Amazon.com Review
What is nature? A philosopher of a certain bent, contrasting it with culture, its classically paired opposite, might answer that nature is the realm of being that happens independently of human consciousness. But humans, of course, are part of nature, too, and David Rothenberg finds room for us there in his journal
Terra Nova. "Everything that connects humanity to the world that surrounds us brings the mind closer to nature," Rothenberg wrote in the inaugural issue. "Connections between humanity and nature are far more diverse, mysterious, and confusing than most ecological writing has been willing to admit."
Gathering 16 of Rothenberg's favorite essays from the first 10 issues of the journal, The New Earth Reader marks an effort to reconcile the human and natural worlds. It includes Australian philosopher Val Plumwood's eye-narrowing memoir of being attacked by a crocodile, the title of which, "Being Prey," speaks volumes; Rick Bass's thoughtful travelogue "Romania"; Charles Bowden's "Tuna Country," a harrowing journey into the desert's dark side; Rothenberg's far-ranging conversation with the virtual-reality pioneer Jaron Lanier; and television producer Ted Perry's account of how his free adaptation of a translation of a Native American text became Chief Seattle's famous speech on the sanctity of the Earth--an inauthentic, but still often-quoted, touchstone of environmental thought.
This is hardly the stuff of the usual nature anthology. But perhaps it should be, for Rothenberg and his contributors are working toward a larger, more encompassing view of nature, the environment, and nature writing itself. --Gregory McNamee
From Publishers Weekly
An offbeat literary journal with an environmental focus, Terra Nova attempts to push ecological writing in new directions by breaking down disciplinary boundaries by blending thought, literature, reportage, meditation and photography. One of the best pieces in this eclectic, stimulating collection is Rick Bass's report on his recent trip to Romania to find out how Romanians peacefully coexist with their superabundant grizzly bear population, in sharp contrast to trigger-happy Americans. In his beautiful personal essay, "Me and Mom and the Bioregion," poet Jerry Martien unravels the tangled relations of lives and locale as he describes caring for his elderly widowed mother in an impoverished coastal village in northern California amid dunes, swamp, redwood forests and pulp mills. Feminist philosopher Val Plumwood's horrifying, near-fatal skirmish with a crocodile in Australia, which left her severely injured, compels her to rethink and affirm her vegetarianism and to analyze our rapacious culture's obsession with large predatory animals. Published under the auspices of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where Rothenberg, the journal's founder, is a philosophy professor, Terra Nova sometimes shades into political analysis, as in Charles Bowden's forays into a Mexican red-light district plagued by drugs, gangs, murder, rape and grinding poverty, or the report by Indian sociologists Bikram Nanda and Mohammad Talib on toxic industrial pollution in New Delhi. Other noteworthy selections include interviews by Rothenberg with virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier and with documentary filmmaker Errol Morris. Overall, the selections fulfill the journal's mission to seek unexpected ways to heal the split between nature and culture. 37 illus. (Dec.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
