Abstract:

Cities inscribe on the earth a text of human being-in-the world. They contain, repress, facilitate, control and decimate nature. Put another way, the geography of our being-in-the world profoundly shapes human experience of nature. This article proceeds through a dialogue between my own mystical experiences in nature. and a rereading of Levinas.s account of face-to-face relations with the Other through which I argue that nature can be understood as Other. However, beyond a romanticised conception of nature as harmonious and
ecologically balanced, a sophisticated Levinasian reading of face-to-face relations confronts us with the disruptive, violent implications of proximity to nature. This also provides an account of the violent, suppressive and distancing response of humans to nature. Further, the conceptualisation of nature as Other suggests some alternative urban experiences that may be seen as part of the human encounter with nature. In particular I examine human mortality as an aspect of
nature. Finally, the sacred is found, both in urban and rural contexts, in that moment of transcendence when human responses to the Other of nature take them out of, or beyond, their ontological being to an ethical moment of relationship.

Author: Douglas Ezzy