Mary Austin’s Ecological Place Attachment

Her creation not only influenced the world’s natural literature,but also contributed positively to the whole ecological civilization.Austin’s works contain rich ecological ideas,but at the same time there are some neglected remains of anthropocentrism.This article takes the ecological thought as the core spirit,starts from the attachment to the ecological place,takes Austin’s The Land of Little Rain,The Flock,Lost Borders and The Land of Journey’s Ending as the object of interpretation,takes the local biology and the desert place as the specific horizon,decodes the way in which the creature is attached to the desert as a special natural place and the interaction between human and animals,human and plants.Austin’s works highlight the interactions between people and animals,as well as human and plants in local natural places.Wild animals and plants act as the medium of connection between man and nature,and represent part of nature itself.The affinity between human and animals,human and plants is difficult to describe and concrete,but it is not impossible to express.Indigenous people who live long hours in natural places learn special languages to communicate with animals,to communicate with animals by dancing,to communicate with them through dreams,and to blend with plants through architecture and reflection on symbiosis.Austin also defended for animals and plants in her book,arguing that humans should blame themselves rather than innocent animals and plants for the damage they cause to nature.Austin told us four ways to attach to an ecological place through the interaction between human beings,animals and plants:first,by understanding and learning the way other places of biological dependence,to understand the situation of their own ecological place,to accept the living limitations of a particular place,to live according to the possibilities provided by the place,to adapt to this natural place.Second,the other manifestation of attachment is the integration of man into the natural place,and the ultimate purpose of attachment is the integration of man and nature into a specific ecological place,and the coexistence and prosperity of all things in the place.Austen’s works depict such a harmonious,friendly ideal of survival,and that is all ecological writers,ecological critics,ecological thinkers,and even the construction of the entire ecological civilization in terms of the ideal survival--ecological survival.Third,human beings should limit the material needs of themselves and the development of material civilization to the ecological carrying limit of ecological places.Human beings,like other species and local indigenous peoples,must learn to limit themselves to the limits of tolerance,acceptability and restoration of their own claim and interference with nature,and must not break the ecological balance of the habitat.Fourth,Respecting to follow the laws of nature,do not complain,at the same time deal with the relationship between the initiative,creativity and pioneering nature of good people and abide by the laws of nature,never put human needs,human values above the laws of nature.Finally,this paper discusses the incomplete and defective ecological thoughts in Austin’s works,and points out some problems and misunderstandings that may be encountered in the theory of ecological premises,which opens up some new ideas for readers.