My neighbors have signed leases, and,
as a result, the spring-fed pond and well
from which I drink are in peril. When
my well and all those surrounding me
are fouled, none of us will have the “
opportunity” to sell our homes and farms
and move elsewhere — no one, after all,
wants to live in a toxic dump.
KAREN KIRSCH
Marlboro Township, Ohio
While thought provoking and intri-
cately described, William L. Fox’s “A Pipe-
line Runs Through It” (March/April 2011)
seems to avoid the ultimate conclusion:
the Trans-Alaska Pipeline is beautiful.
Something as large and imposing as the
pipeline is the landscape — no getting
around it. Whatever it says about our pri-
orities, one can still appreciate its gleam-
ing, turgid embodiment of this civilization’s
collective enterprise.
WADE ANDERSON
Birmingham, Alabama
Alex Johnson’s essay in the March/
April 2011 issue (“How to Queer Ecol-
ogy”) rightly recognizes that, in the real
world, “gay” and “straight” aren’t the
only options. They’re just extremes on a
spectrum of human sexuality—same
for female and male, wild and domestic,
natural and artificial. All too often, peo-
ple insist on a choice between two ex-
tremes, and insist, further, on identifying
one of them as “good” and the other
“bad.” But treating real-world objects as
if they existed in some sort of idealized
binary mathematical space is a disas-
trous error, which leads to mismanage-
ment of all kinds.
Orion welcomes your thoughts and
responses. Please send your letters to us
at 187 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA
01230 or letters@orionmagazine.org.
Letters may be edited for length and clarity.
Orion Notes & Miscellany
Orion was thrilled to act as a
media sponsor at Mountainfilm, a film festival that took
place in Telluride, Colorado, in
May. An original Orion film,
eel•water•rock•man, was
screened (you can watch it at
Orion’s website), and Editor-in-Chief Chip Blake interviewed
Terry Tempest Williams on
stage about her work as a
writer and activist. We encourage any Orion readers who
appreciate the relationship
between film and activism to
learn more about Mountainfilm ( mountainfilm.org), which
stages events at different
locations around the country
throughout the year.
In June, Chip and Editor
Jennifer Sahn attended the
conference of the Association
for the Study of Literature
and Environment in Bloomington, Indiana. Orion has
enjoyed a fruitful relationship
with ASLE for many years; the
teachers and students who
make up the ASLE membership contribute greatly to
the growth and awareness of
environmental writing.
In July, Orion hosted a
gathering for Orion readers at
Bascom Lodge on Mount Greylock in Massachusetts. Authors
James Howard Kunstler, Charles
C. Mann, and Ginger Strand
attended the event and dis-
PhOTOGrAPh l JENNIfEr KOsKINEN fOr MOuNTAINfIlM
cussed their recent Orion articles.
Watch Facebook, Twitter, or the
Orion website for announcements of similar upcoming
events. We love having a
chance to meet you and to hear
your thoughts about Orion.
Finally, we’re happy to
announce that Lisa Couturier’s
“Dark Horse” (July/August
2010) was awarded a Pushcart
Prize, and that Lia Purpura’s
“There Are Things Awry Here”
(November/December 2010)
will appear in Best American
Essays 2011.
Chip Blake interviews Terry Tempest Williams at Mountainfilm.
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