The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 3 July 2012
by Simon Schama
"Landscapes are culture before they are nature; constructs of the imagination projected onto wood and water and rock. So goes the argument of this book." And so goes Simon Schama, encapsulating his idea for this big satisfying book.
We feel nostalgia for the favorite places of our childhoods. We look at a freshly mown field, and we remember the feel of grass beneath our bare feet. We go camping in the forest, and remember camping with our families. We might even reflect on explorers and writers who have written about nature, John Muir, Thoreau, countless others. The landscape is necessary to the fabric of our existence. This is true of entire cultures, as well. The Siberian steppe for Mongols and other Asian tribes; the Amazon for Brazilians and native South Americans; the prairie for Native Americans; the Black Forest for Germany; the Alps for the Swiss, French and Italians.
This idiosyncratic, engrossing and encyclopedic book is Schama's particular look back to how certain landscapes inform elements of Western culture in Europe and America (here is his primary focus, though he touches on China from time to time, as well). We read of the rich dark forests of Eastern Poland, from which some of Schama's ancestors arose. The forest is elemental to the identity of eastern Poles, and was a key site for several significant moments in their history, most recently the Nazi occupation of World War 2. The Nazis were many evil things, but in preserving an identity of the noble Aryan forestman, they went to surprising lengths to preserve the forests of places they occupied. (One sees that American Tea Party protestors like to accuse environmentalists of being Nazis.) Schama's exploration of the Polish forest is engrossing, informative and at times movingly personal. And this is just the opening of this book.
Landscape and Memory is broken up into sections of Wood, Water and Rock. In each, Schama tells the story of such places as the Alps and Mont Blanc, as well as Mount Rushmore; the rivers of Rome and the extensive fountains and waterworks of Renaissance Europe; the giant sequoias of California and the hills of England. He peoples the book with explorers and thinkers, fascinating tales of now-obscure mountain climbers, designers and builders, hikers, and, most particularly, artists. Art is one of Schama's specialties, and he uses extensive illustrations to show how landscape informs artistic pretensions and fashion down through the centuries. Turner, Anselm Keifer, Magritte, Rousseau, Poussin, Cozens and Bierstadt all make significant appearances in this book. And while it is encyclopedic, the book is by no means comprehensive. One can look at cultural experience of landscape from the standpoint of civilizations and nations, all the way down to hamlets and individuals. Schama makes a convincing case for the need for a connection to landscape, personal and cultural, even religious. He sticks with personal stories, but these are illustrative of cultural movement in the landscape of Europe and America. They are often quirky tales. Schama's writing is often conversational and personal. Massive as it is, the book is always informative and fascinating.
In the end, Schama ties together wood, water and rock in a chapter on Arcadia. The very idea goes back to the earliest civilizations, the wild wood, peopled by spirits and demons. Schama traces Arcadia from its musty dark beginnings, to the idyllic fantastical and mythical paradise it would become. Here in America, there is a suburban Los Angeles town called Arcadia, bearing no resemblance to its namesake. One gets much closer at Arcadia National Park in Maine. In either case, Arcadia still has much to tell us of our relationship to the land from which we spring.
Even a book of this magnitude suggests further questions for thought and study. How do we relate to planted second-growth forests as our experience of the wild? How do the forests of Poland now bear witness to the growth of population and industrialization? How have rivers, in many cities, evolved from open sewers to the finest in high-rent real estate? How does mountaintop removal mining reflect our changing relationship to mountains and their environment? Much food for thought, and Schama's eloquent book is a good place to start.
Also by Schama:[Rembrandt's Eyes]