POSTCARD V (SW)
Finally, the ‘Bird-Atmospheres’ chapter’s concept of symbolification can be employed to refine and develop the notion of an eco-skeleton. Symbolification refers to the human inclination to reduce features of the material world to metaphors that convey the human condition. Subsequently, the ‘Bird-Atmosphere’ chapter highlights the impetus for a process of de-symbolification in which we “remove our rose-tinted glasses further and look more towards the reality of the struggle our natural world faces.” De-symbolification consolidates the notion of an eco-skeleton by highlighting how features of the natural world function outside of anthropocentric concerns. An example of this is Vietnamese religious philosopher Thich Nhat Hanh’s fixation with a leaf’s intrinsic relationship with soil and tree bodies, through which it provides invaluable lessons to humans about life.
“I asked the leaf whether it was scared because it was autumn and the other leaves were falling. The leaf told me, “No. During the whole spring and summer I was very alive. I worked hard and helped nourish the tree, and much of me is in the tree. I AM NOT LIMITED By this form. I am the whole tree, and when I go back to the soil, I will continue to nourish the tree. As I leave this branch and float to the ground, I will wave to the tree and tell her, ‘I will see you again very soon….
And after a while I saw the leaf leave the branch and float down to the soul dancing joyfully. Because as it floated it saw itself already there in the tree. It was so happy. I have a lot to learn from the leaf because it is not afraid – it knew nothing can be born and nothing can die.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh (Tuzzio, 2016)
Another way the notion of de-symbolification can be utilised to explore the notion of an eco-skeleton is to examine the way in which features of the natural and material world structure and restrain human modalities of perception. This idea undergirded my close reading on Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse but is also present in ecocritical writer Robert MacFarlane’s employment of Stanley Donwood's photograph of a hagstone (Fig. 3) to subvert conventional anthropocentric visions of the sun.
Figure 3
Donwood, S. (2018). [hagstone photograph]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/RobGMacfarlane/status/1019634077543092224
REFERENCES
Tuzzio, E. (2016, November 4). Natures Wisdom – Thich Nhat Hanh on Autumn Leaves; Life, Death, Continuation [blog post]. Retrieved 17 October 2018 from https://themuseinthemirror.com/2016/11/04/natures-wisdom-thich-nhat-hanh-on-autumn-leaves-life-death-continuation/
SW.