GARY SNYDER's UNNATURAL WRITING

[Wilfried Hou Je Bek]

That it be literature –– that is, nature literature. Know who’s who and what’s what in the ecosystem, even if this aspect is barely visible in the writing.

That it be grounded in a place –– thus, place literature: informed about local specifics on both ecological-biotic and sociopolitical levels. And informed about history (social history and environmental history), even if this is not obvious in the poem.

That is use Coyote as a totem –– the trickster, always open, shape shifting, providing the eye of other beings going in and out of death, laughing with the dark side.

That is use Bear as a totem –– omnivorous, fearless, without anxiety, steady, generous, contemplative, and relentlessly protective of the wild.

That it find further totems –– this is the world of nature, myth, archetype, and ecosystem that we must each investigate. "Depth ecology."

That it fear not science. Go beyond nature literacy into the emergent new territories in science: landscape ecology, conservation biology, charming chaos, complicated systems theory.

That it go further with science –– into awareness of the problematic and contingent aspects of so-called objectivity.

That it study mind and language –– language as wild system, mind as wild habitat, world as a "making" (poem), poem as a creature of the wild mind.

That it be crafty and get the work done.

From Gary Snyder's A Place in Space and contributed here as a precursor (?) to uncivilized writing. )

[Suzanne Duarte]

Here is a long, fairly recent article that Dark Mountaineers would probably appreciate:

Writers and the War Against Nature by Gary Snyder 11/07 - There is a tame, and also a wild, side to the human mind. The tame side, like a farmer’s field, has been disciplined and cultivated to produce a desired yield. It is useful but limited. The wild side is larger, deeper, more complex, and though it cannot be fully known, it can be explored. The explorers of the wild mind are often writers and artists. The “poetic imagination” of which William Blake so eloquently spoke is the territory of wild mind. It has landscapes and creatures within it that will surprise us; it can refresh us and scare us; it reflects the larger truth of our ancient selves, both animal and spiritual.

http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=v...