Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris

Abstract

256 Western American Literature record of the Earth. Nonetheless, we are a visual species, responding most viscerallyto the vivid image, and it maytake considerable self-discipline to move beyond these lavish photographs and delve into the printed text. Social scientists are coming to view feminine and masculine qualities as traits measurable on orthogonal scales; we are each—male or female—femi­ nine and masculine to some degree. Therefore, however radiantly beautiful, it would be hard to argue that the images collected here could have been pro­ duced solely through the lenses offemale photographers—to her credit Boice never makes such a claim. “Perhaps to photograph the land is to touch the feminine in all of us,”Lynette Shepard noted recently in OutdoorPhotographer. The same argument is less sound for the writers collected here, and the text— all gleaned from published sources—does depict a more acutely feminine view of the world. Why, then, publish a book dedicated to women’sviews ofthe world? Many of the photographers represented here report that their gender does not influence how they photograph so much as how they get paid. Recent discus­ sion in a number of zines has centered on the obstacles—primarily cultural in origin—confronting female photographers, and have hinted that among other inequalities, women are under-represented in print. MotherEarth takes a step towards righting at least one ofthese errors. D. E. McIVOR Utah State University Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. By Kathleen Norris. (New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1993. 224 pages, $19.95.) Twentyyears ago, Kathleen Norris abandoned NewYorkCityfor Lemmon, South Dakota to manage the family farms and live in her maternal grandpar­ ents’ house. Dakota: A Spiritual Geography is her account of the experience. Chapters are organized not chronologically, but by topic: the nature of the land, the puzzling mix of community and isolation in small plains towns, her spiritual life as a Presbyterian lay preacher and an oblate among the monks in the Benedictines’ plains monasteries. Brief “Weather Reports,” prose poems interspersed in the text, attest directly to her poetic sensibilities. Those interested in Great Plains literature will be struck by Norris’s appre­ ciation of the plains. The isolation that threatens others, she regards as a gift: “The land, the 360 degrees of unobstructed horizon, invites you to keep on walking. . . . A person could stand and watch this changing land and sky forever.” But Dakota is not merely a paen to the land. Using the desert as a central motif, Norris sees the significance oflife above and below the surface of land and sky: the visible buildings of towns and the private lives in community; the stark beauty of space and the need for reprieve from the horizontal of Reviews 257 landscape and routine. She contrasts the climate of mutual support in a rural church with the reticence and distrust of outsiders in the small town. She acknowledges the evident pride of community support in the face of disaster and the provincialism that isolation fosters. She sees the value of gossip as a safety valve in the insular small towns, and of play as an expression of faith among the Benedictines. Norris does not approach the Great Plains from the familiar historical perspective of cause and effect—the Homestead Act, the myth of the demo­ cratic utopia, the work ethic and the persistence of the past in community attitudes and personal relationships. Rather, her historical points of reference are the desert monks and the Benedictine tradition. To some extent, this is a weakness: her parallel description of life in Lemmon and among the monks compares apples and oranges. Their historical, social and spiritual roots are distinct, even though they occupy the same space on the land. But this is a mere quibble. Norris’s book is an important contribution to western literature precisely because she brings a unique perspective to the plains experience. Her account, with the desert metaphor as a common point of reference to the isolation and introspection in her physical and spiritual geography, is a welcome addition to Great Plains literature. DIANE QUANTIC The Wichita State University The Adventures of The Woman Homesteader: The Life and Letters ofElinore Pruitt Stewart. By Susanne K. George. (Lincoln...