Sarah Lambert                                                                                 about 180 words
sel15@geneseo.edu

Student, INTD 105-19: Scientific Writing

“The Trouble With Wilderness” Response
By Sarah Lambert

Throughout his piece written about the connotations and interpretations of the word “wilderness,” William Cronon develops the assertion that “wilderness” is not entirely wild, “it is quite profoundly a human creation-indeed.”

    This awesome, other-worldly “wilderness” attracted many. Cronon exemplifies other’s views by quoting multiple writers who have described nature with powerful allusions to religion and God’s presence because of the way it struck awe into the hearts of men. Attitudes towards it shifted from bewilderment and distaste to admiration and reverence which caused people to preserve them as national parks. The national parks, as Cronon points out, have provided us with a false sense of security that the wild is still there to be “our true home” while in fact, it is just a false dichotomy. Cronon summarizes by stating that these parks are “standing for…wild freedom…and seeming to represent a highly attractive natural alternative,” an alternative to civilization whereas it’s truly just a side effect.

    Though his argument that wilderness isn’t entirely wild is intriguing, his statements do not exactly fit into my ideas about the boundaries of humanity and nature.

Alec Toufexis

agt9@geneseo.edu

INTD 105-19 Scientific Writing

Most believe that wildlife sanctuaries are a place to see nature in its most untouched state. However, Cronon claims that these serene landscape are not actually wild, but are in fact an “Illusion”. An illusion that began with the search for the “religious experience” and continues to this day with the fear of a diminishing frontier. Places such as Niagara Falls, Yosemite, and Yellowstone are littered with lodges, dams, trails, and boardwalks which cater to the needs of human recreation and their false sense of being in a true wilderness.

Cronin believes that wilderness can be found everywhere, not just in a protected state or national park. To truly be responsible with regards to nature, we have to find the middle ground between using nature or not.

I thought that Cronin’s stance on the issue was very insightful. A lot of his ideas, such as the false sense of true wilderness and the need to find the middle ground made sense. Also the idea that humans and nature can coexist, if humans are responsible, loosely connects to The Greek Tree, in that the tree survives even though it is directly affected by humans.

Alexis Baer                                                                                        about 150 words
anb8@geneseo.edu

Student, INTD 105-19: Writing Science

“The Trouble with Wilderness” Reflection
by Alexis Baer

Nature is commonly known for the beauty of plants, animals, and several landscapes which was formed before humankind existed; it was completely untouched and pure. Past history has revealed individuals overlooking it’s significance on a daily basis and often resented the idea of the wilderness. Over time, the meaning of nature has greatly transitioned from something so unappreciated to something widely cherished. William Cronon’s main argument focuses on how individuals simply choose to distance themselves from “home” by developing multiple communities in either towns or cities. Preservationists feel that our environment should be properly maintained instead of tending to societies wants; often times, humans do more damage then intended or recognized. My object, the doors, connect with Cronon’s ideas perfectly because it represents a form of boundary that separates humans from the wilderness. Although a door is free to enter and exit, most people will chose to stay inside if given the option, similar to ancestors staying in their civilizations.

Simon Lee                                                                     Approximately  150 Words

Shl5@geneseo.edu

Scientific Writing 105-19

The Trouble with Wilderness

By Simon Lee

Can nature be man-made? William Cronon argues in his essay, The Trouble with Wilderness, that the wilderness is “the creation of very particular human cultures”. Cronon talks about how at first the word nature had a very negative connotations because in Biblical times the wilderness is where satan tried his best to force Moses and countless others to give into their temptations. However, there was a turn in attitude of the frontier because of the sublime and the frontier.  Writers expressed their awe for nature in different ways, but they were all referring to nature as a cathedral. He then goes to explain how the wilderness is slowly being destroyed and that the only way to save it is for human intervention.

This is the case with The Greek Tree. The students may not have realized it while they were painting the tree but by making it a Geneseo landmark, they have saved the tree from being cut down and used for human needs in the future.

Rachael Natoli                                                      Approximately 170  words

rln5@geneseo.edu

INTD 105-19: Scientific Writing

“The Trouble With Wilderness” by William Cronon discusses how the purity of wilderness is an illusion and that “..people have actually been manipulating the natural world on various scales for as long as we have a record of their passing.” He states that some think the only way to have pristine wilderness is to return hunter-gathering yet he believes we must learn to honor the wild while still enjoying the world as we know it.

Cronon also brings up the point of using land sustainably and thinking about the effects of our actions before changing the land. We have to learn to combine nature and humanity rather than thinking of them as separate entities. This connects to my mini-essay about the gazebo because that is a symbol of mixing of the natural world and the human world. In the article, he talks negatively about how wealthy humans use wilderness experiences to escape the industrial world. However, I believe that this escape is healthy and should be welcomed.

Jason Gerbsch                                                             Approximately 220 words

jg33@geneseo.edu

INTD 105-19: Scientific Writing

In his essay, “The Trouble with Wilderness”, Cronon states that the American wilderness is not very natural, more so a construct of man.  He makes two points supporting his view of a constructed wilderness, romanticism and the frontier.  During the colonial eras and the beginning of America, the term wilderness was a word that instilled terror.  Romanticism changed this early on by changing the concept of wilderness from a place of terror, to a place of sacredness.  Romantics tied the wilderness and religion together, using faith to describe the wilderness as places of heavenly beauty and places to be close to God.  The frontier aspect painted the wild as a place of not only religious significance, but also a place for experiencing what it meant to be an American.  Both movements in American history led to the protection of nature not for the sake of protecting it, but for creating places where people can go to abandon their homes in civilization for a time in exchange for a false “home” in nature, where they truly “belong”.

This idea of falsifying nature in order to appease our desire to separate ourselves from civilization I can see with Sturges Hall.  The building, a sign of civilization, covered on ivy in order to appear “natural.”

Justin D’Souza                                                                                                                            About 170 words    SUNY Geneseo

Science Writing

The Paradox of Wilderness

By Justin D’Souza

Many equate “wilderness” with gorgeous, expansive swaths of land, free from any human influence whatsoever.  However, William Cronon challenges the notion that wilderness opposes the human world, calling it a “profoundly human place.” Unlike biblical times, where the wilderness represented the devilish deserts and jungles outside of Eden, environmentalists like John Muir perceived wilderness as a “sublime [godly]” region. This coupled with the idea of a “manly” frontier led many rich capitalists to nature…but only for the mere pleasure of recreation – the wilderness has been designated by humans for humans. In today’s age, environmentalists urge saving biodiversity against human interference, however, the only way to do this, besides killing off our entire species, is interference in nature. Therefore, irony and paradoxes cripple modern environmental ideology.

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Geneseo’s Arboretum correlates with Cronon’s thoughts. Far from sublime and godlike, it is a “wild place close to home.” This allows us to “abandon the dualism that sees the tree in the garden as artificial…and the tree in the wilderness as natural.” The arboretum blends both a garden and forest.

Erik Buckingham                                                         approximately 150 words

ekb7@geneseo.edu

Student, INTD 105-19: Science Writing

“The Trouble With Wilderness” Summary

By: Erik Buckingham

Environmentalists take action against the destruction of wildlife, attempting to preserve national parks for as long as possible. It has been discovered that our ancestors viewed nature as something to be avoided rather than something to be appreciated. In “The Trouble With Wilderness”, William Cronon explains that, “Wilderness, in short, was a place to which one came only against one’s will, and always in fear and trembling.”

Cronon envisions a world where we do not have to go outside a city to appreciate wilderness and nature. For example, trees and flowers lining the streets of Boston are not affected by the concrete around them, and people living in the city are not negatively affected by the trees. My mini-essay relates to this because the Suess Spruce tree is found in the middle of a college campus. We learn and live in brick buildings but allow various trees, especially the Suess Spruce, to exist.

Mike Emanuele

The Trouble with Wilderness by William Cronon

Humanity has taken it upon itself to preserve nature because of it’s beauty and it’s importance to earth. This is the popular opinion of environmentalists and most people. However, Hundreds of years ago the wilderness wasn’t something to be preserved but something to be avoided. The author, William Cronon, describes the wilderness as non-human. In history, towns and cities would always sit on this boundary between the humanity and inhumanity. This creates a dualism that the majority of people are unfamiliar with. In modern day we’ve learned to coexist but we still manage to destroy wilderness when we touch it. Humans have created a paradox from the moment our existence began, “if nature dies because we enter it, then the only way to save nature is to kill ourselves.” My essay is about learning to coexist with nature and finding it’s similarities between human and non-human. We try to live amongst nature because it is natural. Nonetheless, Humans cannot live in a primitive environment such as the wilderness, we must create our own homes by taking it away from other life. This isn’t necessarily something bad.

Hunter Cowles                                                                               About 150 words

 In Donna Haraway’s article, “A Cyborg Manifesto”, Haraway explains there are three boundaries that divide humans from animals, organisms from machines, and organic from inorganic. The metaphorical  “cyborg” symbolizes something that can go beyond these boundaries due to the fact cyborgs have both mechanical and organic components. Haraway states anything capable of overcoming  the things that limit it, can reach its true potential. Motivational speaker Eric Thomas once said “The most important thing is: to be able at any moment, to sacrifice what you are, for what you will become”.  This quote means in one must test one’s limitations  in order to improve itself. This theory also applies to social, racial, and gender related boundaries.  If we accept a society without labels or limitations, we can achieve prosperity. Haraway embraces growth under ambiguous, and unbiased circumstances. Since the cyborg is both natural and artificial, it is exempt from traditional binarisms;a cyborg isn’t confined to one identity.