And in fact, aside from a poem discussed in the final chapter, seem to be the only thing that Dana Phillips talks about positively.
Peterson’s guide is used as an example of the effective use of representations that are sort of false, especially visually, but are represented that way purposefully to convey meaning and do the job of guiding readers in identifying birds. The stylized representations come from a scientific mind. The art and the science are there. But according to Dana Phillips, neither are too realistic. While Petersons’ body of work is not narrative, like most of the subject matter in ecocriticism, it does highlight a larger part of Phillips argument against realism (mimesis). In his analysis of A Field Guide to the Birds, Phillips shows how when one uses the