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| We've changed in how we view the
land. Wallace Stegner called it “an intangible and spiritual resource,”
and warned that “something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever
let the remaining wilderness be destroyed.” When the pioneers set
out in covered wagons, the daunting the uncharted territory had a soul
unto itself. Now, as we see with WIPP's wastebasket, we own the land,
rather than it owning us.
We reach the point of questioning the very character of the west – what has changed, what is still changing, what (if anything) will never change. We wonder when the “wild” left the Wild West, where the frontier went, where the Native Americans went. We wonder whether you can even talk about the west any more as one singular idea. We wonder how networks of telecommunications have erased the unknown, and where the west fits in the global village. We wonder, in sum, just how and when we made the transition from hallowing the soil as sacred to stuffing it with radioactive rubber gloves. |
A truck transports nuclear waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico. (http://www.wipp.carlsbad.nm.us) |
Glimpses of the New West
• The
Land
• The
Native Americans
• The
Frontier
• The
New West
• Links
Gone are the days of the cowboy roaming the range, an American icon on horseback. Is there still such a thing as the Wild West? The Frontier? What is the distinct character of the West today, if there is one? How will the West adjust to globalization? It is dangerous to offer broad-ranging matter-of-fact answers to a topic as vast as the West itself. These essays present snapshots of the West then and now, with the hope of not just making guesses, but gaining meaningful glimpses into the reality of the New West. This project was initially presented for a English course on Western American literature at Calvin College. Please contact the writer with feedback at nbierma@hockeymail.com and browse other offerings of Center Field Media at www.cfm.iwarp.com.
• About writer Nathan
Bierma