Turning to Earth: Stories of Ecological Conversion by F. Marina Schauffler

Abstract

B o o k R e v ie w s Turning to Earth: Stories of Ecological Conversion. By F. Marina Schauffler. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2003. 161 pages, $49.50/$ 14.95. Reviewed by John Tallmadge Union Institute and University, Cincinnati, Ohio Conversion, in the religious sense, means turning away from one set of beliefs to embrace another. It connotes a major change, not only in attitude and creed but in life and practice. We generally imagine conversion in terms of two great models. For St. Paul, struck blind and admonished by Christ’s disembodied voice on the road to Damascus, conversion was a sudden, cata­ clysmic event. For St. Augustine, whose years of philosophic and emotional struggle had wound his soul to an unbearable tension, all it took was a chance encounter with scripture: conversion was the tipping point in a long process of maturation, like a ripe pear dropping from a tree. For Marina Schauffler, a writer and scholar who lives on the coast of Maine, conversion offers a Kay Hornick. ALTERED BOOK IN GREENS. 2004- An old children’s board book served as the base for collage techniques. The artist sanded the pages of the original book and gessoed each. Then she applied collage techniques to create a new book. 7" x 6 Vi". Courtesy of the artist. B o o k R e v ie w s 2 0 7 fascinating lens through which to interpret the lives and works of important environmental writers. Like many scholars, including historian Stephen Fox, Schauffler discerns a religious impulse in American environmentalism, something deeply personal and spiritual yet independent of churches, established creeds, theology, or the supernatural. She views environmental problems arising from our values and beliefs, the “inner ecology” that affects our actions and thus our engagement with the “outer ecology” of the places we inhabit. To achieve a sustainable future, we must bring the two into harmony. For examples ofhow that can be done, she looks for patterns in the life writing of six notable authors: Edward Abbey, Rachel Carson, N. Scott Momaday, Scott Russell Sanders, Alice Walker, and Terry Tempest Williams. On their writing, she finds something different from either the Pauline or the Augustinian models: conversion as an ongoing, cyclical pro­ cess. “The turn to Earth is rarely a straight trajectory from old life to new,” she writes. “More commonly it involves a cycling back, a re-turning [that] creates a spiral of growth” (7). Conversion becomes a life practice rather than a dramatic historical moment, and Schauffler finds six aspects ofenactment: remembrance (of formative encounters w :ith nature), reflection (contemplation of memories to elicit meaning), revelation (transformative, epiphanic experiences), reci­ procity (I-Thou encounters with other creatures), resistance (political action), and ritual (celebration or witnessing through performance and writing). Because Schauffler is less interested in the literary qualities of these works than in the experiences and choices they report, her book aligns itself more with ecopsychology than with ecocriticism. Her concept of ecological conver­ sion recalls Mitchell Thomashow’s “ecological identity” as both a quality ofmind and a reflective practice (Ecological Identity, 1995). In the manner of narrative criticism, she offers her own experiences in modest but resonant counterpoint to those of her writers, which adds a refreshing note of sincerity. This lucid and quietly illuminating book will appeal not only to scholars of literature, psychology, or religion but to anyone seeking guidance toward a deeper and more wholesome relation with nature. Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk across Victorian America. By Linda Lawrence Hunt. Moscow: University of Idaho Press, 2003. 301 pages, $16.95. Reviewed by Brandon R. Schrand University of Idaho, Moscow “Private chronicles can corroborate public ones,” Elizabeth Hampsten once told us in Read This Only to Yourself (1982). That phrase, which reads more like a mantra now, is central to recovery projects that illuminate the lives and voices of those often forgotten or marginalized. In Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk across Victorian America, Linda Lawrence Hunt recovers the ...