Meta Post- Blog #2

Overall the concept I most saw in the comments was debating how a writer could personify or represent nature and the environment as a character. A lot of people seemed to think this would be very difficult and proposed various methods of doing so. One thing I commonly saw, which I thought was interesting, was how everyone seemed to think you would have to anthropomorphize the environment in order to represent it while also acting like this wasn't the proper way to represent nature. I thought this was interesting because to me this says that the whole concept went right over some people's heads. When I read about how the hunters sang to the forest and how they believed it sang back I understood immediately the belief that nature is a conscious entity since this is not a new concept to me. I thought it was pretty straight forward that the idea of writing from nature's perspective implies anthropomorphism and that this is how these cultures have represented nature, as a human like figure or personality. Sure it has its differences but often these representations are very human like. To me it seems the concepts of making nature like AI or some non-human consciousness is the product of western thinking and a clear marker of how our culture perceives nature as a machine rather than a living, breathing entity or network of entities. I find it rather ironic that even while trying to describe methods of representing nature from its view point that most of the suggestions were still adhering to the original way of thinking about nature rather than adapting to the challenge to think of it as a sentient aspect. One of the favorite things I saw in the comments was the question, "But to really make a landscape alive, one must ask another question: Is the Land whole or do you make each individual tree, rock, or blade of grass a separate entity with it's own personality?" This seems to me a perfect representation of how we should think of nature and what we need to understand, and probably the answer is both. Each individual tree, rock, etc has its own personality in some way or another, but its how they all work together to create and environment that gives the feeling or life to the world. Both are important, and both should be recognized. Leaving one out over the other creates issues where we can not sustain our environments. If you look at the individuals too much you don't see the big picture and how everything is dependent on other things. If you look at the whole as a single entity you lose the importance of individuals and everything runs the risk of being greyed over the the needs or desires of a single force (for example human needs and desires taking precedence over the well-being of other creatures and natural environments). We have to be able to look at both the individuals involved and the links that tie them together in order to be sustainable.