Editorial

Back to nature?

Are you a biophile? If you are fond of animals, potted plants and walks in the forest, then you probably are; a biophile loves living things or living systems. The biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems, that we subconsciously seek connections with other life forms, and that the deep affiliations we have with nature are rooted in our own biology.

We know that people who have pets have lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol levels than those who don’t. According to a study of patients who had their gallbladders removed, those who had a view of trees from their hospital windows were discharged earlier than those who didn’t.

Nature is good for you.

Well, I believe it is, and so do a multitude of other Finns.

Summer is the time when one’s chances of encountering nature are at their best: cities in Finland are deserted, people retire to their summer cottages. In fact, avoiding nature altogether is fairly difficult here — but possible nonetheless. A friend of mine, and of nature, had her feathers well and truly ruffled by one of her son’s friends, a young woman who asserted that an involuntary walk in the forest was ‘boring’.

Evidently some young urbanites are estranged from nature. They are simply bored by woods — or scared of them, in which case they are not biophiles but, rather, biophobics.

There are clearly two opposite views here. ‘We can never have enough of nature’, said Henry David Thoreau in his famous collection of essays, Walden (1854); ‘we need the tonic of wilderness’. His views represent one end of the scale, while, at the other end, we have his countryman Woody Allen, whose first published joke is reportedly: ‘I am two with Nature’.

In studies of the surroundings that most please people, one common finding is that, all over the world, the savannah type of landscape is popular: open spaces, groupings of trees, water, grassy vegetation. It is assumed that this goes back to the days when humans lived in caves. Finns don’t agree, though; they prefer their trees and enjoy being among them.

In this issue of Books from Finland nature pops up here and there. Eeva Tikka’s short story (‘A slow passion’, see page 174) could well fall under the category ‘environmental literature’, as nature has a significant connection with human life. In this case, nature equals plants, and, in particular, potatoes.

Erik Bruun, a graphic artist and nature photographer par excellence, is introduced in a review. For almost 60 years he has portrayed Finnish nature in posters, stamps, banknotes and countless publications (including Books from Finland in the 1970s and 80s). A true ‘nature boy’ (see page 227).

The relationship between man and nature is — naturally (!) — multifaceted: it can be examined from a range of aesthetic, economic technical, mythical or political viewpoints — and nowadays it is also regarded as environmentally problematic.

The poet and writer Ilpo Tiihonen quotes the American biologist and writer Edward O. Wilson — a developer of the biophilia hypothesis — in his contribution to the 2007 Lahti International Writers’ Reunion, published here (‘On the diversity of a summer’s night’, see page 185): ‘By every imaginable criterion, man is ecologically abnormal.’ Still, Tiihonen’s melancholy, ironic, yet humorous and tender story of a young couple has a happy ending. It helps you believe that sustaining the immense diversity of life may be possible after all.

Soila Lehtonen

Editor-in-Chief