William Cronon Dualism

William Cronon’s (year?) article on the wilderness as a “cultural creation” is part of the human construct of natural landscapes. This human construct is part of the two dualistic ideals of historical interstation of the wilderness that North Americans perceive as part of this tradition. For instance, Cronon (year?) defines (1) the “sublime” vision of nature as a beautiful artistic image of the pristine wilderness as a type of sanctuary or Garden of Eden in the 19th century, yet it also defines the dualistic countermand of (2) nature as a dangerous wilderness in the American frontier: “The “delicious paradise” of John Milton’s Eden was surrounded by a “steep wilderness, whose hairy sides/ Access denied” to all who sought entry” (Cronon, year?, p.71). ). This dualistic perspective of Nature defines human beings as controlling or occupying natural spaces, such as Eden, or being victims of the hostility and danger of
For instance, Grace (2002) defines the impact of Vilhjalmur Stefansson’s book, The Friendly Arctic (1921), as an example of the glorification of nature as the “sublime” to encourage the settlement of the Arctic in North America. One important quote from Grace’s (year?0 analysis confirms Cronon’s (year?) argument about the historical distortions of the wilderness that make the wilderness a hostile place or a natural sanctuary in Stefansson’s dualistic view of Nature:
Stefansson’s message is that the North is, after all a friendly place, rich in resources and high in potential for development…All we must do to realize this potential is to set aside the negative twaddle proliferating in the South about the North and learn from the Inuit. “It is the mental attitude of the southerner,” Stefansson insists, “that makes the North hostile” (Grace, 2002,