Jack Turner's The Abstract Wild: A Critical Analysis

Introduction to The Abstract Wild

Jack Turner, the author of The Abstract Wild, is a widely traveled individual whose purpose in writing is not to offer judgmental opinions on environmental issues or engage in theoretical complaint. Throughout the book, Turner introduces complex arguments discussing a vast range of wilderness-related issues and ultimately defends the wild in all of its forms.

The book comprises eight provocatively written essays that share a common theme. Turner primarily explains why conservation efforts have, rather than leading toward genuine preservation of the environment, produced the very opposite result. In brief, the essays examine the ways in which wildness has been intercepted, micromanaged, and effectively pushed almost out of existence.

Turner invites readers to consider how wild wilderness actually is and how wild their related experiences truly are — and then answers both questions himself. His view is that neither is very wild. Moreover, he argues that readers are not in a position to correctly judge or relate to wilderness, largely because they do not spend enough time with it. He extends this point further: humans are in no position to preserve wilderness precisely because the actual time they have spent with it is so limited. For those who believe they are playing a role in preservation, Turner asks what, in fact, they are working to preserve. His answer is that genuinely enjoying or preserving wilderness requires spending sustained time within it.

"From the summits of the Tetons, I see to the west a mosaic of farms scarring the round hills and valleys, as though someone had taken a razor to the face of a beautiful woman" (Turner). It is at this and many other points in The Abstract Wild that Turner seems deeply committed to informing the reader what it actually means to be wild. Being wild is a concept that is frequently discussed but has rarely been precisely or exactly defined.

Turner's Definition of Wild and Wilderness

Generally, the concept of wildness is not regarded as important in itself; rather, it is the preserving of the wild that has occupied most thinkers. To put it briefly and precisely, Turner defines wild as being natural. Anything and everything that exists in its natural form, apart from development, is wild. You can explore the broader philosophical history of this idea through Britannica's overview of wilderness.

Where preservation efforts have taken hold, a place no longer remains wild, because the natural course of events has been disturbed. It is movement and progress along the natural cycle of life that makes a place wild. Where nature still exists in its original form, a particular effect and atmosphere is created — an aura and magic that modern, developed society is cut off from.

Turner opens The Abstract Wild by narrating a personal story that serves as the backbone and true illustration of his central concept. The story recounts a time when he explored the Maze district in Utah's Canyonlands, where he came across ancient pictographs. The purpose behind this storytelling is to demonstrate to readers what a genuinely wild and unmediated experience his first encounter with the Maze was.

Through this tale, Turner makes readers aware of the aura, magic, and wildness that places truly deserving of the word "wild" contain. He felt a spiritual bond and connection with the pictographs, arising from the feelings of authority, beauty, and wonder they produced in him on that first encounter.

The Maze: Aura, Publicity, and Unmediated Experience

He later came to regard his subsequent behavior — taking photographs of the pictographs and repeatedly recounting the experience to others — as a spoiling of that unmediated encounter. According to his theory, these actions brought extensive attention and exposure to the wild place and to his personal experience within it. This publicity is precisely what he argues against. Any form of spotlight on such locations and experiences leads to a diminishment of both.

Turner also recounts a second visit to the pictographs. The feelings he experienced this time were very different from those of his first visit, and he attributes this disparity to the exposure he had given to the magical connection between himself and the ancient murals. Casting that spotlight on the wild filtered out the special emotions he had once felt there. This is the point at which Turner makes his argument about the effect of publicity on wilderness most clearly. Had he not revealed his bond and connection — neither through photographs nor through conversation — he likely would have encountered similarly intense emotions on his return.

In Turner's view, publicity is not merely a vice but an active culprit. When humans engage in the exhibition of wild places through photography, painting, advertising, or conversation, the element of wildness begins to disappear. Any such activity disturbs the natural flow of things, and in the absence of that natural element the wild no longer remains wild.

Turner is also opposed to the drawing of maps and the conversion of wild places into national parks. He argues that national parks and designated wilderness areas themselves represent the fact that these attractions have severed their connection to true wildness. They are unable to offer the primal, spiritual connections that are part of the very character of wild places. On these grounds, he does not support the creation of major attractions such as Yellowstone National Park or the Grand Canyon as managed tourist destinations.

When maps are drawn and publicity is constant, the influx of visitors is high, meaning that nature is inevitably disturbed in ways it cannot overcome. By Turner's theory, any place either managed by humans or developed to accommodate general use ceases to be wild. He argues that the consequence of all such activity is that the magic, the aura, and the wildness these places hold gradually but certainly becomes rare, and finally disappears entirely.

For Turner, nature magazines, photographs, and films are nothing to celebrate. Each, in its own way, contributes to the removal of the wild element. Keeping his theory in mind, the wild should be left alone and experienced only through direct physical visitation — and once those visits are made, the experience should remain personal and not become public consumption. Many elements of the wild must be tamed before any effort at media coverage or public access can be made, and once such efforts are underway, the wild is gradually altered to the extent required for mass appeal. At that point, it has been restrained and disciplined — qualities antithetical to the wild itself.

Conclusion

Turner, Jack. The Abstract Wild. University of Arizona Press, October 1996.