People fit a forest; not the plain, or the mountains; or the coast. This is why, of course, humanity in its habitation seeks unconsciously to reproduce the arboreal vibe—-nothing too literal-minded, of course; but the light; the proximity; the fragrance; the upper foliage limit of celing, the soft moss carpeting; the sound of traffic outside the window in place of forest streams; and more importantly than all that the immediate somatic
scale, the way being amongst the trees in a temperate zone (not the cathedral excesses of tropical zones)
positions and
situates a human being.
Richard Mabey's entirely wonderful BEECHCOMBINGS has some very interesting passages on the social and cultural history of our ideas of 'the forest'.
ReplyDeleteYour apropos of nothing very much
Simon