Paradise Wild: Reimagining American Nature

by David Oates

In Paradise Wild, David Oates addresses this and many other provocative questions as he explores the persistent myth of Eden from several different angles. As a lifelong mountaineer and reader of nature literature, as a scholar, as a descendant of naturalist William Bartram, and as a gay ex-Baptist who took to the mountains to test his masculinity, Oates has thought deeply about how nature and culture interact in our lives and about the contemporary debate over wilderness and environment. Paradise Wild brings all these elements together in a lively, genre-hopping book that will move readers emotionally and intellectually, at the same time that it contributes to the ongoing debate in scholarly and environmental circles over the meaning of "nature" and "wilderness." Paradise Wild tells stories, explores major scholarship and literature of nature, and analyzes how the misapplied myth of Eden has mired Americans in a hopeless "Paradise Lost" mentality that belies the true, ever-present wildness in our lives. Oates argues that mourning for a lost paradise is a dead end that cannot help us combat the real damage we're doing to ourselves and the rest of the world. He proposes a healthy re-mythologizing of the Eden story as a way of celebrating "wildness" -- the Eden in each moment and in each cell, that cannot be lost. His book is about welcoming that wildness into the midst of daily life. This bold and original work will appeal to general readers as well as to scholars and students with an interest in environmental literature and philosophy, nature writing, cultural studies, and queer studies.

Genres: Environment

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2003

About the author

David Oates was a British archaeologist and academic specializing in the Ancient Near East.

Reviews

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read through quite a bit of environmental philosophy this past term, and have also read my fair share of nature literature in the past. And, at this point in time, this book ranks at the top of my list for both those genres.

Blending criticism of nature writers like Muir and Abbey with personal introspection and insightful analysis into current environmentalism and environmental politics, Oates simultaneously pulls apart many of the long-standing images and myths underpinning our current understandings of 'nature,' and begins to formulate in their stead a conception of both wilderness and wildness much more in tune with an anthropology that views humans as simultaneously natural and cultural, as truly of and with the earth, not as the unnatural outsiders who can only destroy it. (And he does this all in such beautiful writing that some might doubt his standing as an academic.)

The book is an important addition to the environmental literature critiquing the perspective contained in something like Bill McKibben's The End of Nature. I think any environmentalist whose outlook is shaped by McKibben's analysis would be well-served to read Oates as a way of deepening their understanding of how to approach solving environmental problems.