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A Language That Can Make Us Whole—
Reading and Writing Environmental Literature
3 credit hours, 300 level (syllabus)
Instructor: Fred Bahnson
ffbahnson@hotmail.com
Course Overview (with brief manifesto)
Words matter. The words we will read before and during our brief time together are
words concerned with the natural world. In different times and places, these words have
given shape to the care and brutality, the love and avarice that have characterized our
troubled relationship to “the environment” or, as Christians name it, Creation. Our task is
to read this body of environmental literature with breadth, surveying its vast terrain, and
with depth, interpreting it in light of God’s new creation already breaking into the old. If
we wish to resist our culture’s dominant paradigm of earthly destruction, of “running
Genesis backward, decreating” as McKibben puts it, if we want to “serve and preserve”
the fertile soil that Genesis tells us is worthy of our care, then we will be attentive to this
language for the wisdom it offers. Our time to act, both in this class and in this era of
species extinction, topsoil loss, and climate disruption, is short. It is clear that our leaders
have no answers. The words we read (and the words you may someday write?) just
might. Or if not answers then at least patterns and stories we can live by. We will
therefore approach these words—essays, poems, and stories—with reverence for what
they might teach. We will read with charity, which is to say, we will first try to
understand what a writer is saying before we offer our own interpretation. We will also
critique their words and argue with them. We will take joy and laughter where we find
them, for our situation is far too dire for pessimism. We will be looking for a language
that limns the shape of God’s kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. We will be
looking for a language that can make us whole.
Requirements (see below for full description):
1. Read all assigned texts (roughly 300 pp.) and take an active role in class
discussions.
2. Keep a course journal, writing brief responses to assigned readings (due
beginning of Day 1).
3. Co-lead, with one other student, the class discussion for part of the day’s assigned
readings. If you are a discussion leader you should plan to read that day’s
recommended reading(s) as well.
4. Perform a reading of an assigned short story, group of poems, or an essay (or,
with instructor’s approval, one of your own choosing) during our nightly story
time.
5. Write a 2-3 page nature essay, describing and reflecting on a place you know
well. (due at beginning of Day 1)
6. Write a 5-7 page nature essay or critical paper (due before evening celebration on
Day 5)
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Texts:
1. American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau, ed. Bill McKibben,
Library of America, New York. 2008.
2. Coursepack with selected readings
Schedule:
Each day we will begin with a reading from Scripture and a poem or two. Unless
otherwise noted, all readings will come from McKibben’s anthology. Read McKibben’s
intro to the anthology and also his intros to the individual writers assigned. In general,
mornings will be a time for group discussion and critical thinking, engaging in a
communal exegesis of the day’s texts. One part of each morning session Mon.-Thurs. will
be led by a two-student team. During reading week (perhaps after you’ve done the
readings?) the eight of you can self-select both who your partner will be and which day
you’d like to lead. All the readings are good, so you need not feel short-changed if you
don’t get your choice of days. You can focus the discussion by treating the assigned
readings as a group, noting similarities and differences, or you can choose to lead a more
in-depth discussion of one or two. Either way you should have discussion questions
prepared in advance and use these to guide the group discussion. Fred will lead the
remaining part of each morning’s discussion, and on Friday he will lead the morning in
its entirety.
Evenings will also be divided into two parts. During Part I Fred will present a short
talk on some aspect of the writer’s craft. By peering into the guts of environmental
literature and seeing how it’s made, we will not only improve our writing skills, but will
also become more astute readers of it as well. Part II of our evenings together will be a
time for storytelling. One at a time, each of us during the week will read a story, group of
poems, or essay. Like our ancestors, we will gather around a campfire under the stars and
tell tales. We will not stop and analyze, but will simply listen, absorb, laugh, cry, and be
refreshed. On the first day of class, Fred will assign each student a reading of
environmental literature to be performed one night that week. Or feel free to propose
your own reading. Music will be welcome, too. However, we will not sing Kum ba ya.
Monday—Beginnings
a.m. I. Introductions, course overview, close reading of Genesis 1 (first paper and
journals due). Fred leads discussion.
II.
Students lead discussion
Henry David Thoreau—Walden, or Life in the Woods
Walt Whitman—all
John Muir—A 1,000 Mile Walk to the Gulf
John Burroughs—Grist of the Gods (recommended)
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p.m. I. craft class: reading poetry like a writer
II. story time—Fred reading from The Story of God, the Story of Us
Tuesday—A Land Ethic and the Nascent Environmental Movement
a.m. I. students lead
Aldo Leopold—from A Sand County Almanac
Rachel Carson—from Silent Spring
II. Fred leads
Lynn White, Jr.—On the Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis
Edward Abbey—Polemic: Industrial Tourism & the National Parks
Howard Zahniser—from The Wilderness Act of 1964 (recommended)
Lewis Thomas—The World’s Biggest Membrane (recommended)
p.m. I. craft class: reading narrative like a writer
II. story time—student readings
Wednesday—The Agrarian Vision
a.m. I. students lead
Wendell Berry—Manifesto
—Making of a Marginal Farm
—Christianity and the Survival of Creation (coursepack)
—Health is Membership (coursepack, recommended)
Wes Jackson—Farmed Out interview in The Sun (coursepack)
Helen and Scott Nearing—from The Good Life (recommended)
II. Fred leads
Ellen Davis—And the Land I Will Remember (coursepack)
Calvin DeWitt—from Inspirations for Sustaining Life on Earth (recommended)
p.m. I. craft class—how metaphor works
II. story time—student readings
Thursday—Food, Climate Disruption, and Wildness
a.m. I. students lead
Bill McKibben—Disobedience: Direct Action on Global Warming (coursepack)
Michael Pollan—from The Omnivore’s Dilemma
Roger Scrutton—A Carnivore’s Credo (coursepack)
Cesar Chavez—Wrath of Grapes boycott speech (recommended)
Alan Durning—The Dubious Rewards of Consumption (recommended)
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II. Fred leads
Annie Dillard—Living Like Weasels (coursepack)
Barry Lopez—A Presentation of Whales
W.S. Merwin—Place
Mary Oliver—The Summer Day
Rick Bass—from The Ninemile Wolves (recommended)
Leslie Marmon Silko—from Ceremony (recommended)
Friday—The Frontiers of Environmental Literature: Stretching the Form
a.m.
David Quammen—Strawberries Under Ice (coursepack)
Mark Richard—Rolltop Mantra of the Outer Banks (coursepack)
Note: based on student’s needs, we can adjourn early to allow time to complete final
paper.
p.m.
Celebrate!
Notes on assignments:
1. Reading: You should read for information, looking for the major points an author
is making, but you should also be on the hunt for that more illusive quarry:
metaphor. What are the deeper, perhaps unexpressed meanings the essay points
toward? What images does a writer use to convey meaning? Pay attention not
only to the literal meaning, but to the form and structure of a piece of writing, and
how that, too may be a vehicle for communicating. These things may not apply to
some of the readings (Cesar Chavez’s boycott speech, for example). Most
importantly, don’t let your reading become a passive activity, whereby you
become a mere receptacle for the author’s thoughts. Rather, try to develop an
active approach to your reading, i.e., read with a pencil in hand and converse with
the writer as you go along. That leads to your second assignment, which is to keep
a…
2. Course journal: here you should record your thoughts as you work through the
readings. I will look over these on Day 1 and give you feedback, make
suggestions, etc. but will not grade them. Some guidelines: do not merely
summarize the readings. Engage them. Don’t worry about length and you need
not make an entry for every single reading. What is important is to record
questions and new ideas that arise as you work through the material. John Muir
may not get your blood going, for example, but Rachel Carson might (or vice
versa) so write in response to what moves or perplexes you. Are there patterns
that you see developing between the readings? If you are gifted with brevity, you
might be able to say in 1-2 sentences what strikes you about a piece of writing.
Or, after reading, say, Barry Lopez’s essay on whales, you may be inspired to
write several paragraphs or even several pages. Don’t agonize or self-edit, just get
your pencil moving. This writing exercise should limber you up to write your…
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3. Nature essay on place (2-3 double-spaced pages). Write about a place in God’s
creation that you know intimately. This should not be a human-built environment,
like a treehouse or favorite coffee shop, though it could be a place humans have
left their mark on. Your grandfather’s farm, perhaps, or a favorite mountain tarn
in the Absoroka Range where you once camped with your family. It need not be a
wild or glamorous setting; it could be the patch of weeds behind your house that,
for reasons you will explain to the readers, holds some special significance for
you. As you write about this place, try moving between objective and subjective
descriptions, i.e. try to describe what you remember as accurately and specifically
as you can, using rich detail, then reflect on what you’ve described, noting
insights you’ve gleaned. You need not worry about “making a point” or leading
to some grand revelation. Simply observe in your mind’s eye this place that, for
whatever reason, has fixed its claws on you, and render it as accurately as you
can.
4. Expanded nature essay or critical paper (5-7 double spaced pages). Using the craft
talks and other writerly tools you’ve learned during our week together, expand
upon your nature essay and write a stand-alone essay that combines astute
observation and rigorous reflection. Or, write a critical essay on a topic that
reflects your interests as they’ve developed during this course. For instance, you
could ruminate on how the modern agrarians reflect a biblical understanding of
land care. Or you could bring two writers from different eras into conversation
with one another, plunking Mark Richard down in Thoreau’s bean field and
compare each writers’ understanding of nature. Let your interests lead you, but
draw on discussions and readings from this course as you write.