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Jim Perrin’s Country Diary
Jim Perrin’s is an outdoor writer and journalist who keeps accounts of his travels depicting the characteristics of the places he had been, which represents a good example of how the environment is presented in the texts. Going through the articles, it appears that Perrin writes about his journey in Pembrokeshire and describes every details of the journey every step of the way. The author’s writing encompasses a characteristic that is almost poetic in nature. Primarily, the intention is to remind the readers of the natural wonders out in the wilderness by describing the sceneries and details that composes the entire settings based on the author’s point of view. Such intention demonstrates a manner of representing the environment using texts, comparisons, and symbolism. More importantly, the representation of the environment in Perrin’s writing encompasses certain qualities of the place, its landscape, and nature itself.
Highlighting the qualities of the place in describing the environment through text involves assimilation of characteristics that are synonymous to other familiar objects. For instance, Perrin called the ancient ridgeway from Crymych to Gwaun Valley as the golden road. Such characterization of the place invokes the qualities of the road as being enchanting and spacious. This assumption was drawn from the other elements mentioned in the text pertaining to the road such as Waldo Williams resisting the postwar military design on the 16,000-acre landscape (Perrin, n.d.). In this context, the text describes the pristine condition of the place and the natural settings of the environment that was preserved as a result of resisting design. There are other qualities of the place mentioned in the text such as having no human sound or presence, which depicts the tranquility of the place.
There are a lot of detailed characteristics of the place mentioned by the author, but the manner of presenting and highlighting them was different because Perrin’s writing constitutes the qualities of poetry, which uses a mix of figure of speech including metaphor, simile, and euphemism. These qualities can be observed in several lines in the text such as “the Eye of the Rheidol”, “lover of swamps”, indigo pools in rocky hollows”. Furthermore, the style of writing invokes the characteristics of the place being described in the text in such a way that the reader would be able to construct the picture in their mind depending on how they perceives the meaning of the texts. In a way Perrin’s standpoint about the places he had mentioned in the text can be considered as being an outdoor writer that prefers to explore the wilderness in its natural settings. Furthermore, Perrin expressed his opinion about the wind farms as objects that distort the natural settings of the place and an obstruction.
Wind farm images
The presented collection of images shows wind turbines in wind farms scattered across the United Kingdom. One of the companies investing on the installation of wind turbines is Renewable UK (Renewableuk.com, n.d.). In the presented images, the wind farms demonstrate qualities that promote the use of green energy. This assumption was based on the knowledge about the purpose of the wind turbines as a mechanism that harnesses wind power in order to generate renewable energy. The majority of the readers would recognize a wind turbine with a single glance, but the message it conveys on the images suggests its environmental friendliness because of the environmental settings in the backdrop. Based on this observation, the photos only suggest the subject of sustainability in which energy can be produced without harming the environment.
On the contrary, the photos also depict the obstructing nature of the wind farms in terms of destroying the natural settings of the environment. Such perception was reinforced by images in such a way that all of the photos have a scenic background, but highly obstructed by the presence of the wind farms. For example, the photo of the wind farm in Little Cheyne Court shows a number of wind turbines scattered in the open landscape that appears to be a large farm. However, looking closely, the landscape has an amazing view of horizon, but that is difficult to appreciate because the wind turbines were placed prominently in the view. Another example is the photo of an unidentified location is Scotland where a wind farm is situated. Therefore, the presence of wind farms in scenic location appears to greatly affect the natural settings of the environment.
This perception based on the observation of the images accords with Perrin’s point of view regarding the presence of wind farms in the natural environment. In one of Perrin’s articles, he mentioned about the character of the skyline ridges in Hyddgen as being annihilated by the wind factory of 64 turbines. Perrin expressed his dismay about what happened to the place and how the presence of the wind farm has had an impact towards the environment’s natural settings. In so many ways, Perrin was right about his assumptions about the obstructing characteristic of the wind farms towards the environment. For one, the sheer size of the wind turbines makes it not difficult to notice in any settings. Hence, in order to preserve the character of the place, it is important to reconsider the implications of the wind farms towards the environment.
Shadowlands
In Shadowlands, the collection of images and the accompanying texts expresses the sense of loss as a result of the disaster. For example, the photo showing the farmers Mr. and Mrs. Ogarawa seems like a typical Japanese farmer in their traditional home. However, the underlying struggle is real, but the photo does not indicate such struggle, otherwise an examination of the text reveals the devastation behind the image. The farmers have lost the land that was once a source of their family’s livelihood for six generations. The sense of loss found in the text, which was not expressed effectively in the photo.
Based on the presented texts and images in Shadowlands, the argument that the authors are aiming to convey is that the nuclear means producing energy is dangerous not only for the environment, but also to the society. This argument was found to be persuasive because of the way the images and texts present the information about the subject of losses, which was highlighted by the commentaries that provides the account regarding the consequences of the disaster. These images invoke the expression of the devastation brought by the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, which at some extent was able to convey the message of a sense of loss.
Shadowlands representation was fair enough in terms of accuracy and objectivity. Accuracy was expressed in the way the photos was accompanied with texts to explain what the image are trying to imply. It was accurate in such a way that the information presented in the text includes factual basis. For example, the photo showing the house of a farmer was abandoned due to the disaster. However, one cannot easily assume the facts just by looking at the photo. In this regard, the image includes a commentary stating that the extent of the disaster reaches 20 km with 399 roads due to radiation. Furthermore, the text was able demonstrate objectivity by explicitly expressing the impact of a nuclear meltdown. For example, the photo of what appears to be a ghost town can stand on its own in terms of representing the effect of the disaster.
Discussion
Based on the analysis of the presented texts and images, it is apparent that the discussion demonstrates the practice of discourse in which the valuable information pertaining to the referenced materials was communicated. The exchange of disposition about a subject communicated through various mediums can be referred to as discourse. It is one of the important aspects of social construction, which explains how individuals perceive their environment. On the other hand, social construction refers to an individual’s perception of reality. In relation to representation of the environment, individual perception varies depending on how people perceive reality (isites.harvard.edu, 2008).
Understanding environment and society encompasses consideration to the various aspects that makes up one’s perception (Grieder and Garkovich, 1994). For example, an open landscape may just be one object that represents the physical environment. However, how individuals perceive the landscape varies according to their beliefs, values, and perceptions. A real estate developer may see the open landscape as a suburban village while a farmer may perceive it as a place where golden strands of wheat grows. Therefore, the context of social construct is important in understanding how individuals see their environment.
The analysis of the presented texts and images was undertaken by taking the important elements that stands out. Relying on the non-numerical figures encompasses the use of qualitative method, which is vital in studying discourse and social construct. This is because social construct and discourse requires narrative data that describes the factors affecting the explored topic. Social construct is subjective to individual perception and the only way to measure the pattern depicting the differences and correlation is by examining the descriptive data.
References
greenpeace.org, (n.d.). Shadowlands. [online] Shadowlands. Available at: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/nuclear/safety/accidents/Fukushima-nuclear-disaster/Shadowlands/ [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016].
Greider, T. and Garkovich, L. (1994). Landscapes: The Social Construction of Nature and the Environment. Rural Sociology, [online] 59(1), pp.1-25. Available at: http://www.issw.ch/info/mitarbeitende/hunziker/teaching/download_mat/Greider___Garkovitch_1994.pdf [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016].
http://isites.harvard.edu/, (2008). Discourse Analysis § Q: Foundations of Qualitative Research in Education. [online] Isites.harvard.edu. Available at: http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=qualitative&pageid=icb.page340345 [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016].
Perrin, J. (n.d.). The Country Diary Column. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/profile/jim-perrin [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016].
Renewableuk.com, (n.d.). RenewableUK | The Voice of Wind & Marine Energy. [online] Renewableuk.com. Available at: http://www.renewableuk.com/ [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016].
