Crosby notes that this sort of response to nature can be just as potentially dangerous as ecohorror. She provides Simon Estok’s definition of ecohorror: “…the irrational and groundless hatred of the natural world.” 3 The second American mode of responding to the environment is known as “ecophilia,” or the love of nature. Consider the seemingly endless list of apocalyptic films in which environmental catastrophe wreaks havoc on humanity. The first she describes as “ecohorror,” a very popular mode of representing environmental issues today. Crosby and the Third Model of Human/Environment InteractionĬrosby opens up her article by describing the two common models of interacting with the environment as presented in American culture. Spoiler alert: Goodman Brown is an awful eco-detective. As it prominently features a terrifying walk through the American wilderness, I thought it might be interesting to apply Crosby’s ideas to Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.” 2 1 This week, in my “American Gothic” independent study, I’m reading a number of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories alongside a number of Poe’s. Crosby’s article, “Beyond Ecophilia: Edgar Allan Poe and the American Tradition of Ecohorror” and immediately wanted to try to apply Poe’s “third model” for human interaction with the environment to another text.
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