tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764159777348916628.post6105280823213063781..comments2024-02-18T00:11:11.490-08:00Comments on Heroines of Fantasy: Eternal ForestHeroines of Fantasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07169664399606524540noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764159777348916628.post-18014407235909680522012-04-12T19:03:25.439-07:002012-04-12T19:03:25.439-07:00One of the coolest things about trees: Most of the...One of the coolest things about trees: Most of them make us look up...Mark Nelson/ Pevanapoet1noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764159777348916628.post-34416630628742411242012-04-12T10:12:08.815-07:002012-04-12T10:12:08.815-07:00Mark, thanks so much for your lovely comments!
...Mark, thanks so much for your lovely comments! <br /><br />Your remark about patience hit home for me; I'd never thought about that being a 'lesson' of trees, but I think your totally right. <br /><br />We'll have to visit the Overland Park Arboretum when you're in KC. ;)Karin Rita Gastreichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13788750258292938903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764159777348916628.post-7485994254217798282012-04-11T06:47:31.192-07:002012-04-11T06:47:31.192-07:00(Terri here, signed in to our blog name because bl...(Terri here, signed in to our blog name because blogger hates me for some reason, and eats all my comments.)<br /><br />Mark, reading your comment reminded me of that show on the History Channel, "Life After People." http://www.history.com/shows/life-after-people<br />It is a bleak show, but very cool too. It takes different scenarios as to the why behind human extinction, and then fast forwards over the scant decades between our downfall and nature's reclaiming of the earth. It starts almost immediately, and just keeps going until we're artifacts left for some farflung space being to find.<br /><br />We humans live so quickly in comparison to trees. Yeah, I get Treebeard, too. I think it's why we're the volatile creatures we are--there's so much to feel and do in the short span of time we have. (A point I make in ATNL, but that's another story.)Heroines of Fantasyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07169664399606524540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764159777348916628.post-70635045810084609082012-04-10T21:26:57.644-07:002012-04-10T21:26:57.644-07:00I remember visiting the Secret Gardens in Seoul, S...I remember visiting the Secret Gardens in Seoul, South Korea when I was a kid. This place was the old royal family compound in the center of the city--at that time around 8 million people. For me, it was like a time warp. It was more than a sanctuary of collected and preserved plants and trees; it was a hint of the heritage of the whole peninsula that was almost ruined by the chaos of the Korean War. 80% of the landmass from the Yalu River (north) to Pusan (south) was denuded of trees and relevant foliage. I felt time there, and the promise that trees ARE. Yeah, caps intended. Too often it seems that trees just are, lower case intended, and subject to definition as hinderences (view blockers), bothers (leaves), boundary stretchers (upset fencing) and the like. Eric Reynolds' tree killing neighbor is only one of a multitude. For such a thing to fall to the vagaries of wind and time is one thing, but to succomb for the above reasons to metal teeth weilded by the dispassionate. <br /><br />I loved the redwoods, but I didn't like driving through the tunnel so adroitly cut in that one fallen trunk. <br /><br />I really, REALLY, GET Treebeard, in so many ways. I've tramped in the Black Forest in Germany, camped in the Hoh Rain Forest in Washington, seen the fall from the Skyline drive in the eastern ranges, and hiked through a goodly chunk of the Cascades, and the sensation I received when I ducked under the barrier and hid for an hour from the tour group in the Secret Gardens trumped them all. I sat with my back against what I was told later was a 600 year old monster, planted by a prince of the royal family. I GOT him, too.<br /><br />I think trees are both the question and the answer of our times: their presence in our urban existence, so carefully collected and protected, convicts us in a way of our incipient hypocrisy. We live too fast, too furious, creating huge metropolitan spaces and ignore the question of the trees: "Why?" And we also ignore the answer they provide: "Patience."<br /><br />Concrete covers up a lot of the rhythms of our experience that were perhaps better left unrestricted. I used to feel bad when I saw trees growing seemingly encased in concrete. I recall a particular park in Paris...<br /><br />And then I think of the roots, and I realize that most of the story is still going on, reaching, leaching, penetrating.<br /><br />Just yesterday, I was walking down the stairs to my classroom. One of those trees in cement shades the steps. At the bottom I noticed a new crack in the cement with a darker hint of something. I took a close look: tree root.<br /><br />So, for those of you who will ever read Poets of Pevana, there is a reason why Devyn stops dead in his tracks running from the bad guys. He feels the roots of the Tree through his boot-soles and receives part of an answer...<br /><br />So, yeah, Karin, Terri, for me Trees are a manifestation of LIFE in all its subtle magic. <br /><br />So I think I have thing for roots. The trees in the Secret Garden grew in a riot of limbs and stretching roots, breaking rock, filling up the spaces between the tended flower beds with slow, patient, intent LIFE. <br /><br />And that's cool.Mark Nelson/ Pevanapoet1noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764159777348916628.post-81545301508664401962012-04-09T17:34:09.743-07:002012-04-09T17:34:09.743-07:00Thanks, Terri!
Yes, when you start to think about...Thanks, Terri!<br /><br />Yes, when you start to think about it, the list goes on and on. Martin's world has the Godswood. Patricia McKillip is another great example of an author who brings the forest to life. <br /><br />Of course, forest is not the only wilderness out there -- and not the only one of worth -- it's just the one I decided to focus on for this post.Karin Rita Gastreichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13788750258292938903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764159777348916628.post-74364516461146811342012-04-09T17:30:46.165-07:002012-04-09T17:30:46.165-07:00What an amazing tribute. Thank you for this, Karin...What an amazing tribute. Thank you for this, Karin.<br /><br />It reminded me of several things, as I read--the first being Mythago Wood (Robert Holdstock) and how the forest was a character in and of itself, as well as being setting. That deep, dark lives in the heart of most all of us, our cultures. One can't be in the forest without feeling it, that connection, that sense of "home" even if the immensity and vitality are frightening.<br /><br />And that reminded me the wild gardens around Dromoland Castle in Ireland--the perfect blend of wild and cultivated. The trees were so old, gnarled and magical--they rememebered wild days. That was evident in every twisting branch. And yet the paths we walked were manicured grass, dotted with gorgeous plantings. Proof that humanity and nature can coexist in the most basic and glorious ways.<br /><br />Last, it reminded me of The Poets of Pevana, and the TREE that plays so vital a part within the urban setting. Again, proof that in all our hearts, the forest lingers. But I'll let Mark comment on that. :)Heroines of Fantasyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07169664399606524540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764159777348916628.post-39486997101188801572012-04-09T06:33:37.335-07:002012-04-09T06:33:37.335-07:00What an amazing tribute. Thank you for this, Karin...What an amazing tribute. Thank you for this, Karin.<br /><br />It reminded me of several things, as I read--the first being Mythago Wood (Robert Holdstock) and how the forest was a character in and of itself, as well as being setting. That deep, dark lives in the heart of most all of us, our cultures. One can't be in the forest without feeling it, that connection, that sense of "home" even if the immensity and vitality are frightening.<br /><br />And that reminded me the wild gardens around Dromoland Castle in Ireland--the perfect blend of wild and cultivated. The trees were so old, gnarled and magical--they rememebered wild days. That was evident in every twisting branch. And yet the paths we walked were manicured grass, dotted with gorgeous plantings. Proof that humanity and nature can coexist in the most basic and glorious ways.<br /><br />Last, it reminded me of The Poets of Pevana, and the TREE that plays so vital a part within the urban setting. Again, proof that in all our hearts, the forest lingers. But I'll let Mark comment on that. :)Terri-Lynnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11468004163467894720noreply@blogger.com