EcoLit ESem

I already posted about the botanical tour a couple of weeks ago, but I thought I'd do another post reflecting on how I've been able to use what I've learned through out the semester. Given the fast, and often overwhelming, pace of the first semester of freshman year, I was concerned that I wasn't truly absorbing information. Often times, I felt as if I was robotically taking in information, for the sole purpose of "getting by"--if we want to connect this back to Meerker's comic mode. However, the other day I found myself in a rather refreshing conversation with somebody who didn't necessarily agree with my opinions regarding ecology (in its broad sense that accompanies ecofeminism, environmentalism, and even economics) and was able to not only able to give a strong argument for my case--which was about imputing value to women's unpaid domestic labor--but was able to convince them to somewhat agree with my standpoint. While I'd like to think that it was my skills of persuasion that convinced them to my side, I happily recognize that it's what I learned in this writing seminar that helped me shape, develop, and present a clear argument on this topic. The interaction gave me affirmation that what we've been doing here really has been sinking in, and that my education hasn't been reduced to a simple absorption of information; I've been acquiring knowledge. 

On the morning of November 18, Susan, Elizabeth, Max, Sarah and I set out boldly to teach each other a little bit about the botany and geology of the campus...

Well... Maybe it was more of a saunter... 

Either way, it was a very enjoyable, as well as informative walk. We started out in front of Erdman, began walking towards Taylor, but decided to detour back to Max's site sit outside of Erdman instead. There we talked about the invasive English ivy, and other invase plants. We defined weeds as something that doesn't belong and won't leave. We then spent some time comparing our two classes. We talked a little bit about the writing expectations and the reading we had been doing. Since we were all in the ecofeminism unit at the time we discussed how feelings played into class discussions, and how nice it was to have feelings validated as positive contributions to the discussion, rather than brushed aside as inconsequential. 

After that we (Susan, Elizabeth, and myself) led Sarah and Max to Taylor to identify the one of the two main types of rocks that the majority of Bryn Mawr's buildings are made out of. We used the handouts provided by Maria Louisa Crawford to identify the types of rock Bryn Mawr was situated upon. We discussed what happened to the old quarries after the rock had been removed; some turn into lakes, some turn into dumps. 

We all (freshwomen and senior ecological imaginers) agreed unanimously that we wanted to get the biological tours of BMC campus done before Thanksgiving Break due to the amount of work we had to do after the Break. One thing we could not agree on, however, was the exact time. Numerous e-mails were exchanged back and forth, but no agreement could be reached. Thus a Doodle doc was born. We all put down the times we could meet, but not a single time frame seemed to work for every one of us. While this was happening, it was somehow decided to meet on a Saturday from 10:30 to 12:30, and in the e-mail talking about it it was mentioned (can't recall by whom) that the time would work for me too, since I was free from 11. I e-mailed everybody back, telling them they got the wrong idea: I was free from 1, not 11. But that seemed to go unheard and the decision was made to go on our biological tours then, and when I saw the e-mails discussing that it was ttoo late. All logistics aside, I am really sorry we didn't manage to go on the tours - it would have been lovely to find out more about the botany of the BMC campus. However, I do feel that my voice and opinion were not heard at all in this project; Zoe and I tried to reschedule the tours but we got negative response, and the agreement about the initial meeting completely disregarded me and what I had to say. I don't know why this happened, but one thing I know for sure is that I don't like not having my voice heard and feeling invisible.

The botanical and geological exploration of Bryn Mawr campus I experienced with three “Sarahs”, Wanhong and Emily was quite interesting.

We started with a group of 5, Emily Tong, Sarah Macholdt, Sarah Cummingham and Wanghong  Zou. We talked about our experience of our two different Ecological Imaging classes so far. We went on the geological exploration first. We identifyied the rocks, went to the Mills creek… Fast forward, fast forward. And we met three other ecological imaginers basking in the sun in front of the English house, which was when the trip got more interesting.

The eight of us first argued about whether the leaning beech tree in front of the English house would fell down at any point. One of us tried to push the tree down, but didn’t succeed, of course. Finally, we looked up high in the sky and found out the top of the tree was more branches on the opposite side of the direction the tree was leaning to. So the tree was in fact in perfect balance! I wonder if the tree had known about the laws of physics that it decided to grown in such special “gesture”.

Then our interest shifted to the vines that were grown on the beech tree. One of us did “vine swinging”!! A dangerous thing to do, I must say. The vine broke, and fell down an inch beside her! Sarah Cummingham said the tree was expressing its anger. I say we don’t have the skills of Tashan to do vine swinging. We had overestimated the strength of the vine. Eventually Sarah decided to take the broken vine home and make an art creation out of it. (Have you finished it, Sarah?)

In class we discussed "Ecology without Nature"(12-13+a paragraph on top of P14), and these are some answers from Barbara and I. Barbara and I shared opinions with each other in class and came up with these ideas:

1. What is truely theoretical approach?

According to the reading material we think it means thinking slowly, carefully in a aesthetic, appreciative way and question the original idea instead of putting it into action immediately.

It actually reminds me of an old Chinese saying: "thinking thrice before proceding".  

2. What is "deconstruction" in ecological thinking?

To be honest, at first I thought it was "destruction"...then I looked at it again and realized that it meant something different! From the context, Morton's idea was "thoroughly examines how nature is set up as a transcendental, unified, independent category". I think this means the opposite of thinking the ecosystem as interconnected. In fact, "deconstruction" was also a type of medical teaching, meaning to learn human body system by parts, rather than viewing as a whole.

I have been wondering why we haven't encountered much poetry in class. Rabindranath Tagore is my favourite poet, and he wrote beautiful words such as "We live in this world when we love it"

(For more about short poems in Stray Birds: <http://www.poetseers.org/nobel-prize-for-literature/tagore/stray/>.)

I encountered a small book called "Stray Birds" when I was in junior middle school. One of the main reasons that I like many his poems is that he merged emotions into nature and vice versa in such a smooth way that there were no such conflicts, arguments, but plain feeling of peace and being surrounded by love. His words are immortal, because he talks about the eternal universe. When he looked at something and described it, he did so with such appreciation, and respect.

His attitude to readers was also different from that of any authors of our in-class material(--I am not "complaining" because we do need to do lots of work on academic writing)--He was teaching you something, but not with the strong feeling of having to tell the reader "listen to me, I am right! I am the authority!",or with a list of scientific facts--he simply told short stories in his poems, but making readers feel that your imagination has just began to float when the story ended. His gentle, warm words about nature could for many times release me somehow for tense academic readings.

Our biological tour was amazing, not only because of the plant species we were shown but also because I found many interesting "natural crafts" around the campus.

So, what are these plants?

This is the leaf of a yew. It is, surprisingly, slightly toxic, but its toxicity could help treat cancer if used properly.It is more dominate here than many native species and thrives at central east part of the country. Some Tulip Trees grow well around Yews.

Verbinum is the theoretically invasive plant here! Its leaves has a smell of green pepper even when they are fading in color.

The green, ignorable plants under our feet are called Pokey Sundra. There are so many of them!

The lovely Spicy Bush has a lemon smell, and they looks as yellow as lemon as well. We found some of them right next to Verbinum.

There were so many plants inside and around the campus, and it is exciting for us to learn their names!

"When I judge art, I take my painting and put it next to a God made object like a tree or flower. If it clashes, it is not art." - Paul Cezanne

I thought this was an interesting quote by Cezanne on nature that came up in Art History the other day.  Putting this in context, many artists, when painting landscape, would copy elements from paintings in the Louvre and put it into their work.  Cezanne thought that to create art you have to look at the original object.  I wonder if Cezanne would disapprove of Morton?

Whole Story: http://fiction.eserver.org/short/the_most_dangerous_game.html

Video(on youtube):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhhc0whITrU

Maybe you have picked flowers, hunter rabbits, or larger beasts, but have you ever hunter another HUMAN?

"The Most Dangerous Game" is a story that I read in high school, but now when I read it again, I have more ideas emerging in my mind. This story also explain my idea of what "the unspoken hunger" is--the desire for vitality, for being physically strong, being the controller of a game--of life. This hunger, or desire, of a challenging hunting for life hides under the General's cultivated appearance, but it had never faded.