From: Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
And perhaps the point is that such a thing as 'pastoral' (& accompanying
moods) is now impossible in the First World, let alone the 3rd (& the 2nd,
wherever it may be)....
Hi Doug,
Well, this may be like the same question with a different form
that attended the discussion of ekphrastic poems, but I do think
the pastoral is still possible, if it is a very different pastoral than
the traditional historical form with its ethics of conservation, though
even Virgil warned that it is sometimes wise not to follow
the practices of tradition. I am thinking here of the introduction
to the Triquarterly issue on the pastoral which was co-editted
by Susan Stewart and John Kinsella, and I particularly like her
quote: "From Virgil's eclogues forward, the historical opposition
between pastoral and violence is inseparable from a concern
with the interfce of morality and necessity...A pastoral relation
to nature would neither romanticize nature as an otherworldly
place of the sublime, nor merely anthropomorphize it. What Serres (
here she's referring to an earlier quote by Michel Serres in Natural
Contract) is suggesting is that we anthropomorphize _ourselves_"
Best,
Rebecca
Rebecca Seiferle
www.thedrunkenboat.com
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