Romantic Geography: In Search of the Sublime Landscape

4 - The Human Being

147 4 The Human Being Civ­ il­ iza­ tion has pro­ duced three dis­ tinc­ tive human types: aes­ thete, hero, and saint. All three are in­ clined to­ ward a be­ hav­ ior or quest that goes be­ yond, or tres­ passes, so­ ci­ etal norm. The per­ son ­ stands out from the group, even when, as in the case of the saint, mod­ esty and self­less­ ness are the dis­ tin­ guish­ ing vir­ tues. Aes­ thete, hero, and saint are, in other words, in­ di­ vid­ u­ al­ ists. Why, one might ask, as­ sign them a sep­ ar­ ate chap­ ter in a work en­ ti­ tled “ro­ man­ tic geog­ ra­ phy,” when geog­ ra­ phy is, tra­ di­ tion­ ally, con­ cerned with the group, its ­ well-being and sur­ vi­ val? My an­ swer is that geog­ ra­ phy not only is a spa­ tial sci­ ence but also is an en­ quiry into na­ ture and cul­ ture, the tran­ si­ tion from liv­ ing close to na­ ture to liv­ ing in an ar­ ti­ fac­ tual world, and, in the case of the in­ di­ vid­ ual, from bio­ log­ i­ cal being to cul­ tural being. Geog­ ra­ phers study such tran­ si­ tions, but at a group level, they 148 the human being at­ trib­ ute the ­ changes al­ most ­ solely to im­ per­ sonal ­ forces. I, by­ contrast, intro­ duce in­ di­ vid­ u­ als. Their sto­ ries are per­ sonal, more­ driven by emo­ tion and ­ ideals, more ­ likely to de­ part from group con­ ven­ tion, more ro­ man­ tic. Aes­ thetes Peo­ ples dif­ fer in their ap­ pre­ ci­ a­ tion of the de­ gree of clut­ ter in their nat­ u­ ral and built en­ vi­ ron­ ments. Dwell­ ers of trop­ i­ cal for­ ests know no other set­ ting than trop­ i­ cal for­ est and no doubt ap­ pre­ ciate its clut­ ter. ­ Desert dwell­ ers, by ­ contrast, pre­ fer sim­ ple, open space. As to the built en­ vi­ ron­ ment, north Asian cul­ ture has opted for sweep­ ing sim­ plic­ ity, ­ China’s For­ bid­ den City being an ex­ am­ ple. South and South­ east Asian cul­ tures, by ­ contrast, revel in com­ plex­ ity, the in­ tri­ cately sculp­ tured tem­ ples of ­ Angkor Wat being an ex­ am­ ple. In the West, mod­ ern high art, under the in­ flu­ ence of sleek ma­ chines, fa­ vors the sim­ ple, or what looks sim­ ple. Its aes­ thetic quest takes one from ­ nature’s in­ choate mass to­ culture’s clar­ ity, from the heavi­ ness of body to the light­ ness of­ spirit, from amor­ phous crud­ ity to ar­ tic­ u­ lated el­ e­ gance. Al­ though com­ plex­ ity and sim­ plic­ ity may both be val­ ued at the same time, they also mark a pro­ gres­ sion, the de­ sire to move from one to the other. One such pro­ gres­ sion is from the bio­ log­ i­ cal needs of the body to the aes­ thetic/cul­ tural as­ pi­ ra­ tions of the­ spirit. Ca­ mille Pa­ glia il­ lus­ trates it by com­ par­ ing two sculp­ tures of the fe­ male human body: the Venus of Wil­ len­ dorf (30,000 BCE) 149 the human being and Queen Ne­ fer­ titi (1350 BCE). Venus of Wil­ len­ dorf is pure na­ ture—a ­ chthonic, ­ bowel-of-earth god­ dess. ­ Paglia’s char­ ac­ ter­ iza­ tion is ­ richly vi­ tu­ per­ a­ tive, say­ ing of her that she “feels but does not see or think;” that she is “blind, ton­ gue­ less, brain­ less, arm­ less, ­ knock-kneed . . . a ­ rooted tuber that ­ presses down;” that she has “no lines, only ­ curves and cir­ cles;” that she is “form­ less, mired in the mi­ as­ mic swamp;” that she is “life, hence ­ squalor.”1 In sharp­ est ­ contrast is Queen Ne­ fer­ titi, “the tri­ umph of Apol­ lo­ nian image over the lumpi­ ness and hor­ ror of ­ mother earth. Every­ thing fat, slack, and ­ sleepy is gone.” If the Venus of Wil­ len­ dorf is all body, Ne­ fer­ titi is all head. Her “face ­ gleams with the new­ ness of re­ birth, a sun that never sets.” Her...