As we venture more deeply into the wilderness in literature, film, and philosophy we are learning a kind of language, composed of stories and concepts. Along the way we are discovering a “conversation” that uses the terms of that language. Our study of the History of the Wilderness shows us the astonishing variety of wilderness events, terms, and concepts. It also shows us the places where certain key concepts occur again and again in wilderness media and activities.
— Roderick Nash talks, for example, about the primitive fear of the wilderness. We encounter the fear concept again in Tyler’s initial reaction to wilderness. (Never Cry Wolf) and Patrick McManus plays with the concept in many of his essays.
Sometimes these concepts are the core lessons of a particular film or book; sometimes they occur at random. The film The Great Outdoors, with Dan Aykroyd and John Candy is not a great wilderness film: lots of drama and slapstick that has nothing to do with wilderness themes. But two scenes strike me as linking well to our course.
In the first, the Ripley family is on its way to a vacation in the “outdoors.” As they drive along, they are singing a song together. For me this scene is evocative of my own youthful experiences traveling with my parents and brother in the back of our car, heading into the great outdoors. How about you? Does the scene resonate at all with your life?!
The next clip from The Great Outdoors features a scene built around the great utility versus appreciation debate. Aykroyd’s and Candy’s disagreement about what they “see” from the porch at a lakeside cabin, encapsulates the utility-appreciation debate in our history as a whole.