Boundaries
There is a type of writing which is something of a constant when I think back over books which have moved me. Typically non-fiction, it explores the boundaries of the relationship between nature and human society. Robert MacFarlane is an example but there are others. Over the years some of this writing has been called ‘psychogeographical’ or, as Nick Papadimitriou would have it, ‘deep topography’. It is why I have for a long time been interested in some aspects of permaculture, and it informs other writing activities of mine which do not appear here.
I came across a BBC documentary, recently uploaded to YouTube, which fits right into this. Nearly forty years old now, it looks at the tenacity and permanence of the natural world in the face of industrialisation and, indeed, post-industrialisation. It is Richard Mabey’s ‘The Unofficial Countryside’, prophetic (in hindsight) in its undramatic narrative, and well worth fifty minutes of your time.
It is interesting for other reasons too. One is the splendour of Mabey’s flared trousers and the collars of his shirts, reminding me with embarrassment of dressing for school discos; the other is a particular quality of the film itself. It may be to do with degradation over time, but there is something about the unsaturated tonal palette which is diagnostic of the nineteen seventies, reinforcing the memory of the early part of the decade as uniformly brown, like scuffed corduroy jeans.
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