Michael Pollan's speech presented some interesting ideas about how we can change the way we write about nature by writing from the perspective of other species. He says that this is not only a literary tool but also a way for us as humans to tackle our sense of superiority over nature and our self-importance. Before watching this video I don't think I had fully realized that we, too are manipulated by other species that way we think we control them for our own needs-- it's a humbling sort of realization, to think that we fit into the grand scheme of things rather than just assuming we run the whole show ourselves. As Pollan says, we tend to think of the world in terms of subjects and objects, and it's a cool change to imagine ourselves and the plants and animals around us as being both rather than one or the other.
My questions about this topic revolve around issues of how: How do we convey this idea of a symbiotic worldview through our writing? Obviously to write from another species's perspective we need to understand that species, but how do we come to understand them well enough to do so, and avoid applying too many strictly human qualities to them?
I love how you mentioned that before you saw the video you didn’t fully realize how we, as humans, are also manipulated like how we manipulate plants themselves and that we don’t “run the whole show ourselves”. I was honestly the same way.
ReplyDeleteAs to your question, I think a lot of studying of the said species would have to come into play, and even at that I don’t know if that would honestly suffice in the end. I feel like we as writers would have to submerse ourselves into that life style almost, just to get a glimpse of what that species is like without personifying it too much or at all. At the least, writers should definitely do their research when trying to write for not only the environment, but for whatever they're writing about or as.
I think one thing writing could do is learn about the anatomy of the plant. https://www.proflowers.com/blog/flower-anatomy. We can do research on what plant we want to talk about and use correct naming. I feel like most of the time people write about flowers they only mention the vibrant petals but without the other parts you can't have the pretty petals which is used to attract bees to them so they can be pollinated.
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