Byron Reading Responce #3

J. Andrew Hubbell of Susquehanna University sheds insight on the controversial issue of “Romantic eco-criticism”: “nature” and “dwelling”, throughout his article “A Question of Nature: Byron and Wordsworth.”  Hubbell examines the different sides in question; Wordsworth believes nature is the antithesis of culture, while Byron deconstructs false binary nature-culture and replaces both with “environment.” Hubbell notes that eco-criticism has two main terms to abide by, “nature” and “dwelling.” Dwelling is perceived as being a practice and a theory and is established between a person’s character and the physical place, creating a sense of home. Hubbell further deciphers how dwelling and wandering are opposites in a sense that tourists’ mentalities are aloof to the environment and to its inhabitants. When a tourist wanders, all that is noticed is how the land can be used for resources; without studying the dynamics that unite an environment and its inhabitants, the tourist cannot know the place, the meaning, and cannot have any ethical care for it. He goes on to say that the dwelling-wandering binary helps to emphasize two other binaries that inform the abysmal ecology that eco-criticism has used to study literature; nature-culture and “ecocentric-anthropocentric.” In this theory culture represents the modern city, modernism, “anthropocentrism” (regarding the human being as the central fact of the universe), and the domination over nature. The city is where humans aren’t exposed to the nature and thus, cannot have a sense of home or the “ethics to care for one’s environment.” Nature refers to the unharmed backcountry, the wild, and where a writer can successfully tap into environmental consciousness. Hubbell states that “Byron recognizes that as soon as “nature” is represented in art, it becomes a part of culture; there is no “nature” in art.” Byron is creating an example where culture and nature correspond with each other, in a sense that nature has a reconstructed meaning to any different culture, through the human point of view.  While Wordsworth presumes that nature is an “ecological understanding” and is isolated from culture. 
            My views have fluctuated greatly throughout annotating “A Question of Nature: Byron and Wordsworth. Hubbell recognizes key points that Wordsworth has created through his works about the differences of nature and culture, to really persuade an interested reader, like myself. He continues to contradict both poets on their beliefs, in addition, to changing my views toward favoring Byron’s theories. Hubbell brings to question the reason why Byron believes that culture and nature coincide, and affirms “that the external world is always already constructed by the human gaze…” When understanding what the quotes meaning was, I remembered the discussion our class took part in about the “soundless tree.” The discussion was relevant to the quote because a person has to experience something for the first time to ever acknowledge its existence. The sound of a tree descending towards the earth floor in the forest was never created until humans experienced the noise. Hubbell greatly exemplifies Byron’s thoughts about how nature is truly never pure, because in order to write, paint, or create art about nature, a person has to conduct a certain point of view on that object in order to properly recreate the scene in their works. Many people differ from each other in their views towards certain things, thus, nature can be discarded or recreated by any person who finds that piece of nature to fulfill their well-being. Hubbell explains a theory created by Byron, in which he analyzes why Venice is such a magnificent Italian city. Byron believes Venice is not such a great city because of the natural settings or the buildings but that humans believe the city is special. This example in the article truly shows the modern life-style of many people, because in today’s society, a person can treat a little bowl of left over soap as trash, while in a third world country people would “kill” for a bowl of that size and be thankful. Americans take for granted little things like throwing away food, wasting water, wasting money that could greatly change someone else’s unfortunate life. Byron realized that Greek culture had evolved from the environment surrounding them, while on tour he realized how great the culture was and how it respected the environment, unlike some cultures today.  Byron wrote poems about the interesting data he found in Greece. Hubbell states that these poems were Byron’s first “ecopoesis” and “have challenged the binary thinking of ecocriticism” ever since.