Where the Wild Books Are: A Field Guide to Ecofiction

Where the Wild Books Are

A FIELD GUIDE TO ECOFICTION

Jim Dwyer

RENO AND LAS VEGAS

University of Nevada Press, Reno, Nevada 89557 USA

Copyright © 2010 by University of Nevada Press

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Design by Kathleen Szawiola

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dwyer, Jim, 1949–

    Where the wild books are : a field guide to ecofiction / Jim Dwyer.

p. cm.

    Includes bibliographical references and index.

    ISBN: 978-0-87417-811-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)

    ISBN: 978-0-87417-812-8 (ebook)

1. Ecofiction—History and criticism. 2. Ecology in literature. 3. Ecocriticism. I. Title.

    PN3448.E28D89 2010

809.3—dc22        2009052482

CONTENTS

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1. Ecocriticism and Ecofiction: Definitions and Analyses

2. Ecofiction's Roots and Historical Development

3. Contemporary Ecofiction

4. Native American and Canadian Ecofiction

5. Ecofiction from All Around the World

6. Ecoromance: Doin’ the Wild Thing

7. The Real West

8. Green Speculative Fiction

9. Mysteries

APPENDIX: 100 BEST BOOKS

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

PREFACE

In the early 1970s a veritable fusillade of new fiction emanating from the environmental movement exploded onto the American literary scene. As with the new feminist fiction, these books weren't mere escapism, even though many were action-packed and entertaining. As critics joined the ranks of readers, a new term emerged: ecofiction. A look back at the literature reveals that ecologically oriented fiction had existed over a century previously, and that it can be considered an important precursor to contemporary ecofiction.

Where the Wild Books Are is a guide to the growing fields of ecofiction. It is intended for use as a reader's advisory and reference work for scholars, fiction aficionados, and librarians. Librarians can use it as both a reference and collection development tool. It can also be used as a textbook or for supplemental reading in college courses on literature and the environment. Professors, librarians, and reading group leaders can use it to develop their curricula and reading lists. This is not intended to be the last word in ecofiction, simply the most complete and best research guide to date. It is intended to encourage reading, discussion, and debate.

Selecting the works and authors covered in this book was a painstaking process involving the application of objective criteria tempered by my own subjective reactions. (Did I learn something, gain a new perspective, or have a strong emotional reaction?) The background research for Where the Wild Books Are included reading over a thousand novels, several thousand reviews, and hundreds of critical works, attending conferences, and directly consulting other authors and critics over the course of a quarter century. The people mentioned in the acknowledgments and many others helped shaped my definition of ecofiction, deepen my understanding of it, relate it to literary movements, and identify both central and more obscure authors and works.

My criteria for determining whether a given work is ecofiction closely parallel Lawrence Buell's: 1. The nonhuman environment is present not merely as a framing device but as a presence that begins to suggest that human history is implicated in natural history. 2. The human interest is not understood to be the only legitimate interest. 3. Human accountability to the environment is part of the text's ethical orientation. 4. Some sense of the environment as a process rather than as a constant or a given is at least implicit in the text (1995, 6).

Chapter 1 is a discussion of exactly what ecofiction is. Please note that the debate on this issue is ever evolving and there are many valid and varied perspectives.

Chapter 2 defines and analyzes ecofiction, tracing its history from its emergence in the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.

Contemporary ecofiction is incredibly complex and varied. Chapter 3 is an attempt to categorize it.

Almost all the books evaluated in this study were written in English or are available in English translation, but just as the natural environment and its problems do not recognize political or linguistic borders, neither does art. Therefore, a rather lengthy chapter is devoted to ecofiction from around the world. A great deal of ecofiction in other languages, particularly Asian and African languages, remains to be translated into English. The scope of further research on ecofiction should be broadened in four directions: geographically/ linguistically, ethnically, inclusion of children's literature, and by format, including feature films, television programs, and the growing body of fiction found exclusively on the Internet.

Since environmental concerns have become ever more common in the broad genres of romance, western Americana, speculative fiction, and mysteries, they are covered in separate chapters. An individual author or work may fall into several categories, creating considerable overlap. Dana Stabenow, for example, is an Alaskan Inuit ecofeminist author who has written both mysteries and science fiction.

Rather than interspersing many bibliographies throughout the book, a single author bibliography is provided. Each entry includes author, title and subtitle, and publication information. Whenever possible, an edition in print or at least a recent edition was chosen, and that publication date is listed. The original publication date for each work is included parenthetically in the discussion of the books in the text and at the beginning of the bibliography entry, if a later edition is listed. Please note that this book is not intended as a comprehensive bibliography for every author covered, since such a book would be thousands of pages long. The bibliography is limited to works of fiction. Many of the authors included have also written poetry, personal essays, nonfiction, literary criticism, and, in some cases, drama. These works are excluded.

For more complete bibliographic histories, ISBNs for specific editions, and so on, consult critical works about the authors, large online catalogs such as the Library of Congress or Melvyl (the catalog of the University of California Libraries), and reference works such as Contemporary Authors. The World Wide Web is an increasingly important scholarly tool and publication medium, but for reasons of brevity and because of frequently changing Web addresses, the only Web sites listed are the ones referred to in the endnotes. Scholars are encouraged to visit the Web sites of professional organizations such as the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment and the Western Literature Association and sites for individual authors.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

To select a good book to begin with or an important author to study, start with the appendix's list of 100 best books. Authors, titles, and where they appear in this book are indicated.

I made my selections by determining how well a book was received by its audience, books that had a powerful impact on the reader and on other writers, raised awareness of an issue or position on an issue, and met the highest literary standards. The one exception on the list is Ecotopia by Ernest Callenback, which isn't terribly well written, but was enormously influential on readers, other writers, and the environmental movement itself. I also chose books based on subjective criteria, those with the most emotional impact on me—inspiring, exciting, and inciting me to read and especially to do more. Many of the authors are famous, while others are rather obscure. It is interesting to note that these books span many different time periods, genres, and countries.

For work written before the 1970s (approximately), see Chapter 2.

For genre fiction, see chapters 6–9.

For work from various countries, see Chapter 5.

For the work of a single author, consult the bibliography.

For books on a specific subject or place, use the subject index. An extremely broad topical approach is also provided in the Contemporary Ecofiction chapter, separating the works into the categories of Philosophical/Spiritual, Animals, Ecofeminist, Environmental Action/Ecodefense, Food and Drink, Ecotopias, the Contemporary Pastoral, and Cautionary and Dystopian.

Example: Dams in the subject index identifies entries for From the River's Edge by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Wind from an Enemy Sky by D'Arcy McNickle, The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey, Dancers in the Scalp House by William Eastlake, People of the Valley by Frank Waters, and so on. The bibliography entries reveal that the works of Abbey, Eastlake, and Waters can be found in the history and contemporary chapters, and that Cook-Lynn and McNickle are discussed in the Native American chapter.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My deepest and most sincere thanks to:

Margaret Dalrymple, Joanne O'Hare, and the late Trudy McMurrin of the University of Nevada Press.

Jo Ann Bradley and Flora Quinn of the California State University, Chico, Meriam Library Interlibrary Loan Department (ill) and ill staff from other libraries for providing me with hundreds of books and articles, some highly obscure. All my colleagues at Meriam Library for their continuing encouragement and advice, particularly Colleen Power for her expert assistance with the speculative fiction chapter and James Tyler for proofreading and editorial assistance. The late Lawrence Clark Powell, university librarian at UCLA and Arizona, author of over forty books, and a champion of western American literature was the quintessential librarian/literary scholar and my primary role model and inspiration.

Other librarians who were particularly helpful include Fred Stoss, SUNY Buffalo; Brian Aveney, librarian emeritus and speculative fiction expert; Maria Anna Jankowksa, University of Idaho, and editor of Electronic Green Journal; Kristin Ramsdell, romance fiction expert, California State University, Hayward; David Laird, librarian emeritus and keeper of the Frank Waters flame; Donna Seaman, Booklist; Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal; Roy Conant, Book House; and Chris Dodge, Utne Reader. Thanks to former Meriam Library Director Carolyn Dusenbury and Head of Library Collections Julie Clarke for administrative support.

The California State University, Chico, English department, especially professors Andrea Lerner, Susan Aylworth, Sarah Emily Newton, Peter Hogue, and Robert O'Brien, and Lisa Emmerich of the history department. Colleagues at other universities, including Karla Armbruster, Webster University; Charles Bergman, Pacific Lutheran University; Frank Bergon, Vassar College; Susan Bernardin and Charlotte Zoe Walker, SUNY Oneonta; Michael Branch, David Fenimore, Cheryll Glotfelty, Ann Ronald, and Scott Slovic, University of Nevada; Linda Helstern, North Dakota State University; Melody Graulich, Utah State University; Ursula Heise, Stanford University; Terry Heller, Coe College; Michael Kowalewski, Carleton College; Paul Lindholdt, Eastern Washington University; Glen Love, University of Oregon; Tom Lynch, University of Nebraska; Patricia Monaghan, DePaul University; Patrick D. Murphy, University of Central Florida; Steve Norwick, Sonoma State University; Diane Quantic, Wichita State University; Harold Simonson, University of Washington; Steve Tatum, University of Utah; Bron Taylor, University of Florida; O. Alan Weltzien, University of Montana-Western; Nick Witschi, Western Michigan University. Scott Slovic deserves particular thanks for assistance on the international chapter and for demanding the highest scholarly standards.

Authors Rick Bass, Linda Gunnerson, Thomas King, Barbara Kingsolver, Kent Nelson, the late Louis Owens, Marina Schauffler, Joan Slonczewski, and especially Brenda Peterson who has been a constant font of encouragement and good advice. Pat Schuman, Charles Harman, and Margo Hart of Neal-Schuman Publishers, publishers of my first Book, Earth Works: Recommended Fiction and Nonfiction about Nature and the Environment for Adults and Young Adults, in 1996.

My late parents Bill and Ellen Dwyer for their encouragement to read and to appreciate nature, and my brother Billy for the books he recommended and for reality checks. High school English teachers Cale Campbell and Jan DeVries for encouraging my writing aspirations, and scoutmaster Chuck Furstenburg, who introduced me to the study of natural history and instilled a deep conservation ethic.

All of the people listed above and many of the authors whose work is considered here have inspired, encouraged, or assisted me in the course of this long project. Any errors are mine.

1

Ecocriticism and Ecofiction

DEFINITIONS AND ANALYSES

One of the most significant developments in literary criticism over the previous quarter century is the proliferation of an ecocritical approach to literature. Cheryll Glotfelty notes a curious disconnection between previous literary scholarship and the real world: If your knowledge of the outside world were limited to what you could infer from the major publications of the literary profession, you would quickly discern that race, class, and gender were the hot topics of the late twentieth century, but you would never suspect that the earth's life support systems were under stress. Indeed, you might never know there was an earth at all.¹

Although definitions of ecocriticism vary, it might be simply described as a critical perspective on the relationship between literature and the natural world, and the place of humanity within—not separate from—nature. Ecocriticism arose from the development of a greater understanding of ecological processes, concern over the intensification of global environmental degradation, deep ecological philosophy, the green movement, ecofeminism, and the emergence of scholars whose formative years occurred during a time of great political, social, and environmental ferment in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of their immediate precursors such as Glen Love, Ann Ronald, Wallace Stegner, Thomas Lyon, and Joseph Meeker, who were already studying the relationship between nature and literature, also embraced a more specifically ecological approach. Their work, in turn, had been informed by classic nature writers such as Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, John Burroughs, Mabel Osgood Wright, Mary Austin, and Aldo Leopold, among many others.²

In his essay Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism, William Rueckert coined the term ecocriticism and championed a new direction for literary scholarship. There must be a shift in our locus of motivation from newness, or theoretical elegance, or even coherence, to a principle of relevance . . . . I am going to experiment with the application of ecology and ecological concepts to literature, because ecology has the greatest relevance to the present and the future of the world we live in . . . . I am going to try to discover something about the ecology of literature, or try to develop an ecological poetics by applying ecological concepts to the reading, teaching, and writing about literature.³

William Howarth has proposed Some Principles of Ecocriticism, noting that "Eco and critic both derive from Greek, oikos and kritis, and in tandem they mean ‘house judge,’ which may surprise many lovers of green, outdoor writing . . . . [An ecocritic is] a person who judges the merits and faults of writings that depict the effects of culture upon nature, with a view toward celebrating nature, berating its despoilers, and reversing their harm through political action."⁴While this definition with its call for activism has been subject to much debate, it serves as a useful touchstone for the definition(s) of ecofiction that follow. Ecocriticism seems to be inherently interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, syncretic, holistic, and evolutionary in its nature.

Although most any text can be analyzed ecocritically, some are more inherently ecological than others, including many works of contemporary fiction. Fiction that deals with environmental issues or the relation between humanity and the physical environment, that contrasts traditional and industrial cosmologies, or in which nature or the land has a prominent role is sometimes called ecofiction. The earliest use of ecofiction I have encountered is as the title of a seminal 1971 anthology containing both science fiction and mainstream stories. Perhaps because of ecocriticism's relative infancy, there is not even consensus on spelling. It is usually spelled as one word, but sometimes hyphenated or split into two words: ecofiction and eco fiction. (Most database searches of eco fiction, though, will retrieve articles about the Italian author and semiotician Umberto Eco.) The terms environmental fiction, green fiction, and nature-oriented fiction are sometimes used interchangeably with ecofiction, but might better be considered as categories of ecofiction.

Ecofiction is a composite subgenre made up of many styles, primarily modernism, postmodernism, realism, and magic realism, and can be found in many genres, primarily mainstream, westerns, mystery, romance, and speculative fiction. Speculative fiction includes science fiction and fantasy, sometimes mixed with realism, as in the work of Ursula K. Le Guin.

Ecofiction has deep literary roots and a rich and growing canopy of branches. Extending this arboreal analogy, one might consider this book to be a sort of silvicultural analysis and survey of fiction. In the literary old-growth mixed forest, we find that there are many different species (genres and subgenres) that have coevolved and are interdependent. It is also not uncommon for ecologically oriented authors to write in many different forms: poetry, fiction, literary or philosophical essays, environmental activism, and natural history. Edward Abbey, Mary Austin, Jim Harrison, Barbara Kingsolver, Rick Bass, and Leslie Marmon Silko are good examples of nature-oriented authors who have mastered many forms.

Mike Vasey defines ecofiction as stories set in fictional landscapes that capture the essence of natural ecosystems . . . . [They] can build around human relationships to these ecosystems or leave out humans altogether. The story itself, however, takes the reader into the natural world and brings it alive . . . . Ideally, the landscape and ecosystems—whether fantasy or real—should be as ‘realistic’ as possible and plot constraints should accord with ecological principles.⁵It should be noted that magic realism and speculative fiction, however, frequently employ fantastic elements to provide readers with a different perspective on the nature of reality itself, as in Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias or Mars trilogies.

Ecofiction is also a component of two related literary phenomena that Patrick D. Murphy terms nature oriented literature and environmental literature. Nature oriented literature is limited to having either nonhuman nature itself as the subject, character, or major component of the setting, or to a text that says something about human-nonhuman interaction, human philosophies about nature, or the possibility of engaging nature by means of or in spite of human culture.⁶ Murphy observes that environmental literature does not stop at describing the natural history of the area, but instead, or in addition, discusses the ways in which pollution, urbanization, and other forms of human intervention have altered the land or environment. It treats human action in defense of, or in behalf of, wild and endangered nature.⁷ Advancing Murphy's argument one step, one might term fiction that focuses on environmental action or the green movement as green fiction. The purpose of such texts is to propel people back into the rest of nature with new perspectives and frames of reference.⁸

According to Diane Ackerman, Often in fiction nature has loomed as a monstrous character, an adversary dishing out retribution for moral slippage, or as a nightmare region of chaos and horror where fanged beasts crouch ready to attack. But sometimes it beckons as a zone of magic, mysticism, inspiration, and holy conversion.⁹

This distinction raises the issue of true versus false ecofiction. Some disaster novels, like Jaws, are a good example of the latter because they emphasize our separateness from nature, our vulnerability to the great and morally blank forces of the universe . . . . False ecofiction is based on the fear that something will go wrong . . . . But true ecofiction is based on an integrative view of reality. It is emotionally oriented toward creating a whole world. The true ecofictionist wants to play God. The false ecofictionist wants to play Satan.¹⁰ Although this may be an oversimplistic distinction, given the philosophical complexity of authors such as Jim Crace, Frank Waters, or Octavia Butler, ecofiction does tend to be optimistic in the face of daunting challenges.

One person's true or false ecofiction may not be another's. Patricia Greiner acknowledges that ecofiction "advocates actions of various kinds, some liberal, some radical, in defense of the wild, and aligns itself with other liberal and radical causes in its rejection of traditional sources of power and authority, such as national government, the military and big business."¹¹ One might be surprised, therefore, by her seemingly contradictory contention that false ecofiction . . . stems from its emphasis on conflict, usually between environmentalists and despoilers, or between human beings and a nature which has become hostile to them in its own defense.¹² She labels Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang, arguably the most significant single work of ecofiction, as false, even though that book is widely considered a perfect example of radical action in defense of the wild. Many ecocritics and green authors would agree with Lawrence Buell's Abbey-like assertion that "environmentalism of any sort cannot hope to achieve even modest reforms unless some take extreme positions advocating genuinely alternative paths: rejection of consumer society, communitarian anti-modernism, animal liberation."¹³

One method to determine if a book is true ecofiction is to consider the author's agenda and the intended effect on readers. Greenwar (1997) by Steven Gould and Laura J. Mixon, for instance, becomes a rejection of environmental extremism after an ecoterrorist bombs an offshore facility producing green foods. While most activists and critics would condemn terrorism, the authors tar a wide range of environmental activists and activities with the terrorist brush. It should also be noted, however, that the author's intention is not always clear, that differences in opinion over these distinctions reflect a broader debate on the relationship between art and activism, and that some critics might reject this distinction entirely as a specious one.

A third perspective is offered by Patricia D. Netzley, who divides ecofiction not between the true and false, but into three categories: works that portray the environmental movement and/or environmental activism, works that depict a conflict over an environmental issue and express the author's beliefs . . . and works that feature environmental apocalypse.¹⁴ One might also argue that some apocalypse and disaster novels are good examples of false ecofiction, for example, Samuel Butler's novel Erewhon (1872), which refutes the theory of evolution, as does some contemporary Christian fiction. Erewhon, and the works of Jules Verne and (later) Edgar Rice Burroughs (featuring fantastical characters like Tarzan who dominate nature rather than find a balance within it) reflect a pre-environmental consciousness. The thorny issue of the disaster novel is considered in greater depth in the Cautionary and Dystopian Fiction section of Chapter 3.

Less controversial is Netzley's claim that all works of environmental fiction have one element in common: the author's desire to promote environmentalism among the general public.¹⁵ One important way that it does so is by engaging the reader's sensitivity to the work's illumination of the basic tenet of ecology—the pattern of relationships among organisms, including human beings, and their relationship to the environment as a whole.¹⁶

Ecofeminism has also had a strong impact on literature. Elizabeth Englehardt uses the term ecological feminism, which she describes as meeting four criteria: humans are part of nature and not separate from or superior to it, the nonhuman community has agency to consider and act, activism must be based on long-term sustainability and be related to social justice and equality, and women are not necessarily united in sisterhood, nor or they equally oppressed, not are they the only gender to have a role in enacting justice . . . . Race matters, gender matters, class matters, and all of us have complicated identities.¹⁷ Karen J. Warren reaffirms and expands upon this definition, asserting that there are important connections between how one treats women, people of color, and the underclass on one hand and how one treats the nonhuman natural environment on the other.¹⁸

Why should one read fiction in addition to, or even in place of, other forms? Garry Peterson notes that "how people use and relate to nature is determined in large part by the models, theories, and stories that people use to describe how human society and nature work. These concepts provide the mental infrastructure that underpins much of human action. Stories can help people reflect on their own models, and perhaps help them better understand their own ways of thought as well as those of other people.¹⁹

Seaman observes that there are places where even the most supple nonfiction cannot enter, regions of the psyche rife with ambiguity, paradox, and perversity, the deep, shadowy caves and fathomless waters in which we struggle with the conflicting demands of instinct and reason, altruism and greed. These realms are best suited for the unfettered form of fiction.²⁰ Fiction not only speaks to both the head and heart more directly than nonfiction, it also speaks more deeply about them.

A primary distinction between nonfiction and fiction is the degree to which the imagination is invoked. According to Jonathan Bate, The dream of deep ecology will never be realized upon the earth, but our survival as a species may be dependent on our capacity to dream it in the works of the imagination.²¹ Lawrence Buell observes that acts of the environmental imagination . . . potentially register and energize at least four types of engagement with the world.²² They can connect people with the experience and suffering of other beings, including animals, with places they have been or where they may never go, with alternative futures, and with a sense of caring for the planetary environment. Imaginative literature is best suited to engaging people intellectually and emotionally, providing them a greater personal stake in the text itself, and making them care. Fiction is frequently less didactic and more nuanced than nonfiction, delivering its messages by implication. Personal engagement minus didacticism equals inspiration. Just ask a group of environmental activists whether they were more influenced by Ed Abbey or by green theoreticians and philosophers. Stories are powerful.

Action springs from consciousness, sensitivity, concern, optimism, and inspiration. Much modern American fiction is labeled apolitical. However, one might argue that apolitical art is actually quite political in that it tends to support the status quo and provide an escape from environmental, social, and political realities. Ecofiction is frequently highly political. Barbara King-solver insists that the artist's maverick responsibility is sometimes to sugar-coat the bitter pill and slip it down our gullet, telling us what we didn't want to know.²³ Noting that political literature is more commonplace in Europe, Asia, and Latin America than in the United States, Kingsolver rejects the false dichotomy between pure and political art: Good art is political, whether it means to be or not, insofar as it provides us the chance to understand points of view alien to our own.²⁴ Art, in whatever form, can provide a different lens to view the world and an impetus to action.

This study is intended to raise awareness of many fine, and in some cases unjustly overlooked texts, their interrelation and to a much smaller extent their interpretation, to occasionally suggest guidance as to appropriate audiences and uses, to expand the canon of ecofiction, and to further popularize it. Read on!

2

Ecofiction's Roots and Historical Development

Ecofiction's roots are as ancient as pictograms, petroglyphs, and creation myths. Nature forms the very core of Native American, Australian Aboriginal, pagan, Celtic, Taoist, and many other cosmologies and their associated oral and written literature. These legends and the values they represent are echoed in contemporary ecofiction by indigenous and white authors alike. They can be found in classical literature such as Ovid's Metamorphoses and Latin pastoralism. Animal legends, human-animal metamorphoses, and pastoralism are common to many oral traditions and much written folklore.

Medieval European literature is rich in naturalistic content and tone, as evidenced by Arthurian lore, the Chanson de Roland, Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the works of St. Francis of Assisi, and others. The green Shakespeare includes at least The Tempest, King Lear, A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Winter's Tale, and As You Like It. Contemporary green adaptations of Shakespeare include Gloria Naylor's Mama Day (1988), Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres (1991), and Jonis Agee's Strange Angels (1993).

The focus on nature in Romanticism, traditional pastoralism, and transcendentalism influenced ecofiction, but critics tend to disagree about whether the fiction associated with these movements is truly ecological. One might argue that such books are precursors because they precede the development of modern ecological science and the related consciousness that emerged in the late nineteenth century, but most lack the activist quality of much ecofiction. Despite the environmental ravages of the Industrial Revolution, an awareness