Thank heaven for Lydia Millet (HCN, 4/12/04: Die,
baby harp seal!). Her challenge to us all — especially to
proponents of sentimental, cutesy environmental promotion —
is to find “the guts to assault us with the ugly impacts of our own
appetites,” rather than the romanticism of the animal and scenic
porn of environmental calendars and magazines. “Get ugly,” she
says, and rightfully so, because that is what an undisciplined
society is and does to its space home.
It is a sharp and
meaningful challenge to an ignorant nation. Too few take the impact
seriously, because “it’s too far away, not on TV, not in my
backyard and I don’t care to care about communities of people
in places, because I’m so busy filling my own
individualistic, overstimulated needs.”
Why not make a
case for footage of such ugly impacts with Bill Moyers and NOW and
promote the show nationwide? The segment title should be “American
Narcissism.” Everybody join in.
James C.
Whiteside
Danbury, Connecticut
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Let’s get ugly!.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
