By Maria McGinnity ’28

Contributor Biography: Maria McGinnity is a sophomore majoring in English with a minor in Creative Writing. She enjoys writing short-form fiction and essays and loves exploring new ways to be creative. When not writing, she enjoys reading, exercising, listening to music, and spending time with friends.

Brief Description: For this writing project, I read works by Annie Dillard and compared her vision of nature with another writer I encountered in class readings. In my essay, I focused on comparing the spiritual themes within David Abram’s essay “The Ecology of Magic” with Dillard’s novel Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Both Dillard and Abram are interested in exploring the mysterious intricacies of how the natural world operates beyond human comprehension. While the writers share an interest in divine or spiritual presence, they address it differently—Dillard through one enigmatic divine creator and Abram through communication with the non-human world.

The following was written for ENG 347 10: American Environmental Writing

Abstract: Both Annie Dillard and David Abram are interested in exploring the mysterious intricacies of how the natural world operates beyond human comprehension. While the writers share an interest in divine or spiritual presence, they address it differently—Dillard through one enigmatic divine creator and Abram through communication with the non-human world. Readers are encouraged to reconsider the need for verifiable evidence and instead learn more about how to listen to the world in its entirety.  

Through intentional observation, the relationship between humanity and the natural world can reveal insight into the spiritual realm. Annie Dillard and David Abram are two significant environmental authors who write about the world through a metaphysical lens. Despite the common focus on scientific facts in environmental texts, these authors explore how humans can understand the unseen world through the visible one. While the two writers share this passion, they approach the source of divinity from different perspectives. Dillard’s nonfiction book, titled Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, is an exploration of the natural world surrounding her home as well as her contemplations on life. Ecologist Abram covered similar topics of spirituality and balance between the human and non-human world in “The Ecology of Magic,” a chapter within his book The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World. Both Dillard and Abrams argue that spiritual connection is essential to understanding nature, suggesting that listening to the natural world promotes humility rather than domination. Yet while Dillard locates the divine through mystery, Abram finds it in conversation with all living beings. 

Annie Dillard seeks spiritual connection in nature, which she searches for through observation. From her perspective, a divine God is the creator of the Earth and the living creatures within it. This creator God is mysterious, and Dillard believes “The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet” (275). The diction in this passage emphasizes the author’s lack of clarity about the motivations and power of God; while she is certain that He is the originator of the Earth, she is less sure of the reasoning behind the intricacies of the world and its inhabitants. In the chapter titled “Stalking,” Dillard proposes intense observation as a way to see the workings of the divine in the environment. Addressing the audience, she suggests, “You have to stalk the spirit too. You can wait forgetful anywhere, for anywhere is the way of his fleet passage, and hope to catch him by the tail and shout something in his ear before he wrests away” (Dillard 207). This passage acknowledges the ways humans can confront observation, using the image of “stalking” spiritual beings or watching carefully to find them. The repetition of the word “fleet” reinforces the writer’s view of spiritual matters as something beyond the scope of her understanding. On page 274, Dillard writes, “The gaps are the cliffs in the rock where you cower to see the back parts of God; they are the fissures between mountains and cells…Go up into the gaps. If you can find them; they shift and vanish too. Stalk the gaps.” Dillard asserts her interest in divine powers in this quote, addressing the continued mystery of Him. One must “cower” even to catch glimpses of God’s back through gaps that are difficult to see through. Mountains are almost incomprehensible in their massiveness, and cells are almost incomprehensible in their minuteness. Fissures fall between these objects which must be stalked to locate because they are so difficult to understand. Some even change and disappear after they are found, but the reward to stalking is catching glimpses of the divine and therefore reaching some comprehension of how the world operates. 

While Dillard’s interest in the divine centers around a creator God, Abram extends the exploration of spiritual connection through humans’ ability to reach for understanding of all animate beings in the natural world. David Abram describes the role humans can play in conversation with these non-human beings, explaining that “The traditional magician cultivates an ability to shift out of his or her common state of consciousness precisely in order to make contact with the other organic forms of sensitivity and awareness with which human existence is entwined” (822). This ability is described as mysterious—it must be learned and refined. In Abram’s perspective, it is essential to leave behind the human preconception that one cannot learn anything from interacting with other living organisms. Abram highlights the idea that spirituality can be contacted through appreciation for the animacy and purpose of entities beyond humanity. Contrasting with Dillard, he views the Earth and its inhabitants as a source for spiritual union rather than a divine God. At the end of the quote, he explicitly states that sensitivity for other organic forms is “entwined” with what it means to exist as a human. Addressing this significance, he acknowledges that “We receive from them countless gifts of food, fuel, shelter, and clothing” (Abram 827). By listing the specific benefits nature grants humankind, Abrams is emphasizing the generous and undeserved bounty provided. Respect is owed to the animate beings who grant the necessities to sustain life; all living creatures must learn not only to coexist but to communicate with each other as they inhabit the same spaces. From Abram’s view, one who wishes to access this communion with the spiritual must have a place “at the edge of the community, mediating between the human community and the larger community of beings upon which the village depends for its nourishment and sustenance” (819). Mediation is a key idea that the writer reiterates in this passage, placing a focus on the conversation between humanity and the “larger community” of other living beings. Magicians are located on the edge, working as translators because they are willing to do the essential job of listening to what non-humans have to offer. 

Both Dillard and Abram suggest that humility can be found in addressing mystery, which reinforces the idea that humanity is not, nor should be, in control. In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Dillard states, “These are real creatures with real organs leading real lives, one by one. I can’t pretend they’re not there. If I have life, sense, energy, will, so does a rotifer” (122-123). Although she does not understand everything about the rotifer, Dillard believes in the importance of recognizing its value and agency as a created being. Limited human perspective might lead some to see rotifers as too separate from humans to warrant consideration; however, Dillard repeats that a reason they are “real” and deserving is because they have been intricately created by God. She firmly states that she cannot ignore the presence of any life form, refuting the concept of dominion over life that is viewed as inferior to humanity. Similarly, Abram identifies the flawed human perspective of unappreciation for the natural gifts we receive, “Yet they still remain Other to us…” (827). He adopts a critical tone for those who view the non-human beings as “Other” and suggests that humans intrinsically possess an arrogant outlook on their superiority. He approaches the mystery of the more obscure aspects of spirituality with open curiosity and humility. Examples are detailed through tribal people who are “engaged in this process of listening and attuning to the other presences that surround and influence everyday life” (Abram 819). To Abram, this group is an inspiring example of being absorbed in trying to converse with nature through divine means. Humility is required to learn and hear from presence beyond one’s own. One must accept the mystery and the truth that they do not know and are not in control of everything in nature, especially if it is difficult to understand. The purpose of this humility is not to decrease intellect but to redirect it to listening as a tool for learning. 

Some may argue that the humanity of the authors contradicts their ability to gain true spiritual understanding of those beyond human, especially when moral concerns conflict with nature’s brutality. While the first half of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek focuses more intently on God’s positive attributes as a creator, the second half concentrates on the incomprehensibility of the reason behind nature’s violence. To maintain identity, Dillard finds it important to “bring human values to the creek and so save myself from being brutalized” (181). Although she is fascinated by the darker and more violent aspects of the environment, she is an observer, not an active participant in this ferocity. The strong diction in this quote emphasizes Dillard’s wariness of becoming demoralized by witnessing natural phenomena beyond her understanding. She goes to the creek and must bring her sense of moral self, which is set apart from the brutality and tied to her beliefs in a divine God with her. In contrast, Abram is not just an observer or arbitrator to God but a direct participator in communion with these forces. Abram sought spiritual experiences with nature and experienced its less pleasant aspects during an excursion. When he was sealed in a cave during a violent rainstorm, Abram was fascinated by a spider who was “wholly undaunted by the tumult of waters spilling past it” (831) and was “stunned and mesmerized” (832). Unlike Dillard, who wants to maintain an observatory distance between her humanity and the raw natural life she sees, Abram is intrigued by it. Rather than expressing his fear in this moment, he takes interest in the behavior of an animal in the same location who is also affected by the storm. Confronting violence in nature requires humility to accept the limitations of human knowledge and be open to listening. 

Through engagement with Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Abram’s “The Ecology of Magic,” readers experience the Earth’s mysteries through a humble lens of curiosity to learn and strive for comprehension. Both writers advocate for deliberate attention to the animacy and communicative abilities of the environment and the non-humans who populate it. Readers would benefit from focusing on the reasoning behind the works: to draw attention to the divine which can be experienced through encounters with nature. Rather than worrying about the lack of concrete answers in metaphysical matters, readers would benefit from pursuing curiosity in that which lies beyond the world visible to human eyes. Abram and Dillard both highlight the importance of acknowledging that human understanding is limited, and so much lies beyond its borders. While one cannot easily reach conclusions of what nature is conveying or how to hear it clearly, the consideration of those beyond humanity is an essential topic to recognize. By reading and engaging with these two texts, readers begin the process of learning about the more-than-human world.  

Works Cited 

Abram, David. “The Ecology of Magic.” American Earth: Environmental Writing Since  Thoreau, edited by Bill McKibben, The Library of America, 2008, pp. 815-834. 

Dillard, Annie. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Harper Perennial, 1974.