the project

Though "a very good place to start," I find the very beginning is often redefined by its conclusion, so this post will likely grow and change as much as the rest of the blog itself. For now, introductions: I'm a brand new University of Victoria "alumnus," prepared with my shining, as-yet nonexistent English B.A., and it's summer. In the past, I've had classes to keep me reading and focused through the summers, and preparation for the following semester was enforcedly harried and short.

This, year, though, I'm moving to Calgary to start my M.A. in English, and I've got a lot to read before I get there. Further, I've been in Victoria for four years and seen not much more of Vancouver Island than the Victoria Zen Centre's Zendo in Sooke, B.C. and the overwhelming array of fabulous used book stores in Sidney, B.C. But there's a lot more of the island to explore—indeed, even in Victoria there are places like my front yard which, until the last week or so, I had spent no time in.

Now, I propose rectifying this situation (which is quite at odds with someone whose claimed academic interest in ecocriticism and regional studies implies a larger interest in the environments of regions physically and as written) by using sustainable transportation methods to get to local places I have and haven't been and read environmental literature and nonfiction there. Rather than reviews, I will post reflections, inspired by as-yet unsolidified aspects of these experiences. Whether I'm writing about the literature, the spaces, the literature in these spaces, or the trips to and from, I'll at least be confronting ecocriticism's role in the environment.

Fellow students and non-academics alike are always a bit stymied by the concept of ecocriticism when I mention it in passing. One memorable response stumped me (pun not originally intended): "What, do you just hate trees or something? Point out all their flaws?" It stumped me because, contrary to my initial reaction, I realized that this assumption wasn't entirely wrong—I spend a fair amount of my time criticizing the way trees are represented, and flowers, oceans and rivers, non-human and human animals. I do point out their flaws, insofar as I try to identify the potentially environmentally hazardous assumptions contained in their descriptions. I read to find how these assumptions are produced and reproduced in the hopes of eventually identifying ways in which they can be changed so that sustainability becomes, problematic punned cliche aside, second nature. Scott Slovic characterizes the role of ecocriticism as "contextualization and synthesis" (Going Away to Think 34). He writes of his experience hiking and writing with nature writer Rick Bass that he "stood back and watched Rick watch the world." I like this characterization. For this project, I'll watch Scott watch Rick watch the world, and try to watch Naomi watching Scott watching Rick watch the world around my home.

Instead of going away to think, I'll stick around here and read.