It's fascinating to consider humans place in the world compared to wild animals and nature. We are completely out of the food chain and we can manipulate the environment on a grand scale as we see fit to an extent. Rekdal's gives an image of the relationship with humans and nature.
It specifically comments on how humans can control nature in a sense or at least how we imitate it. This notion is exemplified in the poem with the lines,
"City's pollutants sieved / through grates; keeping fish
/where fish spawn; changing the physics of it / changing ours as well: / one giant world encased /
with plastic rock, seaweed transplanted.
It is a fixed environment of controlled "chaos" in a sense or possibly saying nature has it's own order and we are messing it all up. "City pollutants" gives this indication because what is a pollutant? Humans create it. "One giant world encase." Humans in a sense have the power to create worlds but these micro-world affect the natural environment.
"Changing the physics of it/ changing ours as well" This is not natural. It is a world manipulated to our wants and needs. This makes me think of SeaWorld and how we take these wild animals and encase them in a small aquarium for our entertainment. These animals should be in the ocean but it's business and the demand to see these magnificent creatures up close that drives humans to continue to manipulate nature.
It specifically comments on how humans can control nature in a sense or at least how we imitate it. This notion is exemplified in the poem with the lines,
"City's pollutants sieved / through grates; keeping fish
/where fish spawn; changing the physics of it / changing ours as well: / one giant world encased /
with plastic rock, seaweed transplanted.
It is a fixed environment of controlled "chaos" in a sense or possibly saying nature has it's own order and we are messing it all up. "City pollutants" gives this indication because what is a pollutant? Humans create it. "One giant world encase." Humans in a sense have the power to create worlds but these micro-world affect the natural environment.
"Changing the physics of it/ changing ours as well" This is not natural. It is a world manipulated to our wants and needs. This makes me think of SeaWorld and how we take these wild animals and encase them in a small aquarium for our entertainment. These animals should be in the ocean but it's business and the demand to see these magnificent creatures up close that drives humans to continue to manipulate nature.
"with plastic rock, seaweed transplanted." is probably the most powerful image here for me. Often our manipulation of our environment is for aesthetic gain, and less for our survival. This part of the poem reminded me of the countless fake rocks you see covering electric boxes or gas lines. Our manipulation extends beyond the veil we see and into objects that make us forgot we are morphing the environment to our will both mechanically and aesthetically.
ReplyDeleteI agree Rekdal shows an interesting look at how humanity interacts with nature. And I get the sea world connection, but I think she's implying we have a more powerful effect. I'm not saying that imprisoning sea life for our entertainment isn't one of the human actions she is critiquing, but i think she's alluding to a greater injustice. Which, in my opinion, is overfishing. The lines "changing the physics of it,/ changing ours as well:/ one giant world encased" are showing our affect is much larger than the individual animals lives, and that we are literally destroying the way we live by fishing. One of the most powerful images to me is the boy with the gun, because humanity as a boy shows that we are young and naive to the workings of our planet, and giving the boy a gun, which is deadly and powerful shows how much control humans have, but that we are not ready for the power.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete