Forests: The Shadow of Civilisation

[1] First the Forests

In this chapter, Harrison discusses how humanity has been affected by “forests” from the beginning to the modern civilisation. He uses Rome as a prime example of a society that emerged from forests. More specifically, “when Aeneas travels up the Tiber and comes to the site of the future imperial city,” he ends up in an amazing forest; contemporary Rome is a city that was not so long covered with forests. Rome became Rome because they overcame forests.

The composer then moves on to talk about the story of Vico. Vico describes that the spread of forests across the entire world was caused by the flood- the flood which caused Noah to build an ark. Descendants of Noah imperceptibly lost their humanity and became lonely because they lived under the cover of branches and leaves (forests). Consequently, they became “bestial giants”. Their personalities were introvert, vicious, restive, animalistic, and greedy. Vico calls this “giant’s ‘bestial freedom’”- freedom that originated from forests.

One day, there was this act of thinking something outside the square (of course, it was done by the bestial giants). After thunder rolled, lightning flashed, giants were terrified and raised their eyes above. They became aware of the sky. Though the dense forest limited the beasts from visioning sky both laterally and vertically, they had some sort of illumination. They began to question things- and came up with things like deities, science and law.

(This is a text that makes me think…)