Hello ASLE. Nice to meet you.

With the ASLE 2007 Conference quickly approaching, I find myself increasingly eager for the 400+ strong contingent of ecocritics and other authors and scholars to converge at the Wofford campus for what’s sure to be an exciting occasion.  While many have undoubtedly been waiting or working on this conference for weeks or months, I only recently heard about this conference.  As an English major and an environmentalist, what could combine my interests better than the ASLE?  I’m coming to work at the conference, and I fully expect to be thrown to the wolves—but I don’t mind.  I’m glad to know that there is an association for a field of literature that continues to pique my interest and constantly causes me to think about the relationship between humans and the natural world. 

I am almost certain that I can trace my early interest in other creatures and the natural world around me to the cast of animal characters that populate the world of childrens’ books like Winnie the Pooh and other stories like The Jungle Book.  Similarly, I can attribute the origin of my current interest in environmentalism to the first time I read Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael six years ago.  Now, whether reading something like Rousseau’s Reveries of a Solitary Walker or something closer to the works of Barbara Kingsolver or Barry Lopez, I can’t help but appreciate how the natural world inspires literature.  In truly cyclical form, literature can also inspire readers to question or to appreciate their relationship to the natural world.

Among literature’s profoundly influential moments, we can certainly count Rachel Carson’s famed Silent Spring and its influence on the social consciousness, spawning the modern environmental movement and galvanizing action on certain environmental issues.  If Carson were around today, she would probably list climate change as the biggest proximate threat to the natural world that humans depend on for survival.  Perhaps what Carson’s success can teach us is that it will take a feat of literature to inspire action on this newly popularized environmental challenge.                         

This brings me back to why I’m so excited for the opportunity to be present at this conference, and it can be summed up in two words—Bill McKibben.  As the founder of Step It Up 2007 (a Congressional call to arms that took place at nearly 1500 locations around the country this past April) McKibben is one of several contemporary authors that continue to use their literary skills to motivate better stewardship of the Earth’s resources.  It’s quite fitting for him to be delivering the keynote address at this conference—and I can’t wait to hear it.

Looking forward to getting to work and meeting all you fine folks out there...

Colin Hagan    

Comments

[Brian Rhea]

Hello Colin,

We're on our way to Spartanburg ourselves. We aren't exactly scholars, authors or ecocritics (although, we aspire to be). We're looking forward to the conversations.

Brian, Richard and Shaun
www.thoseawake.com