{"id":14158,"date":"2024-03-20T11:16:54","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T18:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/?post_type=book&p=14158"},"modified":"2024-03-20T11:16:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T18:16:54","slug":"enchanted-forests-the-poetic-construction-of-a-world-before-time","status":"publish","type":"book","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/book\/enchanted-forests-the-poetic-construction-of-a-world-before-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Enchanted Forests: The Poetic Construction of a World Before Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"Boria Sax owns a forest. About 80 acres in upstate New York, it\u2019s twice the size of the 40-acre farm once thought enough to support a family. From his investigation of the history of his woods, Sax moves to consider the many ways humans have thought and written about forests over centuries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cEnchanted\u201d can mean either \u201cbewitched\u201d or \u201ccharmed.\u201d As Sax points out, forests can instill terror. He cites mythic \u201cfigures of terror, which give tangible form to amorphous fears that the forest can inspire\u201d (p. 50), such as the Windigo of Canada and the northern U.S. and the Nandi Bear of Kenya, both of which devour humans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A forest, Sax reports, \u201chas always been defined far more by its mythic character than by its vegetation\u201d (p. 82). It\u2019s the opposite of civilization, a wilderness, but not necessarily full of trees \u2013 often \u201ca sort of indeterminate landscape, with rocks, caves, mountains and trees\u201d (p. 82).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
One theme running through this account is the gradual diminishing of forests worldwide. Sax\u2019s own forest is a regrowth after previous use for farming. For most of the United States, no regrowth has occurred \u2013 the woods are just gone. Even in classical Greece and Rome timbering began the clearances which have left few wooded areas across Europe and the U.S.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Sax provides chapters on various ways of viewing forests: \u201cThe Classical Forest,\u201d \u201cThe Forest and Death,\u201d for instance. In \u201cLaw of the Jungle\u201d he shows how the word \u201cjungle\u201d appeared first in late 18th century England, applied to forests in the southern hemisphere and associated with Empire: \u201cThe word suggested a place of primordial violence and disorder, which was only good for testing one\u2019s manhood and making one\u2019s fortune\u201d (p. 201).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
All in all,\u00a0Enchanted Forests<\/a>\u00a0is an enchanting read.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Reviewed by Priscilla Grundy in Leaflet for Scholars<\/em>, Volume 11, Issue 4, April 2024<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boria Sax owns a forest. About 80 acres in upstate New York, it\u2019s twice the size of the 40-acre farm once thought enough to support a family. From his investigation of the history of his woods, Sax moves to consider the many ways humans have thought and written about forests over centuries. \u201cEnchanted\u201d can mean either \u201cbewitched\u201d or \u201ccharmed.\u201d As Sax points out, forests can instill terror. He cites mythic \u201cfigures of terror, which give tangible form to amorphous fears…<\/p>\n

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