awakening"As for me," he said, "I have no country that I recognize as my own, and I am trying to learn to be happy in that condition." And he began to speak of a countryless world to come: "We are merely feeling the first pangs of modernity," he affirmed, "the death of the self which has become placeless. We are to become enormously efficient and emotionless mechanisms, that will know–if 'know' is not too old fashioned a word to use in this context–how to breed even more efficient and more emotionless mechanisms. Let us take another drink and drink to Perfection, and to laughter." Which he immediately did.
Though Warren does not give us anything really meaty here, he is basically saying what Berry is now saying, 30 years later. If you want to see Warren go deeper, read the novel.
but what I am trying to grasp is this idea of "placeness." I get it, but I don't GET it. And why is it so important? Is it a thing of Nature (and by that I mean human nature)? I could go back to Berry's essay and see if I can figure out an argument for why we need a PLACE. But what I want is to feel it in my bones; to KNOW that I have a place to come to.
Regardless, I will not be like the friend in warren's book, who seems to lay down on the tracks of modernity and allow himself to be crushed by the iron machine, which he feels he cannot stop.
7 comments:
I don't know whether to return with an excited, "HEY! I'm BACK!" or a lowly, "Uh...remember me." I do apologize profusely for not posting more, but perhaps your comments Richard give me a clue as to why. I think there was a fear of being, not only the infrequent responder, but also the first dissonant voice.
I agree that there is some question as to why place is essential. Why must we have a farm to be men? Being stewards I can understand and affirm readily, but what premise is there for needing land? Needing a place?
I'm really not as opposed to the idea as I sound, I'm just curious if someone can explain it to me. I respect you guys too much to think you're just taking what Berry says and mindlessly devoting yourself to it, so I could use the insight you have grasped.
And though this might be too drastic a turn for one post, I would be curious to know if anyone has ever read "Life Out of Context" by African American author Walter Mosley. He sites the black man's lack of history (or placeness, in a sense) as a source for internal (and resultant, external) conflict with himself and society. I heard him talk about it on a public radio program. Haven't gotten around to it yet, but this current line of thinking has again piqued my interest.
Richard, I like the Warren reference. I'm starting to like his writing more and more!
As to the want to "feel it in my bones" when it comes to place, I resonate with you. I think getting a sense of place might first begin with desiring a sense of place. I now desire a sense of place, but I'm not sure that sense will come where I presently am. It may be here, but I've also grown to think that this sense is related to a collection of values, a sort of community economy, and that is not created solely by one's desire.
It will be a work in progress; we will see.
And, Jay, thank you so much for posting even the slightest contrary view or question. We need that, so don't apologize.
To answer your question, I'd start with the essay we're discussing - The Agrarian Standard. Toward the end, Berry gets into a quick historical view of owning land and the effects of landlessness. He says -
TO BE LANDLESS IN an industrial society obviously is not at all times to be jobless and homeless. But the ability of the industrial economy to provide jobs and homes depends on prosperity, and on a very shaky kind of prosperity too. It depends on "growth" of the wrong things -- on what Edward Abbey called "the ideology of the cancer cell" -- and on greed with purchasing power. In the absence of growth, greed, and affluence, the dependents of an industrial economy too easily suffer the consequences of having no land: joblessness, homelessness, and want. This is not a theory. We have seen it happen.
For the first time, I actually begin to think about this idea of "prosperity" being something that many of us are dependant upon to live. There is the basest truth that to have a place, shelter, and a food source of your own can be extremely liberating. I don't know that many currently experience this.
Then Berry follows it up with this thought,
I don't think that being landed necessarily means owning land. It does mean being connected to a home landscape from which one may live by the interactions of a local economy and without the routine intervention of governments, corporations, or charities.
So, in the end, I'm not sure Berry is saying that ALL must own a farm to have a sense of place, but finding that sense of place probably is non-negotiable. I think being a "healthy people in a healthy land" will require knowing that land. It's up to us to define what that looks like.
(fyi, I haven't read of heard of _Life Out of Context_, but I'm interested!)
Jay, Welcome BACK! And I agree with Shaun, don't apologize.
As far as needing a farm to be a man and the desire for place, I'm not sure if I can explain it to you, but I'll at least describe why it resonates with me.
For years and years I've been increasingly disturbed by a number of things that are not only featured in our economy, but are necessary for its survival. Materialism, advertisements saturating our environment, cheap goods for us no matter the cost for them. I could go on, but the point is that it doesn't take a person very long to come up with a list of ways our culture and our economy are opposed to Creation and have no interest in partnering with it.
The reasons that the themes Berry writes about strike a chord within me are the same reasons I enjoy camping or hiking in a National Park: I feel closer to God, I feel closer to nature...I feel like a creation and not a consumer.
When I couple those feelings with the knowledge that our planet simply cannot sustain our current way of life, I have to come to the conclusion that things must change and that there absolutely must be a better way. Then my buddy tells me about this guy Wendell Berry and "you should 'Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community'."
And now here I am with a fledgling veggie garden in my backyard.
Good words friends. And Jay, seriously, don't apologize.
I think I may know why this is so hard for me to grasp. Maybe this idea of "Placeness" is rather broad. So to understand it we should break it down.
Berry does seem very specific about the connection of placeness and land. He describes an economy that is self sustaining and connected to ideas that fly in the face of materialism and general selfishness. Though specific, this is huge. Berry is looking at the world and all the communities within it. I agree with him, but I don't get it, because I have never been in a place that actually valued what he values. I have never even been on a farm, let alone experienced the joy of being deeply rooted to a specific piece of land. Maybe Berry would feel deep sorrow for the fact that there are so many like me out there. And in a sense, I am blindly trusting Berry because I have no real experience with what he so convincingly argues for.
On the other hand, maybe there are different kinds of "Placeness." Maybe one can be connected to a place, not merely because of the Land. I, for example, have lived in Irving and Coppell my entire life. My stationary life here has given me something that i think I may never be able to replace were I to leave. That is my friends. I have recently decided that I do not want to move out of state for Graduate school because my very best friend is in the process of getting his wife pregnant (hope that wasn't inappropriate!). The more i thought about it, the more I have begun to think that I may never leave the DFW. There are so many people who's lives I have invested in. It is as if I have been cultivating an emotional and spiritual seed in the rich soil of my friend's hearts. And over the past 25 years I have seen those seeds grow into sustenance for my soul.
Keep in mind that this is a very different thing than what Berry is talking about, but it is becoming increasingly evident to me that is carries a lot of weight.
All I'm saying is that the state of mind that I am in right now causes me to say this: I don't have a clue about farming or the idea of land, and I may never live in a cabin next to a pond, but I certainly don't want to miss out on helping my dearest friends raise their children, nor will I miss out on helping the students that I have spent my time with experience the richness of life. There are just so many human investments that I have made over the last 25 years that to abandon them for something that I am unable to comprehend at this point (by that I mean farming or landedness) is not something I am willing to do.
Now, This is something that I have come to only in the past few weeks. Maybe I have discovered something that is very specific to my life. Maybe in my attempt to understand all this "Place" talk, I have found a way to have placeness with something I understand, with something I feel in my bones.
Of course if all my dearest friends decide they want to move to Kentucky and join a farming community...I'M IN!!!
I just typed up a bunch of stuff, but it ending up looping around and biting me in the ass. I'll try to put it together in a comprehensible flow and post a new message to comment on. Thanks for your thoughts.
Hi guys,just can't help jumping in. Richard, my first thought was: we all have a place made up of our memories of people and even landmarks that make up who we are today. For most of us it's family and friends who have been present in our lives. Maybe it's just that mankind has a built in need to know he has a place. Since we are much more transient and barely tied to any soil anywhere all we have are people but we do have them! We are not placeless.
Also I refuse to throw myself on the tracks like Warren's character, I have a garden too, I recycle what I can, I try to buy at the grocery store that buys from local farmers when I can, I am toying with the idea of sewing a few grocery sacks. I think I got this Barry quote here but just incase here it is again:
"In our time it is useless and probably wrong to suppose that a great many
urban people ought to go out into the countryside and become homesteaders or farmers. But it is not useless or wrong to suppose that urban people have agricultural responsibilities that they should try to meet. And in fact this is happening. The agrarian population among us is growing, and by no means
is it made up merely of some farmers and some country people. It includes urban gardeners, urban consumers who are buying food from local farmers, consumers who have grown doubtful of the healthfulness, the
trustworthiness,
and the dependability of the corporate food system -- people, in other
words, who understand what it means to be landless."
I love that quote, it is a touchstone for me because it means there is hope for me.
It's funny because although we've lived in Tucson for almost 7 years,and even own a house here, Texas is still my place, my home, the place I go back to and want my kids to know. That's why I think it's true that it's more about the people for us today. But I wish it could be about the land. Gabe and I dream of owning an acre, or more, of surveying all that we have and knowing it is ours and no one can take it away. We don't even have that with our house.
I know I'm going on a bit but just one more thing. Don't you think our country could be our place. Just that fact that we have an American identity,a place we are from when out there in the wide world. Place gives identity. What I am trying to say is that yes "place" is a thing of Nature, Human Nature. But for us "moderns" it is not a piece of land, it is a piece of connection, a group, an identifying connection. I, like you, want to know what this land thing is about but not all alone, only with those I love will an place be worth "coming to."
A piece of connection. That says it for me.
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