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# 2021-05-20 - Green Mansions by William Henry Hudson
I read this to pick off another book from my high school reading
list. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the natural settings in
Venezuela. I also enjoyed the fascinating character of Rima, a
half-feral young woman who has an almost supernaturally strong
connection with the natural world, and whose native bird-like
language is far superior in nuance and speed compared to the spoken
languages of modern humans.
I must acknowledge that the protagonist is saturated with racist
ideology about civilized versus savage people, and especially about
men versus women. He painfully mansplains about subjects that Rima
obviously knows better. He doesn't care too much about consent. The
list goes on and on.
I thoroughly enjoyed an escape into a South American jungle setting
paired with fantastical imagery bordering on visionary.
In some ways, this book reminded me a little of The Delight Makers.
I wondered why Able never attempted to learn how to understand Rima's
bird language. It may have had something to do with being unable to
track Rima's superhuman speed: she who could count the beats of
hummingbird wings, spin spider webs into garments, etc.
Below is a link to some related artwork.
(HTM) http://davescomicheroes.blogspot.com/2015/07/green-mansions-of-rima-jungle-girl.html
Below are some quotes from the book that interested me.
"Doubtless into the turbid tarn of my heart some sacred drops had
fallen--from the passing birds, from that crimson disk which had now
dropped below the horizon, the darkening hills, the rose and blue of
infinite heaven, from the whole visible circle; and I felt purified
and had a strange sense and apprehension of a secret innocence and
spirituality in nature--a prescience of some bourn, incalculably
distant perhaps, to which we are all moving; of a time when the
heavenly rain shall have washed us clean from all spot and blemish.
This unexpected peace which I had found now seemed to me of
infinitely greater value than that yellow metal [gold] I had missed
finding, with all its possibilities. My wish now was to rest for a
season at this spot, so remote and lovely and peaceful, where I had
experienced such unusual feelings and such a blessed disillusionment."
"Thus in idleness, with such thoughts for company, I spent my time,
glad that no human being, savage or civilized, was with me. It was
better to be alone to listen to the monkeys that chattered without
offending; to watch them occupied with the unserious business of
their lives. With that luxuriant tropical nature, its green clouds
and illusive aerial spaces, full of mystery, they harmonized well in
language, appearance, and motions--mountebank angels, living their
fantastic lives far above earth in a half-way heaven of their own."
"And turning a little more towards me, and glancing at me with eyes
that had all at once changed, losing their clouded expression for one
of exquisite tenderness, from her lips came a succession of those
mysterious sounds which had first attracted me to her, swift and low
and bird-like, yet with something so much higher and more
soul-penetrating than any bird-music. Ah, what feeling and fancies,
what quaint turns of expression, unfamiliar to my mind, were
contained in those sweet, wasted symbols! I could never know--never
come to her when she called, or respond to her spirit. To me they
would always be inarticulate sounds, affecting me like a tender
spiritual music--a language without words, suggesting more than words
to the soul. "
"That was the easy answer I returned to the question I had asked
myself. But I knew that there was another answer--a reason more
powerful than the first. And I could no longer thrust it back, or
hide its shining face with the dull, leaden mask of mere intellectual
curiosity."
"I seated myself on a stone within a yard or two of the limpid water;
and now the sight of nature and the warm, vital air and sunshine
infected my spirit and made it possible for me to face the position
calmly, even hopefully. The position was this: for some days the
idea had been present in my mind, and was now fixed there, that this
desert was to be my permanent home. The thought of going back to
Caracas, that little Paris in America, with its Old World vices, its
idle political passions, its empty round of gaieties, was
unendurable. I was changed, and this change--so great, so
complete--was proof that the old artificial life had not been and
could not be the real one, in harmony with my deeper and truer
nature."
"I fell to studying the dark, thick, blunt body in my hands [a snake
that Able had killed]; I noticed that the livid, rudely blotched,
scaly surface showed in some lights a lovely play of prismatic
colours. And growing poetical, I said:
> When the wild west wind broke up the rainbow on the flying grey
> cloud and scattered it over the earth, a fragment doubtless fell on
> this reptile to give it that tender celestial tint. For thus it is
> Nature loves all her children, and gives to each some beauty,
> little or much; only to me, her hated stepchild, she gives no
> beauty, no grace. But stay, am I not wronging her? Did not Rima,
> beautiful above all things, love me well? Said she not that I was
> beautiful?"
author: Hudson, W. H. (William Henry), 1841-1922
(TXT) detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Green_Mansions
LOC: PZ3.H8697 Gr7
(DIR) source: gopher://gopher.pglaf.org/1/9/4/942/
tags: ebook,fantasy,fiction,magical realism,outdoor
title: Green Mansions
# Tags
(DIR) ebook
(DIR) fantasy
(DIR) fiction
(DIR) magical realism
(DIR) outdoor