By Brian McCammack in “EdgeEffects”
In this essay, McCammack consider’s the place of DuBois environmental writing in the greater cannon of nature-writers. He argues the need for DuBois’ writing to be validated: that his writing covers many of the same themes and questions as Muir and Thoreau and, like these other authors, considers the importance of nature in the context of the increasingly industrial and urban world.
Du Bois’s environmental values, on the other hand, are considerably less well understood. While Muir and Pinchot are constantly (and reductively) juxtaposed with one another, rarely are contemporary intellectuals like Muir and Du Bois considered in direct conversation with one another, even as the environmental humanities have made great strides in exploring the way race and ethnicity inflect environmental experiences and consciousness (attention to environmental justice is but one example). But Du Bois and Muir deserve to be considered together because more concerted efforts to put black and white perspectives on nature in closer conversation (following the lead of scholars like Kimberly K. Smith and Scott Hicks) helps us see not only the significant ways those perspectives converged but also the ways race—and racism—made them distinct. (…)
Although it had more modern amenities than he let on, Du Bois’s description of the rural resort was characteristic: it was “not fashionable: men in khaki, women in knickers and overalls, no servants, food cheap, Victrolas for orchestra, no high-heeled shoes.” Instead, the primary attractions were “hiking, fishing, tennis, rowing, dancing, spooning and sleeping. Especially sleeping. Long, quiet, glorious naps, night and day, to the sound of dancing waters.”
Both Du Bois and Muir, like many early twentieth century Americans of all races and ethnicities, valued these wild, rural, and remote places for largely the same reasons: they offered a restorative contrast to the sort of urban industrial life embodied in cities like Chicago.
- How does this author integrate quotes to support his argument about DuBois work?
- How does the author compare and contrast DuBois work with other writers?
- What context does this author provide that helps the reader understand his argument? How much detail is there in the context?
- What other noticings and questions do you have?
GREEN & GROW 