Re: "defense of wilderness" (wasRe: lexicon)

J. Y. S. Czhang:
> >     Surface appearances are incredibly deceptive ;)
> >     Ferinstanz you may think that a French Baroque-period _jardin_ is
> > no
> > different than a Zen stone-garden.
> >     On closer examination, these two different gardens express highly
> > differing worldviews: one of highly deliberated, artificial forms, rigid
> > lines and
> > precise geometric orderings ("Mankind Separate from Nature and imposing
> > his will
> > on Nature") . . . and the other a near total antithesis of the first
> > ("humankind part of Nature and attempting to be part of Nature and
> > natural processes").
Andreas:
> Two highly divergent worldviews - grantedly. But both seem interpretable
> as "defense against wilderness" in the sense I, initially at least,
assumed
> that Sally meant it; as defense the against dangerous, "hostile", elements
of
> the universe.
Yes... inimical nature, deadly nature: snow, storm, wind, dense forest
filled with predators, drought, desert, stinging creatures, stinking bogs,
swarming ants, the cold heath, creeping roots, snagging tree limbs, entropy,
decay, maggots, spiderwebs in your face, GERMS, even weeds.  Especially
weeds. :)

Don't get me wrong... I love the earth.  But as a species, we've taken
measures to make our habitable spaces free of some of the creeping intrusion
of Nature (there ought to be a Teonaht word for that).  The example of the
Japanese garden with its reverence for natural design, the delight taken in
artful asymmetry is a celebration of nature, but nature tamed, nonetheless.
The Teonaht asymmetrical houses do the same thing, but they are still
shelters that keep out the weeds.

Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
Eskkoat ol ai sendran, rohsan nuehra celyil takrem bomai nakuo.
"My shadow follows me, putting strange, new roses into the world."
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teotax.html