to. 29:50.633 --> 29:54.566 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% "Without wilderness," said Senator Frank Church of Idaho, 29:54.666 --> 29:58.566 align:left position:35%,start line:83% size:55% debating the Wilderness Act of 1964, 29:58.666 --> 30:02.733 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% "Without wilderness, this country would become a cage." 30:03.966 --> 30:06.333 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% "We need a place," Thoreau had written 30:06.433 --> 30:08.333 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% more than a century earlier, 30:08.433 --> 30:11.166 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% "where we feel our limits transgressed," 30:11.266 --> 30:15.233 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% a place outside villages and subdivisions. 30:15.333 --> 30:17.200 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% This was something, 30:17.300 --> 30:20.500 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% this idea of the outside, 30:20.600 --> 30:23.300 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% the outside of everything as a kind of sanctuary, 30:23.400 --> 30:25.500 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% an alternative inside, 30:25.600 --> 30:27.266 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% that enslaved people understood 30:27.366 --> 30:30.300 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% when they escaped into the Great Dismal Swamp 30:30.400 --> 30:33.200 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% at the border of North Carolina and Virginia, 30:33.300 --> 30:35.600 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% and established long-lasting settlements there 30:35.700 --> 30:38.666 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% with furtive ties to the solid ground 30:38.766 --> 30:42.833 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% where they would have quickly been reclassified as property. 30:42.933 --> 30:46.100 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% It was apparent to the peoples of highland Southeast Asia 30:46.200 --> 30:49.433 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% who resisted domination by lowland empires 30:49.533 --> 30:51.066 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% for many centuries, 30:51.166 --> 30:55.433 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% a story Jim Scott tells in "The Art of Not Being Governed," 30:55.533 --> 30:57.633 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% a study in geographic imagination 30:57.733 --> 31:00.533 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% that puts the upland margins of empire 31:00.633 --> 31:05.100 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% at the center of a counter-imperial picture of history. 31:05.200 --> 31:08.966 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% I have my own way of thinking about this question, 31:09.066 --> 31:11.000 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% which, as it happens, 31:11.100 --> 31:14.200 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% I developed while thinking about a series of dreams 31:14.300 --> 31:17.133 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% that I began having a few years ago. 31:17.233 --> 31:21.800 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% In these dreams, I start walking up a wooded slope, 31:21.900 --> 31:25.933 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% and here the dreams depart 31:26.033 --> 31:29.866 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% from the low terrain of the Carolina Piedmont where I live. 31:29.966 --> 31:33.166 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% In the dreams, the slope rises and rises, 31:33.266 --> 31:36.833 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% through the loblolly pine into steep pastures, 31:36.933 --> 31:38.866 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% which level out into high meadows 31:38.966 --> 31:42.600 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% and then rise again to crests of stone. 31:42.700 --> 31:44.600 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% Sometimes there's no stone. 31:44.700 --> 31:46.233 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% The meadows are the top. 31:46.333 --> 31:48.533 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% They slope along a broad ridge line, 31:48.633 --> 31:50.400 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% or they may be just a couple hundred 31:50.500 --> 31:52.600 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% vertical feet of pasture 31:52.700 --> 31:56.866 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% with a little mix of beech and oak tufting on top. 31:58.033 --> 32:01.066 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% Only waking destroys my new geography. 32:01.166 --> 32:03.166 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% And when I wake up, my sense that the dream 32:03.266 --> 32:06.466 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% has identified something real is so strong 32:06.566 --> 32:09.566 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% that I've more than once looked up topographic maps 32:09.666 --> 32:12.466 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% just to see whether the hills I've dreamed 32:12.566 --> 32:14.466 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% are actually there, 32:14.566 --> 32:17.500 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% which, of course, they're not. 32:17.600 --> 32:20.566 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% I think the wish these dreams express 32:20.666 --> 32:24.733 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% is for a way to get above a terrain without leaving it, 32:24.833 --> 32:27.733 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% to merge many small horizons 32:27.833 --> 32:30.200 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% into one image. 32:30.300 --> 32:33.300 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% These dreams sketch a geography of thinking, 32:33.400 --> 32:38.000 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% a way of seeing a place whole without leaving it. 32:38.100 --> 32:40.033 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% Of course, my dream landscape 32:40.133 --> 32:42.900 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% is not the only geography of thinking. 32:43.000 --> 32:45.300 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% It's the one that you might carry if you had grown up 32:45.400 --> 32:50.166 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% where I did, in a very specific Appalachian landscape. 32:50.266 --> 32:53.233 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% From any place that people lived there, 32:53.333 --> 32:56.666 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% you could escape on foot to a higher spot. 32:56.766 --> 33:01.166 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% Every settled place contained its own upward exits. 33:01.266 --> 33:04.300 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% It was really not one landscape but two, 33:04.400 --> 33:06.866 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% a pattern of valleys called hollows 33:06.966 --> 33:10.300 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% with its counterpart in a second pattern of ridges. 33:10.400 --> 33:13.100 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% The pair of terrains were joined 33:13.200 --> 33:15.533 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% by steep, mainly wooded hillsides, 33:15.633 --> 33:19.933 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% and knowing the valleys did not mean you knew the ridges. 33:20.033 --> 33:23.433 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% A slight misstep setting off from a high place 33:23.533 --> 33:26.033 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% could land you in an unintended valley 33:26.133 --> 33:29.433 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% with unexpected people and miles by the valley roads 33:29.533 --> 33:31.766 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% from where you meant to be. 33:31.866 --> 33:34.700 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% The two landscapes had complementary logic, 33:34.800 --> 33:39.500 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% and moving between them took caution and attention. 33:39.600 --> 33:44.900 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% That's a landscape that gives its dissidents 33:45.000 --> 33:49.733 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% an upward path to escape on foot, at least for a while, 33:49.833 --> 33:54.233 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% and that lends its critics a commanding view of its shape. 33:54.333 --> 33:56.866 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% It's not a safe or certain landscape, 33:56.966 --> 33:59.100 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% and moving across it can always exact 33:59.200 --> 34:01.166 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% the price of confusion, 34:01.266 --> 34:04.666 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% the likelihood of still walking the wrong way 34:04.766 --> 34:06.500 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% when night comes. 34:07.600 --> 34:10.900 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% So with this image in mind, let's return for a minute 34:11.000 --> 34:15.100 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% to those opening images of a landscape as a point of origin. 34:15.200 --> 34:18.600 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% Take E.P. Thompson, whose radical coal miner 34:18.700 --> 34:22.900 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% literally came from the ground as Thompson says. 34:23.000 --> 34:25.400 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% Actually, everything in Thompson's story 34:25.500 --> 34:27.233 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% feels as if it came from the ground 34:27.333 --> 34:31.533 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% and had some sense of it clinging to the defining acts 34:31.633 --> 34:34.666 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% of the radicals whose stories he tells. 34:34.766 --> 34:38.066 align:left position:22.5%,start line:83% size:67.5% Without saying so, not more than once anyway, 34:38.166 --> 34:40.900 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% Thompson manages to conjure up that most un-Marxist 34:41.000 --> 34:42.933 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% and un-academic thought, 34:43.033 --> 34:46.300 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% that the land itself was somehow aligned 34:46.400 --> 34:50.400 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% with the populist and radical ancestors of English socialism 34:50.500 --> 34:53.966 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% and that its defining chemistry, color, and scent 34:54.066 --> 34:58.266 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% were present in the moments of their decisive acts, 34:58.366 --> 35:02.666 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% that the land was a friend to its own dissenters. 35:02.766 --> 35:07.266 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% Berry, too, wants the land to be with him in his dissent, 35:07.366 --> 35:08.866 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% dissent from what he called 35:08.966 --> 35:11.066 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% in the title of his most famous book, 35:11.166 --> 35:13.233 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% "The Unsettling of America," 35:13.333 --> 35:15.966 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% the separation of identity from place, 35:16.066 --> 35:20.266 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% pleasure from work, eating from knowledge. 35:20.366 --> 35:22.766 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% These claims of nativity 35:22.866 --> 35:26.700 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% are really bids for sanctuary, 35:26.800 --> 35:30.166 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% for a piece of ground where the higher, 35:30.266 --> 35:32.200 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% not the higher, let's say the larger, 35:32.300 --> 35:37.033 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% the larger logic of the world does not entirely rule, 35:37.133 --> 35:39.633 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% a seedbed for your dissent. 35:39.733 --> 35:42.833 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% What else are people getting at when they say, 35:42.933 --> 35:44.266 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% "They tried to bury us, 35:44.366 --> 35:47.300 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% "they didn't know we were seeds"? 35:47.400 --> 35:50.400 align:left position:30%,start line:5% size:60% Imagine a terrain where that's true. 35:51.566 --> 35:53.166 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% Thoreau wrote in his journal, 35:53.266 --> 35:57.233 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% around the same time that he was engaging Massachusetts's 35:57.333 --> 36:00.366 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% dispute over the Fugitive Slave Act's enforcement, 36:00.466 --> 36:05.066 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% that it was a "maimed and imperfect nature" 36:05.166 --> 36:07.666 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% that he was "conversant with." 36:08.833 --> 36:11.066 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% For someone who went into the landscape 36:11.166 --> 36:13.533 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% to see himself reflected, 36:13.633 --> 36:16.666 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% that's a strong piece of self-knowledge. 36:16.766 --> 36:19.033 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% Walking to the ponds, as he put it, 36:19.133 --> 36:22.433 align:left position:25%,start line:83% size:65% was never a return to something pristine. 36:22.533 --> 36:24.966 align:left position:22.5%,start line:89% size:67.5% It was, like politics, 36:25.066 --> 36:28.700 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% a way of joining in with a record of damage 36:28.800 --> 36:30.700 align:left position:15%,start line:89% size:75% and of conceits and fantasies 36:30.800 --> 36:33.233 align:left position:30%,start line:83% size:60% that have turned to material facts, 36:33.333 --> 36:36.000 align:left position:10%,start line:5% size:80% which then have to be inhabited. 36:37.933 --> 36:40.900 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% The violence of nationalism and of nativism, 36:41.000 --> 36:43.100 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% to return to those words, 36:43.200 --> 36:46.866 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% is partly in their denial of these realities, 36:46.966 --> 36:48.500 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% the realities of imperfection, 36:48.600 --> 36:53.066 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% of conflict, of multiplicity, of inherited damage, 36:53.166 --> 36:55.233 align:left position:35%,start line:5% size:55% their torrid fantasy of a terrain 36:55.333 --> 36:58.133 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% that is theirs and no one else's, 36:58.233 --> 37:01.366 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% that's home to their meaning and no other. 37:01.466 --> 37:03.833 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% The violence gets more concrete, of course, 37:03.933 --> 37:07.966 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% in detention centers and airports and the building of walls, 37:08.066 --> 37:10.300 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% but some of it belongs to the very idea 37:10.400 --> 37:14.300 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% that any place in the world could belong to and ratify 37:14.400 --> 37:16.733 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% just one way of being in it. 37:17.900 --> 37:21.366 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% A landscape that sides with its dissenters, 37:21.466 --> 37:24.600 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% like a historical narrative or a constitutional culture 37:24.700 --> 37:28.100 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% that prizes its dissidents and outsiders, 37:28.200 --> 37:33.133 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% may be a resource for a certain productive 37:33.233 --> 37:35.833 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% ethical ecology and political ecology 37:35.933 --> 37:39.566 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% between self-restraint and self-assertion, 37:39.666 --> 37:41.966 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% at least for people like me 37:42.066 --> 37:45.133 align:left position:32.5%,start line:5% size:57.5% whose minds are already and always 37:45.233 --> 37:46.900 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% bent toward terrain. 37:48.133 --> 37:50.833 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% In landscapes whose meaning is as crowded 37:50.933 --> 37:53.066 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% and conflictual as ours, 37:53.166 --> 37:57.533 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% there's room, at least, for strange kinds of dissent 37:57.633 --> 38:01.500 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% and for unexpected kinds of consciousness. 38:01.600 --> 38:04.566 align:left position:32.5%,start line:83% size:57.5% When I finish a reflection like this one, 38:04.666 --> 38:09.100 align:left position:17.5%,start line:83% size:72.5% I feel, like Berry or like E.P. Thompson's miner, 38:09.200 --> 38:11.233 align:left position:15%,start line:89% size:75% that I'm recollecting myself, 38:11.333 --> 38:12.666 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% rising up from the ground 38:12.766 --> 38:16.566 align:left position:27.5%,start line:83% size:62.5% and reborn into my usual consciousness. 38:16.666 --> 38:19.633 align:left position:30%,start line:83% size:60% We might ask this question about any little 38:19.733 --> 38:23.100 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% ecological trip like this one, any sojourn 38:23.200 --> 38:27.300 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% into the question of nature, nativity and place. 38:29.233 --> 38:31.833 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% The question is does it make the question, 38:31.933 --> 38:36.100 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% does it make the issue of how to live among other people 38:36.200 --> 38:40.066 align:left position:25%,start line:5% size:65% seem simpler or seem more complicated? 38:40.166 --> 38:41.400 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% If it makes it seem simpler, 38:41.500 --> 38:44.566 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% maybe we should mistrust where we've been. 38:44.666 --> 38:47.133 align:left position:20%,start line:5% size:70% If it makes the question feel more complicated, 38:47.233 --> 38:50.433 align:left position:12.5%,start line:5% size:77.5% then we might, for the moment, be doing something right, 38:50.533 --> 38:54.833 align:left position:22.5%,start line:5% size:67.5% no matter how difficult making sense of it may be. 38:54.933 --> 38:57.033 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% Thank you very much for joining me, 38:57.133 --> 38:58.766 align:left position:15%,start line:5% size:75% and I'm delighted to discuss 38:58.866 --> 39:01.366 align:left position:17.5%,start line:5% size:72.5% the themes of this lecture or anything else with you. 39:01.466 --> 39:04.133 align:left position:27.5%,start line:5% size:62.5% (audience applauds)