really, i am just relieved to not have to read dillard anymore...

I enjoyed Farewell, My Subaru. I thought it was, well, pragmatic. Fine’s style of narrative combined with practical philosophy with some anecdotes (i.e. recipes) thrown in made for a quick and accessible read, which is a relief after haggling with Dillard and Beale last week.

Fine really asserted some of the more interesting aspects of environmental criticism that I read in Buell in such a way that a newbie environmental lit reader like me could engage and appreciate.

One of the concepts from Buell that I found resonating in Fine’s work is that of ecocentrism. While it was cool to read abstractly about it, it was extra cool to see Fine working through his struggle with the idea. From Fine I gained a better understanding of the idea that people and the spaces they inhabit, especially the natural environment they subside and rely on, are symbiotically engaged. Of course I realized this before, but hearing it from Fine gave me a deeper perspective on it. Can I admit here that while I was reading I struggled with my own strongly anthropomorphic feelings toward the environment? Briefly, let me just say that I am, by far, the most irresponsible environmentalist in the classroom. Admitting this is the first step…

One more point I want to make about Fine’s book is on the actual rhetoric of his story. The whole, “I am a reformed mile long carbon footprint suburbanite” really worked as a context for him to position himself as a fresh-to-the-land, ready-to-commit, willing-to-learn rancher. He was quirky and self-deprecating and honest and this all worked for this story and the audience that he was talking to. He provided dos and donts, alternative options, bloody recounts of his first few weeks and these were all the right moves for me as part of his audience. There was a self awareness, like in Lopez and Dillard, coupled with some greenspeak, also like Lopez and Dillard, but there was a sense of bewilderment and trepidation about his approach to environmentalism that was not present in the other two authors that really differentiated Fine from the rest of the writers. I appreciated this as I feel that same bewilderment and trepidation.