Emily D'Souza- Class reading: Where is natures body?

 I really liked this reading, because it illustrates that nature is much more than just being land. It relates to a lot of other environmental literature I’ve read, and it emphasizes points that I believe are important. I like how it discusses that nature can’t be found on a map, because if it is true nature, then it is something you will feel, and you will know where to go. I normally am not big into philosophy, but I think when it comes to nature, it has to be philosophical, because there isn’t just one answer to it. The reading discusses phúsis, which means “to become, to grow”, and in this is where one can find “true nature”. On the topic of nature in art, it has been a foreground for art all across the world since the beginning of time. People portray nature through what they see, and although this is a good thing, I feel like nature in art can stop people from truly appreciating and enjoying nature. A lot of Euro-American artists portrayed their ideas of wildness, for example, the land the Native Americans inhabited. They illustrated pictures of magnificent rocks and grasslands, as well as the wildlife, but they left out the part where Native Americans tended to the land and that’s why it had become the beauty it had. One doesn’t get the full picture, just that specific artist's perspective. It is always good to have other perspectives, but it could also lead to disappointment if the landscape isn’t exactly what was seen in the art. In terms of wilderness, I really liked the idea that “wilderness is the liminal space through which we pass in a spiritual ritual of unbending our nature, of restoring a healthy nature”. The part that sticks out to me is the unbending of our nature, because a change in human nature is what we need to do in order to protect the environment.