Irregular Books

In her book, Gathering Moss, Robin Wall Kimmerer of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry tries to value both the scientific knowledge that she has gained about mosses as a biologist with the subjective feelings she has about her relationships to her family in the world. I am glad that she makes the attempt. It is a brave thing to try to write in a way that is not accepted in one’s field. Mixing science and purely emotional feelings about truth is commonly regarded as a bad idea, both by those who write in an emotional sphere and in by those who write as scientists.

From her personal comments, Dr. Kimmerer seems like a really sweet person. If I ran into her, I’d probably like her quite a bit. She seems to have a gentle nature that wishes the best for other people and non-human-beings.

The science that she relates in Gathering Moss is also fascinating. Mosses are commonly overlooked, but the way that they live without roots, using a simple design to colonize the rugged outcrops of the world makes them an interesting subject for a book such as this. I especially appreciate the chapter on urban mosses, given the tendency of many biologists to focus on the idea of a “natural” kind of habitat that no longer really exists. If you think about it, the entire concept of “nature” is an artificial construct that implies a lack of adaptation of species to each other. This is not to say that the human influence over the world is benign, but rather that it is not wholly distinct from the kind of inter-species interactions that occurred before the evolution of modern humans.

The unfortunate outcome of Dr. Kimmerer’s efforts is that these two aspects of herself are not plausibly integrated. Her emotional sensibility and her professional comments on natural history do not mix together well. She strains to draw analogies between her emotional reflections and the life of mosses, seemingly for the very sake of the effort itself.

Very few readers will value both aspects of this book. I could not. Dr. Kimmerer asserts that there is a spiritual aspect to the human mind that is equally as valid as the part of the mind that seeks to pursue knowledge and understanding in a logical way. She implies that scientific knowledge is alienated from an easier way of feeling about the world that is more fundamental. This may be so for some people, but as for myself, it seems that the scientific-leaning aspect of my mind is also the part of my mind through which I find richness and value in the world. The two are not separate because I value the insights of science. I could not help but be irritated at the idea that things such as trees and stones speak to us, and that every natural thing has an innate name that we can sense through emotional intuition.

Of course, that’s only my reaction. I recognize that my reaction to emotionally-based writing is not the same reaction many readers have. Others will try to read Gathering Moss as a source of personal inspiration. They will find the very scientific descriptions of the different kinds of moss that I enjoyed so much to be dry and unnecessary.

Gathering Moss demands tolerance and selectivity from all its readers, and so will not be the same for its different audiences.

For me, the experience of reading Gathering Moss was worth the effort, for the insights about the life of different mosses gives me a different kind of rational vision of the world in which I live. For me, this rational understanding is in itself emotionally inspiring, and so I do not have to attribute human characteristics to moss in order to enjoy its existence.

I believe that there is substantial value in understanding something on its own terms. My impression is that when Robin Wall Kimmerer writes, she often forgets this value, or shoves it aside for the sake of other values. However, trying to understand her as an author on her own terms, I can reconcile our differences and enjoy the remainder of what I find.