Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Naturalism

To many the image of surfing is of a carefree living, hippie, and stoner lifestyle. After reading “Caught Inside” by Daniel Duane I believe that I have a much better understanding fro what “surfing” is. Surfing is a sport of nature. It embodies all things natural; there is nothing “more pure” as riding a wave. Naturalism was a literary movement, which took place from 1865 to 1900. Naturalist believed one’s heredity and social environment determines their character. The purpose of naturalism was to replicate a believable “everyday” reality, as opposed to other literary periods such as Romanticism and Surrealism. Henry David Thoreau is among some of the most well known naturalist authors. His work Walden Pond is considered an American classic. When I was reading the book “Caught Inside”, I could not help but to think about Walden Pond, even from the beginning of the title. "Caught Inside" is the modern day Walden Pond because of their stresses on the naturalist lifestyle, and solitude.