게리 스나이더의 초기 작품 읽기 - 이분법적 사고의 틀을 넘어 새로운 패러다임을 향하여

Abstract

In Snyder's ecological vision, we can find his attempt to dismantle a homocentric perspective of the universe and the ego-centered human self, and to search for responsible human ethics and wisdom for cultural maturation. Snyder's ecological vision stresses nature's intrinsic way and value. Although his vision looks sometimes utopian, it is not ideal but practical and political. For Snyder, appreciating nature goes beyond appreciating its intrinsic values and condemning the problem of civilization to doing right and establishing a life style congruent with nature. This is his ecological vision, in which the social, political, and ethical programs originate and interact. Like other ecological writers and critics, Snyder believes that degradation of nature has been repeated in the conspiracy of religious, economic, and political forces of human civilizations from ancient times up to the present. Because of this degradation, the Western history of civilization has alienated itself from nature and drained its original source as well. According to Snyder, human alienation from nature and its process means the loss of what he calls original mind and disintegration of consciousness which existed integrally in the mind. The disintegrated consciousness projected dualistic boundaries and then has been reinforced in the dualism so that the human world operates by the discriminations, such as anthropocentrism, racism, and sexism. To overcome the problems, Snyder stresses the process of gaining vision, introducing the non-Western alternative perspectives such as Zen Buddhism and Native American shamanism, which enrich and deepen his understanding of principles of nature's way. For Snyder and other ecologists, the most fundamental solution for the fragmented consciousness and fatality it causes is of course to attain a more objective consciousness. As a spiritual deep ecologist, Snyder exhorts himself and others to reach the new frame of mind with deep ecological consciousness and spiritual practices.