Accidental gravity : residents, travelers, and the landscape of memory / Bernard Quetchenbach. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Quetchenbach, Bernard W., 1955- author.

Standardized Title:

Essays. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nature and civilization--United States.

Nature and civilization.

Environmental protection--Yellowstone National Park.

Environmental protection.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (226 pages)

Place of Publication:

Corvallis, Oregon : Oregon State University Press, 2017.

Summary:

"The compelling essays in Bernard Quetchenbach's Accidental Gravity move from upstate New York to the western United States, from urban and suburban places to wild lands. In the first section of the book, he focuses on suburban neighborhoods, where residents respond ambivalently to golf-course geese and other unruly natural presences; in the second section, he juxtaposes these humanized places with Yellowstone National Park. Quetchenbach writes about current environmental issues in the Greater Yellowstone area--wildfire, invasive species, ever-increasing numbers of tourists--in the context of climate change and other contemporary pressures. Accidental Gravity negotiates the difficult edge between a naive belief in an enduring, unassailable natural world and the equally naive belief that human life takes place in some unnatural, more mediated context. The title refers to the accidental but nonetheless meaningful nexus where the personal meets and combines with the universal--those serendipitous moments when the individual life connects to the larger rhythms of time and planet"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Preface: Convergence

I

Peregrines

You Can't Always Want What You Want

Canadas

Summertime

Ferry Crossing

Black-Throated Blue

Thing in the Woods

II

Travelers

In Wonderland

The Woods are Burning

Red Summer

Invaders

A Good Bear

Confluence

Coda

Billings, Montana

Bibliography.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-87071-888-6

OCLC:

970042839