LANDSCAPE
On the Country and the City
William Wordsworth
Read Wordsworth’s damning indictment of cities on p138 at Point 4. through to “… knowing not each other’s names.’”
“…regular travel through nature was a necessary antidote to the evils of the city.” (p138) You’re a citizen of the city – do you agree that you sometimes need to connect with nature in order to survive your daily life in the concrete jungle of the Sydney CBD? Have you ever been conscious of feeling different after time spent near the ocean or in a rural setting? How do you account for the effect of nature on your psyche?
What do you glean from reading the extracts of Wordsworth’s poems? Why do you think de Botton selected these particular pieces? Comment on the visual texts included in this section – what effect do they have? Do they compliment or provide contrast to the poetry? Why do you think de Botton does this?
de Botton juxtaposes extracts from Wordsworth’s poems against his experience as a tourist in the Lake District with a not-so-subtle irony (as he does throughout most of this text!). Provide examples of this. What is the effect?
Throughout this section runs a thread of reflection on notions of masculinity/adulthood in which Wordsworth is held up against Byron (p136 and p156) and parodied in literary journals (p137). Yet he holds firm to his belief in his poems (and, by extension, the natural landscapes his poems showcased) and “their destiny, to console the afflicted, to add sunshine to daylight by making the happy happier, to teach the young and the gracious of every age to see, to think and feel, and therefore to become more actively and securely virtuous…” (p137) Do you find Wordsworth to be a sympathetic figure? Why or why not?
Do you agree with his belief in the power of a human encounter with the natural landscape?
Which of the arguments de Botton poses in p131-156 do you find most compelling? Why?
Do you think de Botton himself is convinced? Why or why not? What features of his language causes you to come to this conclusion?
Additional Texts:
Novel/Film: A Room with a View (again, sorry!) The violets scene and the effect on George Emerson.
Poem: Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s This Lime-Tree Bower, My Prison
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173248
Sample Topic Sentences:
An encounter with the natural world has the power to undo the wearying effects of life in the city.
“To accept even in part Wordsworth’s argument may require that we accept a prior principle: that our identities are to a greater or lesser extent malleable; that we change according to whom – and sometimes what – we are with.” (p147)
“Natural scenes have the power to suggest certain values to us – oaks dignity, pines resolution, lakes calm – and, in unobtrusive ways, may therefore act as inspirations to virtue.” (p148)
“…unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.” (p150)
“If we are pained by the values of the age or of the élite, it can be a source of relief to come upon reminders of the diversity of life on the planet, to hold in mind that, alongside the business of the great people of the land, there are also pipits tseeping in meadows.” (p151)
On the Sublime
Edmund Burke
Job
Describe an experience in which an encounter with the natural landscape has made you feel small.
“The value of landscapes was no longer to be decided solely on formal aesthetic criteria (the harmony of colours or arrangements of lines) or on economic or practical concerns, but according to the power of places to arouse the mind to sublimity.” (p165) How does de Botton unpack and define the notion of “the sublime” in this section (p159-179)?
Flick through the section and spend a few moments studying each of the artworks that de Botton has selected for inclusion. Why these works? What is the effect of having them scattered throughout these pages?
In Point 4. and Point 5. de Botton extols the virtues of being made to feel small – what are they? Do you agree?
Find a bible and read the Old Testament Book of Job, chapter 40 – 42 for a description of the sublime that the bible attributes to the voice of God. How does this represent the relationship between humans and the landscape?
Point 6., 7. And 8. discuss a religious perspective on encounters with the sublime, saying,
“Asked to explain to Job why he has been made to suffer though he has been good, God draws Job’s attention to the mighty phenomenon of nature. Do not be surprised that things have not gone your way: the universe is greater than you. Do not be surprised that you do not understand why they have not gone your way: for you cannot fathom the logic of the universe. See how small you are next to the mountains. Accept what is bigger than you and you do not understand. The world may appear illogical to Job, but it does not follow that it is illogical per se. Our lives are not the measure of all things: consider sublime places for a reminder of human insignificance and frailty.
There is a strictly religious message here. God assures Job that he has a place in his heart, even if all events do not centre around him and may at times appear to run contrary to his interest. When divine wisdom eludes human understanding, the righteous, made aware of their limitations by the spectacle of sublime nature, must continue to trust in God’s plans for the universe.” (p175-178)
Between the beginning and ending of the quote above is placed a photograph of the Sinai desert taken by de Botton himself. What is the effect of the inclusion of this photograph combined with de Botton’s comments on the religious significance of the Sinai desert?
Does this idea of being reminded by the natural landscape (or by God) that you are not in control of your circumstances bring you comfort? Why or why not?
How would you describe this relationship between the Israelites and the landscape? How might this relationship develop similarly or differently in a modern context?
Additional Texts:
Film: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Picture Book: The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Sheffler
Essay: The first and titular essay of G.K. Chesterton’s Tremendous Trifles
Sample Topic Sentences:
The enormity of the natural world puts us in our place.
Scenes of power and majesty in nature – the ocean, sandstone cliffs, snow-topped peaks – have, for centuries, communicated a sense of the divine.
“Sublime landscapes, through their grandeur and power, retain a symbolic role in bringing us to accept without bitterness or lamentation the obstacles we cannot overcome and events we cannot make sense of.” (p178)
“Human life is as overwhelming, but it is the vast spaces of nature that perhaps provide us with the finest, the most respectful reminder of all that exceeds us. If we spend time in them, they may help us to accept more graciously the great unfathomable events that molest our lives and will inevitably return us to dust.” (p178-179)
ART
On Eye-opening Art
Vincent van Gogh
“… a successful work will draw out the features capable of exciting a sense of beauty and interest in the spectator. It will foreground elements ordinarily lost in the mass of data, it will stabilise them and, once we are acquainted with them, prompt us imperceptibly to find them in the world about us – or, if we have already found them, lend us confidence to give them weight in our lives.” (p187) How does the imagination interact with the physical landscape to create a sense of beauty for the observer?
“It was for Van Gogh the mark of every great painter to allow us to see certain aspects of the world more clearly.” (p190) How is a painting or work of art different to a photograph or to seeing something with one’s own eyes?
“Art cannot single-handedly create enthusiasm, nor does it arise from sentiments of which non-artists are devoid; it merely contributes to enthusiasm and guides us to be more conscious of feelings that we might previously have experienced only tentatively or hurriedly.” (p214) What is the role of enthusiasm in experiencing a landscape? What about time? Or confidence in one’s own opinions?
Sample Topic Sentences:
“… artists could paint a portion of the world and in consequence open the eyes of others to it.” (p189)
“Art cannot single-handedly create enthusiasm, nor does it arise from sentiments of which non-artists are devoid; it merely contributes to enthusiasm and guides us to be more conscious of feelings that we might previously have experienced only tentatively or hurriedly.” (p214)
On Possessing Beauty
John Ruskin
“A dominant impulse on encountering beauty is the desire to hold on to it: to possess it and give it weight in our lives. There is an urge to say, ‘I was here, I saw this and it mattered to me.’” (p218) de Botton suggests that taking photographs, carving our name (or similar) or purchasing souvenirs are all attempted acts of possession of the beauty we’ve encountered. What have you done in an attempt to somehow hold onto and possess beauty?
On p22, de Botton summarises John Ruskin’s five central conclusions about possessing beauty. What does this passage suggest about the relationship between the individual and the landscape?
“…drawing could teach us to see: to notice rather than to look. In the process of re-creating with our own hand what lies before our eyes, we seem naturally to move from a position of observing beauty in a loose way to one where we acquire a deep understanding of its constituent parts and hence more secure memories of it.” (p222)
Choose a picturesque scene. You will need paper and pen/pencil – maybe outside the cathedral or go down to Darling Harbour. Somewhere pretty. Circular Quay or the Botanical Gardens if you can swing it. Take a photo of an attractive object or scene with your iPad. Then put the iPad away and, with your paper and pen/pencil only, either sketch the thing/scene or write a “word picture” – that is, an incredibly detailed description, of what you see. (You could attempt to just look, but beware: “It is a measure of how accustomed we are to inattention that we would be thought unusual and perhaps dangerous if we stopped and started at a place for as long as a sketcher would require to draw it.” p222)
Now that you have drawn or written about it, when you get back to the classroom, hand your iPad to a partner and while they look at your photo, describe what you studied. How good was your recall of detail? Do you think that Ruskin was onto something?
“We move from a numb ‘I like this’ to ‘I like this because…’” (p228) Remember back to Van Gogh and his perceived artistic role of selecting and promoting what he saw to be beautiful and foregrounding it through his art in order to help people see a landscape to its full potential. How might this approach of Ruskin’s allow us to find the artist in ourselves? How might we come to know ourselves better through a study of the landscape? What does this suggest about the relationship between people and landscapes?
Read the lengthy quote of Ruskin’s on p230. On p231, de Botton says “The finished product might not then be marked by genius, but at least it would have been motivated by a search for an authentic representation of an experience.” Do you feel inspired to take up sketching? Why or why not?
Note that in this quote from p231 (above) de Botton uses almost all of our “bingo” words for Module C: Representing People and Landscapes. How might a sketch or word picture like those advocated by Ruskin be an authentic representation of an experience? What might it suggest about the interaction between the individual and the landscape.
Look at the images on p224, 227, 229 and 236 and read Ruskin’s “word pictures” on p233. Read the text under Point 8. on p234. How does this incorporation of psychological language represent the relationship between people and landscapes? What impact does Ruskin suggest an interaction with beauty should have on an observer?
Sample Topic Sentences:
“Technology may make it easier to reach beauty, but it has not simplified the process of possessing or appreciating it.” (p223)
“Through such psychological descriptions, we seem to come closer to answering the question of why a place has stirred us… of understanding what we have loved.” (p235)
This is “what Ruskin judged to be the twin purposes of art: to make sense of pain and to fathom the sources of beauty.” (p238)
On the Country and the City
William Wordsworth
Read Wordsworth’s damning indictment of cities on p138 at Point 4. through to “… knowing not each other’s names.’”
“…regular travel through nature was a necessary antidote to the evils of the city.” (p138) You’re a citizen of the city – do you agree that you sometimes need to connect with nature in order to survive your daily life in the concrete jungle of the Sydney CBD? Have you ever been conscious of feeling different after time spent near the ocean or in a rural setting? How do you account for the effect of nature on your psyche?
What do you glean from reading the extracts of Wordsworth’s poems? Why do you think de Botton selected these particular pieces? Comment on the visual texts included in this section – what effect do they have? Do they compliment or provide contrast to the poetry? Why do you think de Botton does this?
de Botton juxtaposes extracts from Wordsworth’s poems against his experience as a tourist in the Lake District with a not-so-subtle irony (as he does throughout most of this text!). Provide examples of this. What is the effect?
Throughout this section runs a thread of reflection on notions of masculinity/adulthood in which Wordsworth is held up against Byron (p136 and p156) and parodied in literary journals (p137). Yet he holds firm to his belief in his poems (and, by extension, the natural landscapes his poems showcased) and “their destiny, to console the afflicted, to add sunshine to daylight by making the happy happier, to teach the young and the gracious of every age to see, to think and feel, and therefore to become more actively and securely virtuous…” (p137) Do you find Wordsworth to be a sympathetic figure? Why or why not?
Do you agree with his belief in the power of a human encounter with the natural landscape?
Which of the arguments de Botton poses in p131-156 do you find most compelling? Why?
Do you think de Botton himself is convinced? Why or why not? What features of his language causes you to come to this conclusion?
Additional Texts:
Novel/Film: A Room with a View (again, sorry!) The violets scene and the effect on George Emerson.
Poem: Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s This Lime-Tree Bower, My Prison
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173248
Sample Topic Sentences:
An encounter with the natural world has the power to undo the wearying effects of life in the city.
“To accept even in part Wordsworth’s argument may require that we accept a prior principle: that our identities are to a greater or lesser extent malleable; that we change according to whom – and sometimes what – we are with.” (p147)
“Natural scenes have the power to suggest certain values to us – oaks dignity, pines resolution, lakes calm – and, in unobtrusive ways, may therefore act as inspirations to virtue.” (p148)
“…unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.” (p150)
“If we are pained by the values of the age or of the élite, it can be a source of relief to come upon reminders of the diversity of life on the planet, to hold in mind that, alongside the business of the great people of the land, there are also pipits tseeping in meadows.” (p151)
On the Sublime
Edmund Burke
Job
Describe an experience in which an encounter with the natural landscape has made you feel small.
“The value of landscapes was no longer to be decided solely on formal aesthetic criteria (the harmony of colours or arrangements of lines) or on economic or practical concerns, but according to the power of places to arouse the mind to sublimity.” (p165) How does de Botton unpack and define the notion of “the sublime” in this section (p159-179)?
Flick through the section and spend a few moments studying each of the artworks that de Botton has selected for inclusion. Why these works? What is the effect of having them scattered throughout these pages?
In Point 4. and Point 5. de Botton extols the virtues of being made to feel small – what are they? Do you agree?
Find a bible and read the Old Testament Book of Job, chapter 40 – 42 for a description of the sublime that the bible attributes to the voice of God. How does this represent the relationship between humans and the landscape?
Point 6., 7. And 8. discuss a religious perspective on encounters with the sublime, saying,
“Asked to explain to Job why he has been made to suffer though he has been good, God draws Job’s attention to the mighty phenomenon of nature. Do not be surprised that things have not gone your way: the universe is greater than you. Do not be surprised that you do not understand why they have not gone your way: for you cannot fathom the logic of the universe. See how small you are next to the mountains. Accept what is bigger than you and you do not understand. The world may appear illogical to Job, but it does not follow that it is illogical per se. Our lives are not the measure of all things: consider sublime places for a reminder of human insignificance and frailty.
There is a strictly religious message here. God assures Job that he has a place in his heart, even if all events do not centre around him and may at times appear to run contrary to his interest. When divine wisdom eludes human understanding, the righteous, made aware of their limitations by the spectacle of sublime nature, must continue to trust in God’s plans for the universe.” (p175-178)
Between the beginning and ending of the quote above is placed a photograph of the Sinai desert taken by de Botton himself. What is the effect of the inclusion of this photograph combined with de Botton’s comments on the religious significance of the Sinai desert?
Does this idea of being reminded by the natural landscape (or by God) that you are not in control of your circumstances bring you comfort? Why or why not?
How would you describe this relationship between the Israelites and the landscape? How might this relationship develop similarly or differently in a modern context?
Additional Texts:
Film: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Picture Book: The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Sheffler
Essay: The first and titular essay of G.K. Chesterton’s Tremendous Trifles
Sample Topic Sentences:
The enormity of the natural world puts us in our place.
Scenes of power and majesty in nature – the ocean, sandstone cliffs, snow-topped peaks – have, for centuries, communicated a sense of the divine.
“Sublime landscapes, through their grandeur and power, retain a symbolic role in bringing us to accept without bitterness or lamentation the obstacles we cannot overcome and events we cannot make sense of.” (p178)
“Human life is as overwhelming, but it is the vast spaces of nature that perhaps provide us with the finest, the most respectful reminder of all that exceeds us. If we spend time in them, they may help us to accept more graciously the great unfathomable events that molest our lives and will inevitably return us to dust.” (p178-179)
ART
On Eye-opening Art
Vincent van Gogh
“… a successful work will draw out the features capable of exciting a sense of beauty and interest in the spectator. It will foreground elements ordinarily lost in the mass of data, it will stabilise them and, once we are acquainted with them, prompt us imperceptibly to find them in the world about us – or, if we have already found them, lend us confidence to give them weight in our lives.” (p187) How does the imagination interact with the physical landscape to create a sense of beauty for the observer?
“It was for Van Gogh the mark of every great painter to allow us to see certain aspects of the world more clearly.” (p190) How is a painting or work of art different to a photograph or to seeing something with one’s own eyes?
“Art cannot single-handedly create enthusiasm, nor does it arise from sentiments of which non-artists are devoid; it merely contributes to enthusiasm and guides us to be more conscious of feelings that we might previously have experienced only tentatively or hurriedly.” (p214) What is the role of enthusiasm in experiencing a landscape? What about time? Or confidence in one’s own opinions?
Sample Topic Sentences:
“… artists could paint a portion of the world and in consequence open the eyes of others to it.” (p189)
“Art cannot single-handedly create enthusiasm, nor does it arise from sentiments of which non-artists are devoid; it merely contributes to enthusiasm and guides us to be more conscious of feelings that we might previously have experienced only tentatively or hurriedly.” (p214)
On Possessing Beauty
John Ruskin
“A dominant impulse on encountering beauty is the desire to hold on to it: to possess it and give it weight in our lives. There is an urge to say, ‘I was here, I saw this and it mattered to me.’” (p218) de Botton suggests that taking photographs, carving our name (or similar) or purchasing souvenirs are all attempted acts of possession of the beauty we’ve encountered. What have you done in an attempt to somehow hold onto and possess beauty?
On p22, de Botton summarises John Ruskin’s five central conclusions about possessing beauty. What does this passage suggest about the relationship between the individual and the landscape?
“…drawing could teach us to see: to notice rather than to look. In the process of re-creating with our own hand what lies before our eyes, we seem naturally to move from a position of observing beauty in a loose way to one where we acquire a deep understanding of its constituent parts and hence more secure memories of it.” (p222)
Choose a picturesque scene. You will need paper and pen/pencil – maybe outside the cathedral or go down to Darling Harbour. Somewhere pretty. Circular Quay or the Botanical Gardens if you can swing it. Take a photo of an attractive object or scene with your iPad. Then put the iPad away and, with your paper and pen/pencil only, either sketch the thing/scene or write a “word picture” – that is, an incredibly detailed description, of what you see. (You could attempt to just look, but beware: “It is a measure of how accustomed we are to inattention that we would be thought unusual and perhaps dangerous if we stopped and started at a place for as long as a sketcher would require to draw it.” p222)
Now that you have drawn or written about it, when you get back to the classroom, hand your iPad to a partner and while they look at your photo, describe what you studied. How good was your recall of detail? Do you think that Ruskin was onto something?
“We move from a numb ‘I like this’ to ‘I like this because…’” (p228) Remember back to Van Gogh and his perceived artistic role of selecting and promoting what he saw to be beautiful and foregrounding it through his art in order to help people see a landscape to its full potential. How might this approach of Ruskin’s allow us to find the artist in ourselves? How might we come to know ourselves better through a study of the landscape? What does this suggest about the relationship between people and landscapes?
Read the lengthy quote of Ruskin’s on p230. On p231, de Botton says “The finished product might not then be marked by genius, but at least it would have been motivated by a search for an authentic representation of an experience.” Do you feel inspired to take up sketching? Why or why not?
Note that in this quote from p231 (above) de Botton uses almost all of our “bingo” words for Module C: Representing People and Landscapes. How might a sketch or word picture like those advocated by Ruskin be an authentic representation of an experience? What might it suggest about the interaction between the individual and the landscape.
Look at the images on p224, 227, 229 and 236 and read Ruskin’s “word pictures” on p233. Read the text under Point 8. on p234. How does this incorporation of psychological language represent the relationship between people and landscapes? What impact does Ruskin suggest an interaction with beauty should have on an observer?
Sample Topic Sentences:
“Technology may make it easier to reach beauty, but it has not simplified the process of possessing or appreciating it.” (p223)
“Through such psychological descriptions, we seem to come closer to answering the question of why a place has stirred us… of understanding what we have loved.” (p235)
This is “what Ruskin judged to be the twin purposes of art: to make sense of pain and to fathom the sources of beauty.” (p238)