When We Capture Our Significant Landscape Analysis

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The main argument in this lecture, is that it is important for us to capture and enjoy our significant landmarks, because they will always either be changing, or eventually be gone. The lecturer emphasizes the importance of what California once was, and what it is today, and importance of knowing the history of our significant landscape. An example used from the lecture is “El Cerrito Plaza with Albany Hill in the background.” (Hothem) Once, the area was full of grass and a big tree, and even Grizzly bears in the area. Now, in the same area, is only a parking lot. The Hill is still there and grassy, but it is completely different. What would have happened if no one had ever captured the before picture? We would have missed out on knowing what…show more content…
I agree that landscape is always changing, and there is a huge difference of what California used to be, and what it is today. With new buildings always being built in big cities, that are replacing nature, we aren’t taking time to notice and appreciate natural beauty. It is important for us to capture landscapes that are important to us in the present, so we have a, “ before,” documentation, before the landscape becomes unrecognizable. Joan Didion writes about how California is no longer what she remembers it to be, and how her memory of it is disappearing quickly. If we don’t document our important landscapes today, we won’t be able to tell stories and show our future generations of what our landscape will have looked like. We must capture the present, since landscape is always changing rapidly. It is always important to know where we came from, and know the history of what it used to be and the process of how it became what it is today. This is so important, that Native Americans even used myths and created stories to tell and explain ideas of how landscape and the earth was created. A popular story is the earth was once flat, how it became round. An example is Coyote told Earthmaker, “ since it is flat and thin, it will be an unstable world.” (Hicks) Therefore Earthmaker made the Earth round and full of

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