Engl
3050 Literature and the Environment, Spring 2024
[
Policies ]
[ Calendar ]
[ Online Readings ]
Online
Readings
last update: February 20, 2024
Notes:
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Here are various texts and sites that may interest students in this class. Some
but not all of these are assigned readings. For specific, week-by-week reading
assignments, see "Calendar," above.
I.
Reviews of Books, Movies We're Reading for Class, and of Related Books
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"Couple Creates an Empire by Felling Trees and Anyone in Their Way"
[review of Serena]. By Janet Maslin, The New York Times,
October 5, 2008. www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/books/06masl.html.
(Click here
for a cached version.)
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"Review -- Serena by Ron Rash: Jay Parini is impressed by a
bloodthirsty tale of greed and the ruthless pursuit of power." The
Guardian [Manchester, UK], October 9, 2009. www.theguardian.com/books/2009/oct/10/serena-ron-rash-review
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"Book
World: Barbara Kingsolver’s novel approach in ‘Flight Behavior’." By
Ron Charles. The Washington Post, October 30, 2012.
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"The Butterfly Effect: ‘Flight Behavior,’ by Barbara Kingsolver." By
Dominique Browning. The New York Times, Sunday Book Review,
November 9, 2012.
www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/books/review/flight-behavior-by-barbara-kingsolver.html.
(Click here for a
cached version.)
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"Electrified Rivers and Other Attempts to Save the Environment"
[review of Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert]. By Jennifer Szalai. The
New York Times, February 10, 2021.
www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/books/review-under-white-sky-elizabeth-kolbert.html.
(Click here for
a cached version.)
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"Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert review – the path to
catastrophe: A damning survey, drawing on skilful and subtle reporting, that
tracks the spiralling absurdity of human attempts to control nature with
technology." By Ben Ehrenreich. The Guardian, March 26, 2021.
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"The grizzly story of a bear man" [review of "Grizzly
Man"]. By Roger Ebert, August 11, 2005. www.rogerebert.com/reviews/grizzly-man-2005
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"Loners -- The Current Cinema" [review of "Broken Flowers"
by J. Jarmusch and "Grizzly Man" by Werner Herzog]. The New Yorker,
July 31, 2005. www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/08/08/loners.
(Click here for
a cached version.)
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"Exploring One Man's Fate in the Alaskan Wilderness -- Movie Review:
'Grizzly Man'." By Manohla Dargis. The New York Times, August 12,
2005.
www.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/movies/exploring-one-mans-fate-in-the-alaskan-wilderness.html.
(Click here
for a cached version.)
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"A Burning Planet: Should the climate movement embrace sabotage?"
[review of the book, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, by Andreas Malm]. By
Thea Riofrancos. The Nation, July 25, 2022. www.thenation.com/article/culture/andreas-malm-climate-politics/
(Click here
for a cached version.)
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"‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ Review: A Different Kind of Oil Boom -- A
book that proposed violent action in response to the climate crisis becomes a
propulsive heist thriller." By Ben Kenigsberg. The New York Times,
April 6, 2023.
www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/movies/how-to-blow-up-a-pipeline-review.html.
(Click here for a
cached version.)
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"Annihilation review – 'You'll find yourself afraid to turn the
page': Jeff VanderMeer may visit familiar alien-invasion territory, but his
story of biological research – the first in a trilogy – enters the realm of
real horror." By Simon Ings. The Guardian, March 5, 2014. www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/05/annihilation-review-jeff-vandermeer-afraid-turn-page
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Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer [review]. By Sara Sklaro. The
Washington Post, February 25, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/annihilation-by-jeff-vandermeer/2014/02/25/.
(Click here
for a cached version.)
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"Fighting
Deforestation and Capitalism: How a Woman’s Refusal to Leave a Tree Helped
Preserve the Redwoods" [review of The Legacy of Luna, by
Julia Butterfly Hill, 2000]. By Amanda Nicholson. Written for Engl 3050 Lit
& Environment, Spring 2015.
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"The
Heroes of This Novel Are Centuries Old and 300 Feet Tall" [review
of The Overstory by Richard Powers]. By Barbara
Kingsolver. New York Times Book Review, April 9, 2018. (Click here for
a cached version.)
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"The Homer of the Ants" [review of Anthill: A Novel, by
E. O. Wilson]. By Margaret Atwood. The New York Review of Books 57,
6 (April 8, 2010). www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/apr/08/the-homer-of-the-ants/
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"The Man Who Thinks Trees Talk to Each Other" [review of The
Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben]. The Guardian [Manchester
UK], September 12, 2016. www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/12/peter-wohlleben-man-who-believes-trees-talk-to-each-other
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"Mother Nature as a Hothouse Flower." [Review of Bill
McKibben's The End of Nature.] By David Graber. The Los Angeles
Times, October 22, 1989. articles.latimes.com/1989-10-22/books/bk-726_1_bill-mckibben
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"The Sky is Melting" [review of Bill McKibben's The End of
Nature]. By Nicholas Wade. The New York Times, October 8,
1989. www.nytimes.com/1989/10/08/books/the-sky-is-melting.html
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"The Songs of Trees by David George Haskell; review – looking
and listening in the forest." By Caspar Henderson. The
Guardian, July 7, 2017. www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/07/songs-of-trees-david-george-haskell-review
II.
Miscellaneous Notable Nonfiction
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"Birding While Black: J. Drew Lanham on race, belonging, and a love of
nature" (excerpt from The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love
Affair with Nature). By J. Drew Lanham. Literary Hub, September 22,
2016. lithub.com/birding-while-black/
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"9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher." By J. Drew Lanham. Orion
Magazine, October 2013. orionmagazine.org/article/9-rules-for-the-black-birdwatcher/
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"What Do We Do About John James Audubon? The founding father of American
birding soared on the wings of white privilege. The birding community and
organizations that bear his name must grapple with this racist legacy to create
a more just, inclusive world." By J. Drew Lanham. Audubon Magazine,
Spring 2021. www.audubon.org/magazine/spring-2021/what-do-we-do-about-john-james-audubon
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"The
Insect Apocalypse is Here." By Brooke Jarvis. The New York
Times Magazine, November 27, 2018. (Click here
for a cached version.)
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"Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost
Stopped Climate Change." By Nathaniel Rich. Photographs and Videos by
George Steinmetz. The New York Times Magazine, August 1, 2018.
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"How
Republicans Are ‘Weaponizing’ Public Office Against Climate Action."
By David Gelles. The New York Times, August 5, 2022. (Click here
for a cached version.)
III. Various
Articles Related to Course Texts
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"Monarch butterflies' migration patterns are changing. Scientists want you
to help." By Sofi Gratas. Weekend Edition Saturday, National Public
Radio, January 6, 2024. Runtime: 2 minutes. www.npr.org/2024/01/06/1223287067/monarch-butterflies-migration-patterns-are-changing-scientists-want-you-to-help
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"Meddling With Monarchs." By Margaret Renkl. The New York Times,
October 5, 2017. www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/opinion/monarch-butterfly-migration-extinction.html.
(Click here for
a cached version.)
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"Visiting Our Past: Logging dangers filled our hills." By Rob
Neufeld. Asheville Citizen-Times, May 10, 2020. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/readings/logging_smokies.pdf
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"Carolina Panthers." By Dan Lazar, Director of Education, Western
North Carolina Nature. 2010. www.wildwnc.org/education/naturalists-notes/carolina-panthers
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"Global Warming and Flowering Times in Thoreau's Concord: A Community
Perspective." By Abraham J. Miller-Rushing and Richard B. Primack. Ecology 89,
2 (February 2008): p332-341. www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/07-0068.1
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Julia Butterfly Hill profile on NBC Dateline News Magazine, Feb 14, 1999 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFRdy7o3DPE&feature=related
- "Margaret
Atwood: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, 50 years on." By Margaret
Atwood. The Guardian [Manchester, England], Friday, December
7, 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/dec/07/why-rachel-carson-is-a-saint
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"Serena: The Story Behind the Book" [Ron Rash's comments on how he
wrote the book, posted at the site of his literary agent; no date]. http://www.rusoffagency.com/authors/rash_r/serenat/behind_serena.htm
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"Wendell Berry pulling his personal papers from UK: Writer protesting
coal's influence." By Cheryl Truman. The Lexington Herald Leader,
June 23, 2010. www.kentucky.com/2010/06/23/1319383/wendell-berry-pulling-his-personal.html
IV.
Authors Online
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Horace Kephart: Revealing an Enigma. Hunter Library Special Collections and the
Mountain Heritage Center, Western Carolina University. www.wcu.edu/library/digitalcoll/kephart/
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"John Muir Writings" at Yosemite Online, an unofficial Yosemite
website. www.yosemite.ca.us/john_muir_writings/
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"The John Muir Exhibit," at sierraclub.org. vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/default.aspx
- The
Canons of the Colorado (first paper: Down the Green River), by John
Wesley Powell, Scribner's Monthly 9, 3 (January 1875): 293-311
- The
Canons of the Colorado (second paper), by John Wesley Powell, Scribner's
Monthly 9, 4 (February 1875): 394-409
VII.
Materials to Use in Class
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B. Kingsolver, Flight Behavior, discussion questions. At "lit
lovers" web site: www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/8988-flight-behavior-kingsolver?start=3
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"A Republican 2024 Climate Strategy: More Drilling, Less Clean
Energy." By Lisa Friedman. The New York Times, August 7, 2023. www.nytimes.com/2023/08/04/climate/republicans-climate-project2025.html.
(Click here
for a cached version.)
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"The Biggest Climate Bill of Your Life - But What does it DO!?.
vlogbrothers youtube video. August 12, 2022. Runtime -- 22:23. 835,000 views as
of February 2024. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw5zzrOpo2s