The thoughts of Herzog and "Grizzly Man" Tredwell both show the dramatic difference in the beliefs of humans place in nature. The documentary and the writing evoked my own personal beliefs to arise, along with new ideas of nature.
I think what Herzog does is try to show nature as it is. It is unfair, unequal. Animals do not reason or concern one another. The strongest survive. This outlook brings reality to nature as being raw, dangerous and chaotic. Herzog wanted to take away the romantic notion that nature is pure beauty without the rogue destruction that it truly is. How he portrayed nature showed people the truth that is out there. I do however feel that he separated humans from nature. This is impossible, for we are made of and depend on every aspect of our environment. Maybe we don't belong living in the unsheltered wilderness, but we do need to begin to understand its cycles and our effect on it. I like how Herzog took the romanticism away, but do not agree with his separation of humans and nature.
Tredwell on the other hand saw nature as a romantic being. In many ways you could say he was in love with nature, or his own perception of it. Tredwell romanticized nature as being in its own perfection, separate from the evil that is human. This is exactly the opposite of what Herzog depicts. Tredwell had good intentions, but he was a very warped individual on his views that nature would not harm him. He wanted to show that nature needs our help and protection, and he saw nature as harmless and vulnerable.
Both Herzog and Tredwell have strong points on the reality that nature is. It is raw, chaotic and unfair, but is also effected by humans, both vulnerable and sensitive.
I really enjoy your second paragraph! I feel like you really grasped Herzog's ideas and you presented them wonderfully. Your description of his viewpoint is *beautiful* and it really made me think about nature and what it really is. I never really noticed how Herzog separated humans from nature until you pointed it out, and I fully agree with your ideas on his separation of the two. You did a great job!
ReplyDeleteI love what you said about humans and nature! No matter how poor we treat it and no matter how badly it beats us back, humans and nature are intertwined, and forever will be. Without nature, people would never have come to be - and (obviously) could never survive.
ReplyDeleteI also liked what you said about Treadwell romanticizing the idea of nature - pitting the evil of the human race against the perfection of the world around us. I do have to wonder when it comes to his approach toward the wild though. It seems to me that Timothy's perspective may have made him the vulnerable one, and in dying he may have made nature appear as the evil one - certainly not what he had in mind!