Where the Wild Books Are: A Field Guide to Ecofiction

6. Ecoromance: Doin' the Wild Thing

108 6 Ecoromance d o i n ’ t h e w i l d t h i n g What could be more natural than sex? Sexual relationships are a common component of ecofiction, typically as a secondary plot integrated into the story, only occasionally as the predominant one. Few ecofictions fit a classic category romance literature formula, in which men are spectacularly handsome but not necessarily deep and can be “tamed” by resourceful but needy women. Other romance novels, though, are not necessarily as restrictive in terms of characterization, plot, subject, or theme. There may be relatively few green standard romances, but love and sex are a very common component of ecofiction. The sex is usually heterosexual, sometimes lesbian, occasionally gay male, and sometimes includes a ménage à trois or even menageries. Some classic romances do include ecofictional elements, typically involving a couple uniting as a consequence of their activism or one becoming an activist through the influence of the other. Examples include The Beach House and Skyward by Mary Alice Monroe (saving, respectively, turtles and raptors, 2002, 2003), Southern Storms by Marcia Martin (mustangs, 1992), Carolina Girl by Patricia Rice (an island off the Carolina coast, 2004), The Disappearance by Jasmine Cresswell (the Brazilian rainforest, 1999), An Atomic Romance by Bobbie Ann Mason (a nuclear engineer and a biologist saving deformed wildlife, 2005), Darwin’s Wink by Alison Anderson (two biologists saving ecoromance 109 endangered birds, 2004), The Californiad: A Novel of Life, Love, and Protected Species by Vince Donovan (2006), and Rose Senehi’s Pelican Watch (2007) and In the Shadows of Chimney Rock (2008), both of which are mysteries dealing with habitat destruction and real estate development. Many traditional Native American legends have a strong erotic component. The most famous is Yellow Woman, or Kochininako, a character who beneficially transcends sexual and other behavioral mores, either being abducted by or seducing various characters, including Buffalo Man, Sun Man, or the K’atsina from the north. In Leslie Marmon Silko’s version, a modern woman is abducted by a cattle rustler who may or may not be a K’atsina, but who calls and treats her as Yellow Woman. In the space of a few pages Silko deftly explores the woman’s relation to modern society, the past, sexuality, the spirit world, storytelling, the land, and reality itself. Yellow Woman was published separately in 1993, with an introduction by Melody Graulich, an interview by Kim Barnes, and eight essays. The influence of Native American myth can be found in many romance novels. John Straley’s The Woman Who Married a Bear (1994)is partly based on an Inuit tale. Frederick Manfred’s The Manly-Hearted Woman (1975) explores Native transexuality when a Dakotah woman poses as a man in order to become a shaman disguised as a woman. His Scarlet Plume (1964) is a Romeo and Juliet tale of a Dakotah boy and a white girl, set in 1862. In Brenda Brown Canary’s Home to the Mountain (1975), when a young white man returns to his Oklahoma home, he meets a Native American woman and a healing bond forms between them and with the land. Florida Native American author Connie May Fowler’s Remembering Blue (2000) blends romance, animal fantasy, and tragedy. Some of Margaret Coel’s books featuring Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden and Jesuit priest Father John O’Malley have an ecological theme. In The Dream Stalker (1997), Holden faces death threats for opposing a nuclear waste dump on Arapaho land. The Thunder Keeper (2001) concerns corporate shenanigans in diamond mining, while Killing Raven (2003) is about the seamy side of casino operations. Swain Wolfe’s The Lake Dreams the Sky (1998) is a love story based on the Red Crow Indians’ abiding respect for the natural world. 110 where the wild books are There is a marked contrast between the open eroticism of Native American writing and the moral constraints of Victorian times. One of the most important authors of that period, Sarah Orne Jewett, was more likely to imply sexual relationships than to openly express them. These relationships are frequently between female herbalists and healers, who are inherently conservationists, although there is at least one heterosexual romance that is portrayed in a positive light. Mary Austin was far more open about sex, the erotic aspects of nature, and activism, particularly in The Ford (1917), Starry Adventure (1931), and Cactus Thorn (written...